A couple weeks ago I wrote about how adults can support social-emotional wellness for children by taking advantage of teachable moments to talk about emotions, listen to children's ideas and questions, and explore social conflict and resolutions. So what exactly does a teachable moment look like? At school it can look like five 18-month-olds trying to fit within four square feet of the climber, two children attempting to go down the slide at the same time, a child wanting to use some materials that other children are using already, or everyone wanting to talk at once during circle time. At home they might be times when your priorities clash with your child's or when siblings have to negotiate over parents' time and attention.
As adults we can often see solutions to such problems immediately and it might be tempting for us to just implement our solution and move on, but since our goal is to help children develop social and emotional skills we have to take a different approach. Obviously each specific problem and scenario is unique, but some elements of how we approach them are consistent. First, before the problem even arises, you should know (or try to find out through observation) your child's social/emotional strengths and areas that need support; this will help you make a sound judgment about if or when intervention is necessary and how exactly you can help. We try to give children as much time as possible to solve these problems by themselves, which sometimes means watching and waiting and never having to intervene, and other times means stepping in right when emotions are about to spiral out of control. Pay attention to facial expressions and body language; often they will tell you more than the child's words. If you do have to step in, then physically move close to the conflict (probably within a foot and a half of the children), kneel down so you are at the children's eye level, make direct eye contact with each child involved, and talk with them about the problem calmly and rationally. I often start by just asking what happened, often directed at the child who seems to be struggling most (e.g., "L, you look really upset. What's going on?"). Listen carefully to what the children say and re-state what you hear. Accept all feelings as valid and try to make sure that the children are also listening to each other. Gradually try to move the conversation toward a resolution, preferably one that the children come up with themselves. Open-ended questions are great tools to help children think critically about these problems, such as, "How could we help L feel better about this?" or "What could you do differently next time?" For younger children who don't yet have the language skills necessary for extended conversations, I often find myself doing more of the talking but it is still essentially re-stating what they are doing and feeling as shown by their actions and expressions. And after telling them what I'm seeing, I pause and wait to give them time to think about what to do.
There are a couple of rules that we try to enforce consistently. The first one is that we don't hurt other people. Situations where one child is hurting another often do require physical intervention (firm but as gentle as possible). This is a very black-and-white rule that is necessary for everyone's emotional security, and we say it directly over and over again ("We don't hurt other people" or "I won't let you hurt him.") The second rule is that we don't take things out of other people's hands. When a teacher sees this happen, we ask the child to return whatever they took to the person who had it first, then ask to use it when they're done. Younger children might require more help in returning the item they took but it's very important to follow through on those words, and the adult and child can return the item together if necessary. I'd also like to note that this second rule is not enforced in the Infant I room; our children have not yet developed a sense of possession so it doesn't make sense for them. It becomes relevant at around 15-18 months old.
Please let me know if you have questions about anything I've written or other social-emotional topics! As always, thanks for reading.
Megan
News and Reminders
We teachers felt spoiled by parents this week: lunch on Wednesday and bagels on Friday. Thank you so much for sending these treats that brighten our days; we are definitely feeling the love!
The next Parent Collaboration Committee meeting will be on Wednesday, April 11th at 6:30pm. All are welcome to join, and snacks will be provided!
Reminder: We will be closed for an in-service day on Friday, April 6th. Thank you for your continued support of professional development for our teachers.
Kitchen Update
Introducing a new weekly kitchen update! Here we'll be writing about food program highlights; let us know if you have any specific questions or topics you'd like to know more about.
This week salads were a big hit in the PreK room; it seemed that the children couldn't get enough veggies! Mini quinoa and kale muffins were also popular, especially in the younger classrooms where even our most trepidatious eaters devoured them. On Wednesday everyone enjoyed rice noodles with turmeric, garlic, and steamed veggies, and at the end of the week snacks were supplemented with homemade maple oatmeal bread.
Classroom Updates
Infant I
This week we had a few quiet days due to illness and vacations but we look forward to everyone coming back next week. It turns out those quiet days were good for sleeping, though, as well as slowing down to focus on high-quality interactions throughout routine care. Another highlight was several high-energy social meals shared between our newest solids-eaters, who are just getting the hang of swallowing but are quite proficient at tray-banging and engaging friends with smiles and laughs! We also saw an increase in song requests from the older children, both verbally ("Row Row", "Baa Baa") and through gestures (clapping and/or signing "more"). We brought a drum into one of our singing sessions and A proved himself to be both a fantastic imitator and rhythm leader. Finally, as the temperatures warm up and clothing layers decrease we are seeing our mobile children push themselves physically even further outside. It's very exciting for both us and the children as more options and opportunities emerge for outside play.
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| In case you haven't heard, he can fly |
Infant II
We tried some new art materials this week by painting using cut-up pool noodles. The children experimented with different techniques: some used the pool noodle to make circular prints while others dragged them through the paint, making lines. We also colored with markers on paper bags. The children enjoyed coloring and were also interested in taking off the marker caps and putting them back on. They also liked sticking the caps on their fingers and moving them around. This week we have emphasized using gentle hands with friends and giving everyone enough space.
Toddlers
We had a lively and energetic week in our classroom! We are really enjoying our new classroom routine of circle time before morning snack. More children are interacting during our welcome song by clapping and singing, and they have especially enjoyed picking a special book to read every morning. The children have been talking a lot about rules and routines as they play, which is nice to observe as teachers. It lets us know that they feel safe and secure with clear routines in place. Sledding and group sledding have been extremely popular activities this week. Navigating the sleds and hills have been great for our gross motor work. Have a great weekend!
Preschool I
We had a big birthday week! Shannon E.-F.'s was on Wednesday and Shannon T.'s was on Thursday, and yet another big 3 is coming up next Monday! Shannon T. brought in a photo of herself when she was in preschool to share with the children. Thank you from Team Shannon for the lovely gifts from families!
This week we pursued renewed, more focused enquiries on physical science. We read Ramp, Slope and Slide. We learned about steep and gentle slopes, and that some things roll and some things slide. See if you can go on a "ramp hunt" in your house, or the surrounding community-access ramps, or the inclined bottom of your bath tub. Have a great weekend!
Preschool II
What's the plan? Let's make a plan. After the success of our child led plans for cots and line leaders the class was ready to take on new challenges, like how do we fit 10 friends at the new and exciting Train Table? The plan is a work in progress, but they seem to have decided that four engines/four friends is a good plan. The sharing of trains has led to great conversations about how they will take turns, what they will use their trains for, and what the tunnels are used for. Most importantly this has also prompted the use of kind words: may I use, can I please have, would you please. We also took interest in some new train books from our school library that they picked out themselves. We continued our experiments with slime this week. Our slime was a shaving cream, glue recipe and while it was not as successful as our previous slime, it did offer us the opportunity to experiment with the what ifs: what if we add more water, or more baking soda? We ultimately just kept adding more shaving cream and enjoyed the sensory experience with scrapers and play dough tools. We plan to try red slime next with extra glue!
This week it has been fun to watch the competing snow soccer teams become one team (The Spider-Sharks) and now when anyone scores, everyone cheers and has a group hug celebration. A highlight of the week was our great sledding adventure to Big Chair Hill with Pre-K. There were many hikes up and fast rides down. With all our practice sharing and taking turns at our sensory and train tables over the last two weeks, sharing 10 sleds with 20 friends was easy and required very little teacher assistance. Nicely done Team PS2/PreK. Thursday Sarah W. helped us make pine cone bird feeders and the class was excited to see a few Chickadees enjoying the fruits of their labor. This also sparked interest in listening and looking for other birds wherever we went.
PreK
It's been yet another crazy week of teachers in and out and up and down her in PreK–hey–kind of like a roller coaster! The children have really rallied and worked hard all week to stay focused, calm, kind and gentle while having a lot of fun on this wild PreK ride. We have been working on a variety of projects and have big plans to continue them into next week. 3-D rollercoaster art projects, amusement park dramatic play stations, oh–and Candyland if anyone has a board game we could borrow. We'll also continue talking about energy, force, momentum and magnetism. Thank you all for your interest in our projects and your help with finding props to add to our themes.
*A special personal note of thanks to all of the MVS families from Jen for all of the love and support this week. I'm so grateful for our village.
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| Painting the base for our paper roller coaster project |
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| Trying to turn magnetic objects into magnets |
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| Older toys seem new again when presented in a new way |
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| Mathematical thinking at the car show |
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| Exploring magnetic tracks from ECHO |
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| THE FIRE & JET BOOSTER ROLLER COASTER. |
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| We learned that the North Pole is like a magnet. That's what makes a compass work. |
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| It made us want to look a little closer at maps, and eventually maps and roller coasters reminded us of Candyland. Sometimes that's how it all works. |
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| A scavenger hunt around the classroom turned up lots of items that are magnetic. (There is a magnet on the side of the cardboard, in case you were wondering) |
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