1. Notice what grabs your child’s attention. Follow her eyeline, look where she is pointing, or focus on her sounds or facial expression to understand what interests her.
2. Respond with support. Use words, a gesture, or a facial expression to return your child’s “serve” and let him know that you’re interested in his thoughts or feelings.
3. Name it. Use words to name what your child is seeing, doing, or feeling. This helps even pre-verbal children build the foundation of language skills.
4. Keep it going, take turns. Give your child a chance to respond to your “return” and keep the back-and-forth going for as long as she is interested. Make sure you wait; children need time to process and form responses.
5. Practice endings and beginnings. Allow your child to lead activities and interactions, and accept their cues when they are ready to move on to something else. Keep watching your child to see what the next shared focus might be.
What I love about these practices is that they can be used through any activity or any interaction to boost child-adult engagement and ensure that the child feels you are actually with her when you are spending time together. Such quality time meets the emotional needs of both the child and the adult, and it lets the child know that she is valued, loved, and supported. These quality interactions all add up into supportive, responsive relationships between adults and children, and it is within those relationships that young children grow and thrive. This idea is summed up in one of my favorite quotes–very useful when that diaper change turns tricky or your child is refusing to put on her boots:
"The relationship is more important than the task." –Ruth Anne Hammond
Thanks for reading!
Megan
News and Reminders
The ticks are back. Please make sure to check your child every day. The EPA has a great tool for finding the right insect repellent, try it out here. It will tell you the strength of the active ingredients as well as how long it will protect you from mosquitos and ticks. We strongly encourage families to apply sunscreen and insect repellent before arriving at school. We will reapply as needed throughout the day. If you do choose to send in repellent with DEET please make sure to inform your child's teacher. We will apply repellent with DEET outside only. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that when using repellent with DEET on children it should contain no more than 30% DEET. We also recommend dressing your children in long pants and socks, sending a hat, and keeping their hair back. We will work extra hard to help look for ticks as well.
It's also time to start thinking about sun protection. Please send (labeled) sunscreen to school with your child as well as a sun hat and long, light layers. Outdoor Research offers some great hat options, and in a sun shirt you should look for a UPF rating and a quick-drying fabric, because we will be getting the sprinklers out eventually!
The Parent Collaboration Committee will be meeting this Wednesday, May 2 at 6:30pm at MVS. Come join us to talk about plans for Teacher Appreciation Week (May 7-11) and summer get-togethers.
April 30-May 6 is screen-free week! We always keep screens to a minimum at school but let us know how it goes if you choose to celebrate at home.
On Sunday morning, MVS was represented in a Tag Team Indoor Cycling Fundraiser as part of the Stowe Weekend of Hope. We had two Mountain Village Spinners teams comprised of moms Emily, Stephanie, Courtney, Rachael, Corey, Katie and Lauren as well as teachers Carly and Maddie. Thanks, ladies, for representing MVS at such an important event!
Kitchen Updates: We have been on a spinach kick lately. We put spinach in everything from our pizza to our tomato soup, and even in our mac and cheese. It's such a great way to make sure our meals are extra healthy. This week we had "Buddha Bowls" for the first time. They consisted of brown rice and lentils topped with kale, chickpeas, and sweet potatoes. We also had an old favorite, English muffin pizza on Friday!
Classroom Updates
Infant I
This week a big focus for us was finding more time to get outside, and on Tuesday we had some of the class outside for almost the whole day! Relieved of their snowsuits and mittens, our mobile children are really finding their groove out there, and even the youngest children can't resist putting their hands and faces in the mud. For children experiencing the whole world through their senses, there is really no better place to be. On Friday we joined Infant II for some sprint-crawling in the yoga hallway, and a major interest in the classroom has been making noise using shakers or just tapping objects together. A few of the children have been really studiously exploring what it sounds like when you tap this to that; the possibilities are endless.
Infant II
On Monday and Tuesday we spent as much extra time outside as we could, soaking up the sun and warm temperatures. Our focus this week has been on counting and moving our bodies around as much as we can. On Thursday we washed the baby dolls in the sensory table with cloths, soap, and water, which gave us an opportunity to identify and talk about different body parts. We also noticed that lots of worms came out in the rain later in the week, so we talked about being gentle and careful around them. A focus for next week will be smoothing out the transition to nap time and encouraging everyone to lie calmly and quietly on their cots when it's time to rest.
Toddlers
We really enjoyed our week of wild weather. We extended our outside time on Monday and Tuesday to accommodate the gorgeous days. By the middle of the week we had fun splashing in every puddle we could find and gathering water from anywhere rain pooled. We love to explore in the rain and our little hands would surely benefit from rain mittens. We continue our work on using good manners and have been utilizing our basket of books on manners frequently first thing in the morning. This week we have also been using our sand table in the morning, which the children thoroughly enjoy.
Preschool I
We've been celebrating the spring weather by getting outside even earlier. Six children choose to go outside at 8AM when Shannon E-F arrives. These six children then stay in for a bit longer after snack before heading back out for some more fresh air. The children are learning to balance their flourishing independence with the unyielding demands of the environment... "To wear mittens or not to wear mittens?" They are also learning to keep track of their own things so that they can find them again later.
As mentioned in the previous week, we've let the children lead us to their interests. We've seen lots of monsters, ghosts, robots, and some magic wands. We've baked lots of cakes in the sand box. We also brought out tambourines for some exuberant parades out back. The children kindly shared turns with the tambourines with other children, from Toddlers to PreK.
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| "We are the strong and capable kitties!" -MKO |
Preschool II
We enjoyed extended outdoor playtime on Monday and Friday, while midweek we worked with more focus in the classroom before our long outside times. An ongoing game of restaurant in the dramatic play area has involved most of the class at one time or another. Blocks are constantly in use and have been combined with cars to create nice cooperative play and occasional conflict, providing natural opportunities to work on social skills. Dice continue to be a popular tabletop material that lend themselves to a variety of games created by the children. CG is hoping to add more variety such as dice with larger numbers, letters, or more sides. Daily, we have been playing group games, which require following directions and taking turns in fun ways. Our favorite and most recommended book of the week is Sometimes I'm Bumbaloo, a great story about how a little girl feels when she loses her temper. Please send water bottles next week; it should be a hot one.
PreK
PreK spent another fun filled week traveling around town. The most popular destination this week was the Rec Path. At first it seemed "so far away" but we are building stamina and shedding layers, and we've learned to move quickly to get to where we want to go. In the big open spaces we've learned to play a few different versions of tag. Large group games like tag and dodge ball require us to communicate, agree to rules and follow those rules. It's kind of a big deal! While we loved being outside regardless of the weather (bring on the warm wonderful spring rain!) we did spend some time inside working on smaller group games like Memory, graphing with dry erase markers, sorting and classifying small items and singing favorite songs. Older children really enjoy graphing the numbers rolled on the die while younger children express the number they've rolled by clapping or hopping. Classroom scavenger hunts continue to be popular and Maddie and Jen are making plans to move those outdoors as well. Remember to send in a water bottle for the hotter days ahead! Woohoo!
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