Play Serves Emotion

At MVS we give children as much time as possible for unstructured, child-directed play. Research has shown that play is the perfect vehicle for learning and development in all domains; Sarah wrote more about it last year here. But today I wanted to focus on how play serves children's emotional development, which is a highlight of this article by Dr. Deborah Macnamara about true play and play sanctuaries.

The ability to manage emotions (i.e. how to feel frustrated without throwing your boots across the room) is developed throughout the early childhood years. According to Macnamara, "Sophistication in managing one’s emotions relies on being able to express emotion, translate emotion into a ‘feeling word’, feel vulnerably, and on having sufficient brain development so as to temper one’s reactions and reflect on them." But the type of growth required occurs optimally when the brain does not have to work to meet needs such as attachment or safety; in a restful state it is able to play. And play is an arena in which children can examine emotions and try different ways to express them, all with no risk of judgement from others. Macnamara wrote:

"There should be room to express all emotions in play – from frustration to resistance – and a child should be able to ‘get behaviour wrong’ because it doesn’t count. Hitting someone in reality will bring consequences, but experiencing the desire to hit or rather to hurt something imaginary or lifeless in play should not. Being scared in play doesn’t require that one hide for safety. Being sad in play doesn’t activate real tears because the loss is pretend. ‘Better out than in’ is the modus operandi of the emotional system, and it doesn’t mind at all that it comes out in play. In fact, the more it comes out in play, the less emotion needs to come out everywhere else."

This is yet another reason why we trust in play; we know children are innately motivated to grow in all domains, and true play is the activity which best allows them to do that. It's like their own personal laboratory, shielded by a safety bubble. So we try to give them time to be there!

Thanks for reading,
Megan

News and Reminders
Some of our MVS outside clothes seem to be missing; if any of them have gone home with you, please return them to school. Thank you!

The next Parent Collaboration Committee meeting is coming up this Wednesday, April 11, 6:30pm at MVS. We will be talking about teacher wellness supports and connecting with the broader community. Come join us!

MVS parents created a meal train for our wonderful PreK teacher Jen and family as her husband recovers from surgery. If you'd like to contribute, the link is here.

Another great Polarn O. Pyret mud season option: rain pants. We've found our school pair to be super waterproof.

For in-service we had a productive day of discussions about our teaching methods and curriculum, infant caregiving routines, and meal time routines. Sarah shared a couple of fantastic videos with us about block play and quality relationships in infant/toddler care. We also tackled a few big classroom organization projects. Thank you, again, for accommodating our closure.

Kitchen Update
This week the children enjoyed a pasta lunch with two options: whole wheat noodles with olive oil, basil and tomatoes or a rice noodle soup seasoned with turmeric. Pre-K was very excited that the turmeric made their tongues turn yellow. Another highlight was black bean soup made with black beans, carrots, celery, garlic, and tomatoes. Our youngest eaters loved steamed, mashed apples with cinnamon as well as a couple of yogurt and fruit blends.
By the way, if anyone is especially interested in food culture and early childhood, the chef at Burlington Children's Space has an incredible blog here.

Classroom Updates
Infant I
The new spiky rubber balls were a major focus in our classroom this week. All of our children played with them; for the youngest children they were easy to grip and interesting to feel, while the older children experimented with rolling them, bouncing them, and making them light up. One child re-joined us after a vacation and it was so nice to see the glimmer of recognition and excitement in everyone's faces as we welcomed him back. Toward the end of the week we introduced some geometric blocks which gave us many opportunities to build pyramids and towers– or just chew on them, whatever works!

Infant II
This week outside our children have focused on digging and moving dirt around with the shovels. on the warmer days they really enjoyed playing without their gloves on, and they would independently ask to take them off. On Thursday we sang some interactive songs outside and also got in some healthy gross motor activity: running, hopping, pretending to be birds or airplanes with our arms, and stepping in mud to make footprints on the ramp of the climber. Our sensory activities this week were water, mud, sand, play dough, and painting all together on one big sheet of paper.

Comforting a friend

Toddlers
We had a lively and energetic week focused around outdoor play and sensory table activities. The warm weather at the beginning of the week encouraged us to get right outside in the mornings. We spent our time running around the playground, playing in the sandbox, and doing the Hokey Pokey. We danced and splashed in the rain on Wednesday and bundled up to play in the wind Thursday. While inside this week we took time to enjoy our sensory table. We filled it with water and bubbles, then added food dye: purple one day, and green the next. This week we also worked especially hard on communicating and interacting kindly with peers.

Preschool I
Exciting news: Our classroom has been getting painted this weekend! Please chat with your child that the classroom will look different on Monday so that they have some advance notice of big changes ahead. We have also sent invitations for you to join TS GOLD, our software for documenting your child's learning. Team Shannon will check in with parents on Monday and Wednesday.
Our interest in the Three Billy Goats Gruff has continued with enactive play, both with toys and using different body movements to match the characters' voices. Stay tuned!

Sorry we are missing written updates from PS2 and PreK this week. But we do have photos!