WF, 3/26/2019 | Wee Friends Early Childhood Program LLC

Good Afternoon!

In K/PREK1, we read, ‘Just The Way You Are’. The book is centered around appreciating the differences between each other. When we finished the book, we talked about the differences between us. Friends brought up these differences: eye color, hair color, feet, and finger prints. It’s natural to want what friends have or have a characteristic that they do but it’s important at this age for children to love who they are and what makes them special. Verbal affirmation is something we model as much as possible whether it’s commenting about a kind choice a friend made or effort that was put forth at our journal time.

This lead into how we ended group. As each friend was rolling up their mat, they got the opportunity to say a positive affirmation about a peer.

Before we completed our affirmations, we used trio blocks to help us solve addition problems. Lucy helped me demonstrate this as she had just did something similar in her kindergarten sign in. For the first example, Lucy put together a string of 6 trio blocks. Our goal was to get to 10 blocks. She kept adding blocks until she got to 10. It took her 4 more blocks to get to 10 so Lucy wrote a 4 in the blank space. Each friend completed an equation and if they were unsure of how to write the number, I scaffolded this by dotting the number for them so they could trace it.

K.CA.4: Find the number that makes 10 when added to the given number for any number from 1 to 9 (e.g., by using objects or drawings), and record the answer with a drawing or an equation.

In PREK2, children used animals so solve subtraction problems. For example, Ruby rolled a 6. She gathered a group of 6 animals. She rolled the dice again and rolled a 2. So she took two animals away, giving her 4 animals!

Tami posted this article to our Facebook page this morning and we loved the content. We’re always focused on modeling certain behaviors that we want to see from our Wee friends. Adults can’t make kids be kind. Adults can’t make kids eat healthy foods. However, we can model these things. As teachers, we can talk kindly to one another, compliment each other, and appreciate the differences and similarities we share.

“Rewards and punishments may appear to work in the moment — the promise of ice cream may well motivate a child to eat a few peas; the threat of having toys taken away may well motivate a child to tidy up — but human nature dictates that, being unnatural consequences, the value of the rewards and the severity of the punishments must be regularly increased or they lose their effectiveness. Not only that, but the lessons taught in the long run, to be motivated by the approval or disapproval of others, are certainly not what we wish for our children. Values must come from within; they are not imposed from without: that’s called obedience an unsavory and even dangerous trait.”

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2019/03/so-quit-trying.html