Good Afternoon!
About three weeks ago, I wrote a ‘transition’ blog about possible transitions in the upcoming weeks. Well, the time is here. We have a new teacher in Miss Hannah who is spending a couple hours with us a week, a few new friends, kindergarten status for three of our children, and mommy’s and daddy’s back to their regular work schedule. While this is temporary, our goal is to make sure that each of our children here feel safe and loved while knowing that they can have the best time at school and still expect mommy and daddy to pick them up at the end of the day. Our communication line is ALWAYS open and our main goal each day is to set these children up to succeed!
I’ve attached an article about ‘first day jitters’. While it’s no one’s ‘first day’ technically, it gives some good tools to help children come out of the ‘anxious transition phase’. Sometimes, changes that we as adults feel are minor, matter a lot to children so making sure we’re sensitive to their feelings and emotions is crucial!
http://www.naeyc.org/yc/article/first_day_jitters
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“Share our similarities; celebrate our differences.”
-M. Scott Peck
In large group, we read the story ‘The Family Book’. Throughout the story, we learned about families and the different variations that can occur within a family. Some families look alike, some look different. A friend popped up and said, “Like Choco from yesterday’s book; Choco didn’t look like her mommy.”
After the story, we made a family graph using tally marks. We discussed tally marks and what one tally mark meant. Each friend went through the different family members and told the group how many they have in their family. When we were done, we realized that no one has a sister! Lulu commented, “If Addi were here, she could say that she has a sister!” We found two columns in which everyone had a tally mark; mommy and daddy!
This morning, Miss Melinda played a game titled ‘same and different’. First, we compared Emma’s cat from home and Chloe’s hippo. As a group, we talked about the similarities and differences between the two animals. The similarities that we came up with were two eyes, a mouth, two ears, and they’re both stuffed animals! The differences were that they were different colors and different sizes.
After we were done comparing the stuffed animals, Miss Melinda gave the group a job to do; go find two items that are the same and different at the same time!
Chloe found two spiders. They were exactly the same so we couldn’t find anything that was different.
Grady brought two items from the magnetic bin in the science area. We found out that one is magnetic while the other isn’t as well as being different colors. We couldn’t find anything that was the same.
Anna brought back two balls from the magnet bin. Someone shouted, “They’re both balls so they’re the same”. While trying to think of how they were different, a friend said, “They’re different colors; one is red and one is blue.”
We used our hands today to create cutouts for an art project tomorrow. Stay tuned..
Breakfast– Malt-O-Meal and PPC strawberries.
Lunch– Homemade french toast casserole, PPC cantaloupe/strawberries, and fresh carrots.
PM snack– Blue corn chips with refried beans.
Wee Sprout– Cherry tomatoes from our garden.
Have a great night.
-Mindy
Link to pictures: WF 8-/23