This morning we had the great pleasure of hearing Marta’s dad, Fabrezio, read Strega Nona, Her Story by the great Tomie dePaola. Oh what music to our (mostly) American ears! Hearing dePaola read in a native Italian voice was an exciting multicultural experience for our Wee Friends (and teachers!). Fabrezio was kind enough to translate the Italian words “convento” and “strega”. We all thank you, Fabrezio!

Afterwards, a large group gathered to play alphabet bingo on our alphabet mat. Using the sand letter boards, friends matched corresponding letters. Laurie Berkner’s “When I Walk Along the River” serenaded friends on their hunt.

Using alphabet letter people, Elliott and Marta studied where the little people should go on the mat.

Many friends created art with pink and white paint on black paper. A few experimented with holding the paint brush in their fist and pounding down on the paper to create snowflakes.

Tami filled the sensory table with moon sand! Like snow (and sand :), moon sand is loose and silty, but can be packed to create interesting structures.

After reading “Jack Be Nimble”, we used a makeshift candle and sang “Ada! Be Nimble, Ada, be quick…” .

Umi read Dora aloud to Finn.

For breakfast we served grits and tangerines. Lunch was Tami’s delicious ham and bean soup, homemade biscuits and fruit salad. For lunch, we will serve pretzels and cheese.

Have a happy, Super Lava Girl kinda day.

Laurie

My Thoughts on Attention Span…

“I sometimes worry about my short attention span, but not for long”(Ha!)

Our world has become fast paced, constantly moving, and scattered. Children are surrounded by media, movement and the manic busy-ness of our adult lives. So, in all this, how can children learn to develop an attention span that will serve them later in life?

One of my main goals of education from the beginning was to create ways in early childhood to sustain children’s attention span. At Wee Friends, we’ve figured out alot of things that generate long attention spans in children. A few that top our WF list of best practices are:

• Not interrupting children with unnecessary transitions.
• Allowing children to finish work at their pace without telling them to “give your friend a turn”.
• No media other than music recordings.
• Conversations with an adult to sustain play that otherwise would be over.
• Following the interests of the children.

This blog on attention span was inspired today as I watched the extended work time of two of our young 5 year old children. Kai has been deeply involved in researching, planning, building and equipping his own USS Arizona Battleship. It is unbelievable in detail and accuracy. It has been a great exercise in developing attention span as well as investigating & following through on a project. Today, Vivian joined Kai in his continued work on his battleship. With very little assistance from teachers, the two worked together for just over 2 HOURS looking at the diagrams, discussing what items to add, discussing what materials and how they would affix them, choosing colors and mediums, and then doing it. This act of attention span was more than most children can sustain at any age and more than many adults can perform.

Here are 7 ways to foster a long attention span at home (Adapted from Janet Lansbury’s blog):

1) Minimal entertainment and stimulation. Children are creatures of habit and can become accustomed to expect entertainment rather than doing what comes naturally — occupying themselves with their surroundings. Constant stimulation leads to an exhausted parent and an easily bored, over-stimulated child.

2) No TV or videos. TV and videos are the most drastic way to undermine your child’s developing attention span because they engage and overwhelm a child’s attention rather than encouraging the child to actively flex his focus muscle. Imagine the powerful pull of the TV screen in a restaurant. You can be sitting with the most fascinating people in the world, and still you find your eyes drawn to the TV.

3) A safe, cozy “YES” place. In order to remain occupied for extended periods of time, a child must have a safe place. Children cannot play for long periods of time when they are distracted by the tension of parents worried about safety and the interruption of “NOs”.

4) Simple, open-ended toys and objects that build in complexity as they get older. Start with the simplest version of the toy or activity and build complexity as they go.

5) Observe. And don’t interrupt. Observing the way our children choose to spend their time makes us realize that they are actually doing something.

6) Give choice. Simple fact: children are more interested in the things they choose than the things we choose for them. Children who are given plenty of opportunities to focus for extended periods of time on activities they choose are better able to pay attention in situations later (like school) where activities are adult-prescribed.

7) Don’t encourage distraction. It is common practice for adults to step in and try to entertain their children. Children are interested in all aspects of their lives. They want to be included in each step of a task that involves them and be invited to participate as much as they are able and they don’t need the adult to make routine things exciting.

Some great activities to build attention span together are reading aloud, storytelling together (one starts a story and you weave it together verbally), playing board games, and drawing together.

All of this inspired by one really cool battleship! Thanks to Kai and Vivian for giving this successful moment to the Wee Friends teachers.

Tami

For breakfast we had Corn Bran and pears. For a mid morning fresh veggie snack at our water station we had pea pods. For lunch we had whole wheat PB sandwhiches, fresh broccoli and apples/pineapple. For snack we will have yogurt and granola.

A few shots from this morning:

The big news today is that Finn and Umi have returned! Our classroom is now full and complete and filled with lots of excitement!

Miss Jennifer brought the gymnastics bus this morning and friends were able to work on the vault and spring board. They learned approaches on the board with straddle jumps off. Then they added the vault and worked on a squat on, a straddle on and pike ups. Some friends did handstands over the vault. They practiced jump half turns off the springboard at the end of class.

As our friends (old and new) reunited, our classroom stayed lively!

Owen, Kai and Vivian continued their study on battleships (Kai) and fighter jets (Owen and Vivian). They’ve used photographs and diagrams to study the parts and recreate what they see at the workbench. Simon brought in another resource for study: The Ultimate Book of Cross-Sections.

The space surrounding the pillar (chimney) is proving to be a favorite spot for friends to gather and play. The pillar creates space for groups to ‘section off’, but is also open enough that groups can intermingle and collaborate as they create, build and play.

The sun shone so beautifully on our playground this morning, we were excited to get outdoors and take a bite! Literally!

For breakfast we served whole wheat English muffins and peanut butter with tangerines. Lunch was whole wheat pasta with chicken, corn and bananas. For snack, we will serve crackers and fruit.

Have a great day!

Happy Friday!

As a quick reminder, www.WNDU.com is an excellent resource to find out about area school closings. Here’s the WF/WWF Policy for anyone who has questions/confusions:

Inclement Weather/ Emergency Closing Policy

Wee Friends will delay opening until 10:00am on any day that Mishawaka OR South Bend Schools are closed or delayed for weather. You will be notified by email/text by 9:00am if we choose to close for the entire day.

We are open Monday, Jan. 16 (MLK Day).

Our delayed opening this morning created an easy going, play-filled morning! Among the many activities going on in our classroom were a battleship study, The Farm House and Alphabet Letter House puzzle work, farm animal and blocks imaginative play, Magna Tiles at the light table, book reading, painting, letter stamping and trapeze (low level!) walking.

We had a visit from a carpet professional (artist!) who will work with Tami on designing carpets in certain areas of the classroom.

For lunch we served melted cheddar cheese on whole wheat tortillas, mixed veggies and tangerines.

Enjoy your weekend!

In anticipation of the reported snowstorm, we want to remind you of the WF Inclement Weather/ Emergency Closing Policy. Under the “Handbook Policies” tab on our blog we state:

Wee Friends will delay opening until 10:00 on any day that Mishawaka OR South Bend Schools are closed or delayed for weather. You will be notified by email by 9:00 if we choose to close for the entire day.

Please continue to dress your child in winter wear that is appropriate to the weather but be assured that we do have snowsuits/boots/hats/gloves enough to accommodate all of Wee Friends.

Also, WWF has reported a case of strep throat and a case of Hand-foot-mouth.

Today Simon and Kai explored a new Alphabet Letter House puzzle. After they assembled the upper case letter house, they matched the corresponding lower case lettered people in each room.

Afterwards, Alexandra (with Arleigh!) explored the letter people further by first, finding ‘A’ and then lining them up next to one another.

Excited about our new letter t-shirts, friends requested to wear certain letters from the moment of arrival! After a large group of alphabet t-shirts was built, we gathered to act of Audrey Wood’s Alphabet Adventure.

First, all the letters hid around the classroom. Ada, as Captain T, searched high and low looking for her team of letters. Slowly, each one emerged from their hiding spot. We gathered on the alphabet mat and Ada, in a big loud voice, called out a letter and each friend identified which letter they were wearing and hopped up to be seen. Like in the book Little i (Alexandra) lost her dot. Captain T and the whole gang of letters continued their search until the dot was found. Melinda side coached explaining “you are warmer now…oops…colder….ok…very hot!”

We formed a line and flew around on an imagined pencil. We also examined the shape of Little i’s dot and explored what other shapes we might balance on our head.

After we had told our alphabet story, we acted out animals whose names started with the letters on our t-shirts. And then we were tired.

So Nate and Elliott paired off and headed to the workbench while another small group of friends gathered at the art table and requested bead work.

Tami brought in a tray filled with wooden lower case letters. Friends matched the letters to a corresponding laminate sheet.

We painted big cardboard letters….

…..and enjoyed each other’s company.

Today for breakfast we served cinnamon toast and pears. For lunch, we had hummus sandwiches on whole wheat buns, bananas and cucumbers.

Have a great day!