What a fun picnic today. It was great to see you and your children outside of school.
Next week children will be building with big wooden blocks and card board blocks in the main room. They will be learning all about balance and weight. The big wooden blocks are much heavier than the card board blocks. The children will be able to experience the difference in building with heavy and light blocks. For the younger children this may be the first time they have heard the terms "heavy" and "light". When you talk about things that are heavy, use your whole body to explain, not just your words. Show your children using your body how it would look to pick up something "heavy" and then something "light". Have then hold a feather, then have them hold something heavy. Children need to learn using all of their senses. For example; showing a child a picture of an apple has much less meaning than having your child see, smell and then taste an apple. This is true in everything they experience. The more their senses are involved in a learning experience the more their brain will retain.
For young children the best part of building with blocks is knocking them down. With children two and under, please expect them to knock down any and all block structures. When this happens and the other child is upset, gently help your child and the other child build a new tower. You can say, " Tommy is sad his tower was pushed over. We can help him build another one". Impulse control and awareness of others takes many years to develop and strengthen. Your child is not a bully, he is just a Toddler or a two year old, doing what he does best. PLAYING AND EXPERIMENTING. CAUSE AND EFFECT. When I do this, this will happen. Sometimes the outcome is good, sometimes not so good. This is how children (adults) learn.
With children three and older we can teach them to only knock down what they build. Not to knock down other children's structures. Again, this takes time for the children to learn. Often suggesting they build together works well with older three year olds and four year olds. If a child knocks down another child's structure, point out how the other child may feel. "Tommy is sad that his tower was knocked down. You may help him to build another tower or you can build your own structure then you may knock down what you build. I cannot let you knock down Tommy's tower."
It is the parents encouragement and consistency that guides most of our children's behavior. Understanding children's development is very important to setting appropriate expectations. If you would like more information regarding your child's development please let one of the teachers or me know and we can set up a time to talk.
Next week Pre-k and MWF will be continuing their theme of getting to know you and talking about germs, kindness and manners. Pre-k's question of the week is, "What are good manners and what are bad manners." This is a great discussion to have with your children at home. Act out what is a "good" or "bad" manner. The best way we can teach our children good manners is by role modeling.
The classes will also be discussing families. Pre-k will be making frames for family pictures and making family trees.
A fun way to teach your children about germs is to have them play with glitter for a few minutes, then ask them to wash their hands. After they wash their hands, discuss how some of the glitter is still on their hands. This is like germs, but we cannot see the germs. Also, take some glitter, put it in you palm then sneeze, the glitter will fly all over. This helps give children a better visual of what germs do when we actually do sneeze. Start teaching them to sneeze into their elbows.
The teachers have many more fun and exciting activities set up for your children to explore.
See you soon,
Director/Teacher Karen and Teacher Mary, Sarah, Lolly, Theresa, Daran and Tammy
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