The energy and dynamic has really increased with the introduction of three new children. This week we focused on the grace and courtesy presentation of how to properly interrupt an adult. Working with children is always busy and can become rather chaotic when many children want your attention or help at the same time. The idea behind giving a child a presentation is that they have your undivided attention while you show them how to work with something new. It is important that the child pays close attention to what is being shown in order to pick up many nonverbal details. Hence, it is not conducive to have other children interrupting you with questions or conversation. In the presentation of interrupting an adult, we show children to come up to the guide and gently place their hand on our shoulder and then remove it. Once the guide finishes giving the presentation she addresses the child who is patiently waiting for help. Often times, this wait may be too much for an eager child who may seek help elsewhere or find their own solution. The process of learning how to interrupt an adult does not happen over night and requires many representations and reminders, but it is well worth the effort. I readily encourage parents to show their children how they would like to be interrupted at home as well.
Similarly, we’ve also focused much attention on expectations for circle time. For instance, we expect children to sit with their legs crossed and raise their hand when they want to contribute to the conversation or have a question. This enables children to learn how to respect the flow of conversation, to understand that conversation requires listening and talking. Most importantly, we stress that we cannot all talk at the same time and that what we have to say is valuable but we must wait our turn to share our thoughts.
We are starting to gradually introduce some new materials to the classroom. One material is a pouring exercise with various glass containers, a funnel, a jug and a tray. We’ve been practising carrying this tray around the room, encouraging children to move carefully and mindfully to avoid dropping anything onto floor. To strengthen fine motor movements, we’ve also introduced a crushing exercise for either crushing coffee beans or egg shells. The children love this exercise and often crush many egg shells in one sitting. Please feel free to save up your egg shells and bring them to school so we may crush them. We appreciate if you can clean the egg out and let them dry before bringing them into classroom.
The group has enjoyed our neighbourhood walks and outside playtime especially with the introduction of some new hula hoops and balls. Playing with the new outside toys has given the children many opportunities to practice sharing with others and coordinating their movements.
I like to introduce a new song to group as often as possible and this week we’ve been singing “I like the flowers,” which is a perfect fit for the arrival of Spring. A new book we’ve been reading is called “When I feel Afraid” by Cheri Meines.
We want to wish you an enjoyable Spring Break and hope you all enjoy the beautiful weather and get lots of rest!