Category:

Umbrellas and the letter U.

9/27/2012

This is so sweet...it has NOTHING to do with our topic of the week of umbrella's, but I LOVE this. It is my favorite picture of the week. I think I love it so much, not ONLY because it is not only cutie pie pic of my little sweetie, but again, it shows SO much PURE joy in ALL their little faces. This is so close to my heart as I write.

Preschool training, though important, is not THE most important part of these children's day with me. The first quote on my preschool website is my heart's desire, "Teach only love, for that is what you are." Dr. Becky Baily.

The BEST "lesson" we can give ANY infant, baby, toddler, preschooler in a "school" setting is to love them and teach them to love. Once they have comfort in our loving, trusting relationship, everything else is so much easier.

I have noticed, over time, that when I introduce a new teacher to the children, it takes them a while to get to a point where the children will listen and respond to them. Often these sweet, loving, new teachers will marvel at my ability to "get the children to listen." I carefully explain that the only difference is my bond with them and that, with patience and care, over time, they will also have the same relationship with the children and will be able to "get them to listen" too. This is true. I have no magic fairy dust. I have times when I am not my shiny "Mary Poppins" best. But, even on the more challenging days, our love for one another gets us successfully through another fun, educational and heart filled day.

Once you have a child's trust, that bond carries them through their temper tantrums, challenges, disappointments and difficulties knowing that we are all in it together. There is a good article regarding this, Fostering Attachment In The Childcare Setting For Infants And Toddlers. This explains why caring, regular and bonding relationships are vital to a child's social/ emotional development. Another great article Promoting Childrens' Social and Emotional Development Through Preschool Education goes on to explain that as many as 20% of children entering Kindergarten do not have the necessary social/emotional skills to be successful in the classroom and it could be as high as 50% for "at risk" children. This is SIGNIFICANT! When a teacher spends the school day managing emotions instead of educating, everyone falls behind. This isn't so bad for a Kindergarten teacher. They expect it. But now, think about a 3rd grade teacher, or a 6th grade teacher, that has students in her/his classroom that have failed to learn impulse control or problem solving skills and the problem becomes detremental to learning of 15-20 other children on a daily basis.

This is also why so many programs are moving away from a set curriculum to "play-based." Play based simply means to "let the children play." They are building their skills with each "session." With the help of a calm and stable adult caregiver, children are able to learn that there are better ways to manage their own emotions, interact with one another, and solve problems. We simply follow their lead...and provide a helpful hand during "teachable moments." With this we can actually "discipline," which simply means "to teach." That is our job, that is MY favorite part of the entire day..."to teach"...and what do we teach? We teach love...

During our letter U discussions we learned that the letter U makes the short "u" sound as in "umbrella," "under," and "up." We used this throughout the week in our lessons. We made this sweet little book for each child to take home.

First we cut out our letters, umbrellas, a staircase and a sea-turtle in the deep blue sea "under" the water. We glued each picture onto its page as we discussed and emphasized the beginning sound of each word. Once folded it made a simple four page book that was fun for our children to read at school and take home to read with and to their families. We practiced recognizing the letter "U" on each page too.

Along with this we were able to play lots of games to emphasize up and down, under and over opposites. We would place objects over and under tables, our hands, books, etc., all throughout the week as we would ask the children questions to help them understand the opposites and placement of object while building vocabulary. "Is the ball under or over the table." "Is my hand going up or down?" "Are my fingers walking up or down the stairs?" "Can your fingers walk up the stairs?" "Can your sea turtle swim under or over the sea?" I think you get the picture. One of the great things about being with our children each day is that there are SO many teachable moments to express the meaning of language and build language skills. This happens so organically through conversation. "Is the bird flying up or down?" "Is the ant climbing over or under the rock?" Once you recognize that learning happens ALL around a child each and every day, you begin to understand your role in aiding their learning and how important it is to be present...REALLY present physically, emotionally, and mentally throughout their play. Teachable moments happen in an instance and capturing those takes a PRESENT adult. When we give our children and the children under our care our full attention they know it, they FEEL connected, accepted and loved and, in turn, we can FEEL their willingness to learn from us increase, as our bonds with them increase.

This is a tracing pre-writing practice sheet we did together. This comes from www.kidssoup.com, a website I use pretty frequently for theme ideas, printables, etc.

Worksheets and a "school" of thought...

You have heard me mention "play based" learning fairly frequently in my posts. I do believe this is VERY vital to pre-k readiness, happiness and long-term academic and social/emotional success for young children. In my numerous trainings, research, reading, trainings, etc., there is a HUGE movement to eliminate all things that even look like a "worksheet" from the early learning classroom. The "school of thought" is that this is not appropriate for educating young children and that it can even stunt their growth by forcing them to memorize in ways that their little brains are not yet ready for. There is a very good article written about this The Worksheet Dilemma; The Benefits of Play-Based Curricula. Though I do agree with much that is in this article and, as ALL my preschool families are very aware as you read through the aforementioned article, we provide the children here with every experience listed in this article (which will also tell you that you made a GREAT decision enrolling your children with us) ::)). Though as unpopular as my following statement will be with many of my colleagues, I do beleive there is a place for worksheets in a WELL-balanced preschool curricula. First, and my strongest belief, as I have seen it first hand myself, is that worksheets, when simply given as another experience and play choice, can and do allow for children who desire to learn to write at an earlier age or simply mimic what they see their older siblings, mom and dad and family members doing, another outlet for this that is a source of encouragement to them, not stress. As an experienced teacher I know NOT to comment on a child's work with an opinion. I have been trained to ask the child to "tell me about it..." and to allow that child the opportunity to express their opinion and to re-experience how they felt when they were creating it originally to me. I have also seen worksheets as a means of connection for a child and parent. The parent has a basis, including the arts and crafts, paintings, drawings, etc. done throughout the day to discuss with their child. A WAY to begin nightly conversations to open communication with their child to discuss the child's day. This connection that leads to conversation about a child's day is SO important! It communicates to the child, "I love you and I care what you did today...Tell me about it!" These papers can help this when, like all things pre-k, they are used as another play choice in a BALANCED pre-k curricula.

MORE umbrellas!

This cute little umbrella was a shapes study we did and notice that the umbrella's handle has the "u" curve. We cut these out of paper plates and passed out rectangles, semi-circles, squares and triangles. We (teachers) went around the table naming the shapes with the children allowing them to choose where and how they glued them on. We counted our shapes and observed their colors as well...

We also made umbrella mobiles. Pictured above is the progress of each step. First we cut paper plates in half and made opposing slits in each so when slid together they would be 3-d. We started by allowing each child to choose any/ or all the paint colors they wanted to use with their umbrella and we painted. Some of the children also chose to glitter theirs and then we glued strips of paper for the raindrops and sunshine. During this we also ran the sprinkler outside on a VERY sunny day and watched as it formed a BIG rainbow in our play yard. The children were THRILLED! This really drove home the lessons from our "R" rainbows week a few weeks ago. We again discussed the shape of a raindrop and how a rainbow is formed. Once complete we also sang our Rain, Rain Go Away chant. We changed the words so I will list it again below. The children squealed and awed at our "homemade" rainbow!

Our Rainbow Chant

Rain, Rain go away, (waving hands side to side)
Come again another day, (Shaking finger as in "no, no" back and forth)
We want the rainbow to come and play! (making a rainbow in the sky with hands from left to right)

We also played our counting practice game of "Hide and Go Seek" each day during our outdoor playtimes. We counted 1-5, 1-10, 1-20, 1-30 and 1-50!

On our umbrella theme we also practiced counting umbrellas, matching umbrellas and had many discussions around when we can use umbrellas. We discussed what sizes umbrellas are that we use for the beach and for the rain and observed that beach umbrellas are very big, while most rain umbrellas are small. We cut out and played an umbrella numbers, matching and counting game that we sent home with each child as well. This had umbrellas of different colors and shapes, 1-10 with the same numbered umbrellas cut out of construction paper to match.

The children had a wonderful week of umbrellas and we will post all of our "V" VOLCANO fun and activities shortly!

PRINTABLES!!

If you are one of our pre-k teacher friends, or homeschool followers...please feel free to download and utilize the below pdf files for teaching your little ones!