Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood?

When we started talking about
visitors, I just couldn't RESIST making it into a "Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood" week...

My beloved blast from my past is the Sesame Street versions of "Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood."  I utilized this SUPER cute Youtube video to help teach the song to my sweet class of kiddos.  Honestly, I took advantage of just about every opportunity for transitions, quiet play, music times, and naptimes to get to play these again and again.  Thankfully, the children loved this just as much as I did. 

The Visitors Genesis 18:21

We began our Monday in customary fashion discussing the newest Bible story we will be studying all week.  Though it definitely isn't the only book we will read (oh my heavens, we read MANY books everyday) it will serve as the anchor for the lessons we will act out, play, observe, and experience.  The story is about Abraham resting outside his tent when some visitors came.  Abraham offered them his hospitality.  We discussed that "hospitality" means to welcome someone into your home, or to offer them something to eat or drink, or in the case of our little children, it could mean offering to share our toys with a neighbor.  Sarah, Abraham's wife, makes them dinner.  The visitors tell Abraham that he and Sarah will have a baby boy when they return in a year.  Sarah overhears this and laughs because she was an old woman...God asks Abraham why?  "Anything is possible with the Lord!"  Sure enough, they had a baby boy and named him Isaac.

I decided that it would be fun to help the children understand what a "visitor" was.  We discussed that a "visitor" can be anyone that comes to your house.  We looked out our windows and saw the postman delivering the mail..."Is that a visitor, Ms. Donna?"  "YES!", I said.  They were comprehending the topic and we started looking around to see what other visitors we could name.  We saw other children down the street...visitors!  I asked the children, "What if I came to YOUR house??"  "Would I be a visitor?"  "Yes!", they exclaimed.  "So what am I?", I asked.  "A teacher!", they excitedly proclaimed.  "So a teacher is also a visitor," I explained.  We went from there all the way to all the people in our neighborhood...then of course, our special song above. 

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The Postman was the FAVORITE visitor...it was unanimous!

Children love mail.  They love the thought of getting mail just for them, just like Mommy and Daddy.  My own children see the mailbox as some magical treasure box waiting to surprise them with a package.  Last year one of our wonderful families gave us this mailbox puzzle as a gift.  The postcards are hardwood, at varying sizes and lengths with little wooden "stamps" that Velcro to the top.  This also makes fitting the right postcard into the appropriate slot even more challenging.  As pictured it has a key to open the front so all the postcards can be "collected" just like at the post office.  This is an amazing problem solving, pretend and play, developmentally age appropriate preschool "toy."  It goes VERY well with our post office books.  The ones above shared with us how the mail is collected and sorted, then delivered to homes and offices.

Letters, Numbers, and a GREAT Clean-up Game!

As we do each week, we learned our new letter.  This week, it was the letter "V" for visitor.  We made letters with glitter, sticks, playdough, leaves, chalk, our fingers, our legs, and crayons and markers.  We counted letters, leaves, fingers and toes, added "one more" and took "one away" with every meal, craft and clean up opportunity.  Which...by the way...is a GREAT way to get children interested in "clean-up" time...simply make it into a counting game.  When we put our blocks away, I am in the floor counting blocks as they into our box.  If one of the younger children "takes one away,"  we subtract that block and keep on counting.  This accomplishes the task of cleaning in a fun learning environment that encourages group involvement and increases awareness of math vocabulary terms while giving concrete examples of what the number means.  After several days of this type of clean-up practice, even our littlest ones can count to twenty fairly independently and will begin doing so by themselves while putting cars, blocks, babies, or crayons away.

Playing Post Office and a Sense of Community

We also practiced delivering mail ourselves by boarding our bikes and cars, making post office delivery stations, and hand-delivering some of the letters we made below to our friends.  It was SOOOO SWEET!  They were just as excited to receive their "special letters" as if they had collected them out of the mailbox for real.  This was a great little practice for including all our friends in a fun game that helped everyone feel loved, included, and involved.

I've Been Kissed By A DOG!

We practiced writing "letters" to those we loved.  My little Ally decided to write one to her dog, Sheppy.  It said, "Dog, I love you!"
Something tells me I she wouldn't at all mind being, "kissed by a dog!"
 

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Proof of love...

This is a game our little 2's have recently discovered...I like to call it the "Proof of Love" game.  The little one on the ground has "thrown" herself off her bike MANY times saying "Uh-Oh!" and if left too long without anyone noticing, she would actually burst into tears.  If, however, just after "falling" someone would rush over to her aid, she would happily hop up and continue on her way.  She was just wanting to know that someone noticed and cared if she was in need.  Once the appropriate amount of attention was given, she was fulfilled and content to continue on her journey. 

What I found interesting was that she really would get her tender little heart broken if she was left without the necessary attention even though she wasn't really injured.  This is a common game for toddlers and they usually do begin to "clue in" to the "rules" after a few "rounds."  Once the "rules" are established everyone is happy to play the game.  What I love about small children do not seek to "toughen" up the child by ignoring him or her.  They simply respond to the other's need regardless if it is "real" or "imagined."

There is a quote that I love from a fairly new children's author that I believe sums up this common toddler "game."

“It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.” L.R.Knost

I wish you well and I hope you get to play today

-L