SHOW AND TELL
Bring an item that would be used to build a house.
(Electric plugs, bricks, boards, or a hammer, etc.)
Topic: Housing
Almost all creatures find shelter.
The value is collaboration, which means to work together for the common good.
For safety, we’ll learn how to resist peer pressure by just saying “No”.
Outside we’ll build a house.
The songs we’ll be singing are Red River Valley, Home on the Range, Day-O, and Do-Re-Mi. We’ll also work with patterned singing and clapping.
For creative dramatics we’ll be “webbing”, a thinking and vocabulary building exercise using several different questions. We’ll be adding to our list of words we think of during the week.
Our art activities are maze, stamps, earthworm house, painting with a screen, and paper roll houses.
For motor development, we’ll work on stamina. For bilaterality, we’ll play balloon volleyball, imitate patterns, and bunny hop.
GO WITH THE FLOW
This article about biorhythms from Working Mother magazine has some good points. As adults, we can control what we do and when we do it. But a child is subject to her parents’ whims as well as to her own moods. The connection between a child’s physiological needs and her behavior is much stronger than an adult’s. Adults can get through a meeting if we’re hungry or a workday without much sleep, but a child is much less adaptable. For parents, recognizing and working with their child’s natural rhythms will help the whole family have smoother, happier days. What’s most effective is to be flexible and experiment with what works best.
Sometimes the thing that works best seems contrary to what you might expect. It might seem like a child that is a night owl but who still has to get up in time for you to get to work at 8 a.m. would do better to sleep as late as possible. In fact, a gradual waking up such as a little music or getting in mommy’s bed, then a light turned on for a while, and then a slow getting dressed seems to work better for slow movers. Providing a sense of structure and routine is crucial to helping a child recognize and respond to her rhythms. Routines help kids understand what’s coming next. When the routine gets thrown off, kids may not perform or behave as well. Even developmental spurts can disrupt the routine. Adding solids to a baby’s diet can result in fewer feedings and perhaps longer stretches of sleeping. Giving up an afternoon nap can result in a sooner-than-expected bedtime, which may alter your evening schedule. Be prepared to regroup every few months or so. Daylight savings time is going to adjust soon, which will be a shift for the whole family.
Sleep routines seem to be the most difficult to adjust. A consistent bedtime is what synchronizes a child’s clock, yet we keep hearing about parents’ letting kids stay up late. Don’t let children stay up until they say they’re tired, or let them drift off in front of the TV. Young children need a ritual to shut down physically and mentally. If your child consistently crashes at night before you tuck him in, he’s exhausted way beyond a point that’s healthy.
Just like sleeping rhythms, children have eating rhythms. Some crave a big breakfast, while others may not have a hearty appetite until later in the day. Feel free to allow nutritious snacks when your child seems to need them. As long as the child’s overall nutritional pattern and how they’re growing is good, a few skimpy meals won’t hurt anything. Rhythm is very much a little-kid issue. As children get older, they adapt to schedules and routines more easily. Look at how well you have adapted. Just go with the flow.
For Your Information
Critical Thinking Skills – On just about every page of our enrichment curriculums are exercises in critical thinking. For housing, a couple of the questions are: What do people who build houses need to know? How do they learn that? You might want to extend that discussion with a slant toward all the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) things to learn about in our world.
Parent Group – We were asked by some caring parents if a parent group could be established, after some consideration we decided to give it a try. The parents group is for parents to get involved by donating time or materials for upcoming classroom projects or events. To sign up email mmgsparentgroup@gmail.com List your name and which classroom your child is in. You will get an email on how you can support an upcoming gardening project for March.
Classroom News
A lot of compassion and empathy is expressed on the playground. Kaylee, one of our newest students in the toddler class was feeling sad and crying during outdoor play time after her teacher tried to comfort her she kept crying, then we noticed her classmates, Helene, Blanca, Zane, and Sam softly patting her on her back trying to comfort her soon after the crying stopped. On the infant playground Palmer enjoys pushing classmate Alexis around on the push car. Alexis is all smiles as he enjoys the ride.
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