SHOW AND TELL
Bring a picture of an animal that thrives in the deserts or grasslands; primary students should know the name of the animal and what it likes to eat.
Topic: Deserts/Grasslands
How plants provide oxygen and food.
The value we’ll be studying is humility, which is to be not boastful or prettious.
For science, we’ll be learning about evaporation and sprouting.
Outside, we’ll learn games like follow the leader, tug of war, and leap frog.
The songs we’ll be singing are Edleweiss, The Green Grass Grows All Around, Home on the Range, On Top of Old Smoky, and Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.
For creative dramatics, we’ll pretend to be a seed sprouting and growing.
Our art activities will be leaf lotto, plant people, and plant collage/sculpture/mobiles.
For motor development, we’ll be working on flexibility with yoga postures. For proprio-ceptive function, we’ll walk on textured surfaces and be bulldozers
ABOUT ESSENTIAL ENERGIES
The connection between mind and body is pretty generally accepted. We can agree that stress can cause headaches and stomachaches. We can even accept that not wanting to take on a new project might cause knee or hip problems. What may be something you haven’t considered is the effect the body can have on our minds. In our school, we have a saying “Smile – it makes your body think it’s happy.” You may not believe this – until you try it.
With our little children, we have known for some time that vigorous physical activity, especially climbing, helps with math skills. Then we discovered Dr. Ginny Whitlaw, formerly a senior manager at NASA, who has codified ways of moving to balance learning and interacting styles in her book Moving to Greatness. We’ve all had the experience of knowing a great party guy who couldn’t get his act organized enough to keep a career going, or the dreamy idea person who moved from project to project without finishing much of anything. Our children have the same challenges. What Dr. Whitlaw has put together is activities and exercises that strengthen characteristics that are not our home, or basic, style. By enhancing less inherent aspects of our personalities, we can be more balanced in all our capabilities.
In Dr. Whitlaw’s book, she documents the efficacy of her program, which is aimed at helping leaders get past the buts of their styles, as in “Susan is great with the detail, but she doesn’t get the big picture.” We’ve all seen these buts, or even experienced them in our daily activities. With our children, we’re well aware of the child who hurtles through life, one we diplomatically call “active” or even “aggressive”. We also know the child too timid to speak up about her ideas, maybe even too timid to define them. Dr. Whitlaw maps four energies we can access to provide balance and wholeness in our lives. If our children are taught these techniques at this preschool level, they’ll think everyone knows how to access fun or to live in an organized way or to drive to achieve goals or even have the ability to vision goals.
Albert Einstein observed that nothing happens until something moves. Since our movements happen in patterns described by Dr. Whitelaw, her four essential energies are manifest in all that we do and create in the world around us. When we move in the patterns described by Dr. Whitelaw, we literally change the way our brains process and our emotions react to life. For example, if we reject our driver voice because it reminds us of a bullying parent, we never find the true driver in us who could help us reach life goals. Moreover if our inner team isn’t getting along, much of our energy is drained by inner conflict and all the ways it permeates our relationships with others. Finding our own authentic expression of these patterns is making deep peace with ourselves. Whole and balanced, you become the person others naturally want to be with. Reclaiming your ease and agility in any of the patterns and being able to act with freedom in the moment, not because of compulsions from the past. Ultimately, the greatness you move to is the wholeness of who you are. This is what we want for our children. They will learn best if you know how to do this, too.
General
Playtime - While children do need time to play alone and with other children without adult intervention, research shows that playtime with parents is also important. Children crave time with parents. It makes them feel special. Parents are encouraged to find time to spend playing with their kids on a regular basis. This should include one to one with each child and group time with all of the adults and kids in the home. If you are a single parent or have an only child, occasionally invite family or friends over to play.
Continue Learning – It may be understandable that when students are away from school for long periods of time like; summer vacations they may return back to school and have forgotten some or most of what they “learned” the previous semester. The same is even more profound with our young students. When students are away from the school they fall out of the routine, time once dedicated for school is replaced by something else. At the school we have seen over the years students who counted up to 100, or were mastering sounds of letters, when they return back to the school the information is forgotten the teachers start from the beginning and re-teach. When your child is out of school for more than a week consider sitting time aside to focus on what he is leaning at school. Counting the number of blue cars as you travel along the highways, or the number of people you see wearing pink while at the airport, if you are at the grocery store that could be an opportunity to sound out the first letter on the cereal boxes. Before you go on your vacation you might want to ask your child’s teacher for suggestions, it’s beneficial for all age groups even babies.
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