SHOW AND TELL
Bring a thing that came from the sea
Topic: Oceans
The powerful forces of the oceans
The value is peace, and we’ll be learning how to listen to the whole story and then be able to tell it back.
For ecology, we’ll learn about wind and water power.
Outside, we’ll siphon.
The songs we’ll be singing are Three Little Fishes, Row Your Boat, Down by the Bay, Five Little Speckled Frogs, and Puff, the Magic Dragon.
For creative dramatics, we’ll be a sea creature. Can you move like an octopus?
Our art activities are paper plate crab, turtles, octopus, starfish, tapa cloth, and tropical beach scene
For motor development, we’ll work on flexibility by learning tinkling. For vestibular function we’ll play leap frog, forward roll, be pogo sticks, and push balls with our bodies.
DON’T WORRY/BE HAPPY
In the 1990’s Martin Seligman wrote a couple of best sellers Learned Optimism and Authentic Happiness. He became known as the father of positive psychology, and he quotes mountains of research that substantiates the idea that we are more productive when our self-esteem (happiness) is high. His research shows that pessimists are eight times more likely to suffer depression; they do worse in school, sports, and most jobs; and they have poorer physical health, rockier relationships, and shorter lives. Positive emotion opens us to new ideas and new experiences. In our world of rapidly increasing changes, we need that positive mental attitude to broaden our intellectual, physical, and social resources.
Dr. Seligman had a grant to begin working on a large-scale project with high school students to help them identify their strengths and turn those strengths into positive forces in their lives. This effort builds on his re-search showing that 10-year-olds who were taught the skills of optimistic thinking and action had less than half the incidences of depression as they went into puberty. He has defined six virtues to achieve based on extensive research in world religions and philosophies. (The virtues are wisdom/knowledge, courage, love/humanity, justice, temperance, and spirituality.) He then talks about crafting your job and your life around these six virtues. When you use your strengths to make your job and your life better, the success you experience will give you ideas about how to go further with the things that give you the most pleasure. His key to recrafting your job and your life is to make it a calling – having a passionate commitment to it – giving you a sense of serving the greater good.
What does this have to do with our preschoolers? Dr. Seligman’s first book discussed learned helplessness. This is what we see beginning at the preschool level. From Dr. Seligman’s research, as well as that of many others, we can anticipate a puberty and a life coming with constant struggle against depression. We can start today teaching our children a can-do attitude; a joy of constant mindfulness, curiosity, and learning; pleasure in loving and being loved; and courage in the face of tough jobs. As our children’s role models, we know we have to have these skills and attitudes ourselves. Visit Dr. Seligman’s website at www.authentichappiness.org for more great information and some analysis tools for yourself.
For Your Information
About Values – Dr. Seligman’s list of values is a little different from ours, which is: collaboration, compassion, frugality, honor, humility, joy, justice, peace, responsibility, self-reliance, and wisdom. Every week we focus on one of these virtues, hopefully helping the children conceptualize and verbalize virtues. The enrichment curriculum next week will focus on the concept of peace, specifically that many people consider the sea to be one of the most peaceful places on the earth. Have you been to the sea this year? Maybe think about going late in the day when the danger of sunburn is over and the crowds are gone. Just be peaceful for a time with your beautiful children.
Classroom News
Arianna had a lesson on the spindle box, because she can identify numbers 0 - 9 she was introduced to this material that helps her apply a quantity to the various numbers. Kenneth was very sad after the teacher separated him from his classmate so he could better focus on his work To get Kenneth out of his slump the teacher showed him the solar system work and translated that to coloring the various planets on paper Kenneth color each planet while joyfully calling out the name of the planets. Luke in the toddler class in learning more words and beginning to express himself in new ways, when he wants something and when he does not want to do something he uses his voice to let us know. Luke is also saying the names of his classmates, in addition; Luke has also shown improvement to keeping the classroom organized and more often he picking up his work and putting it away.
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