SHOW AND TELL
Bring a rectangle and a square.
Topic: Prehistoric
About a world we never knew.
The value is humility, which means we don’t boast about ourselves.
For science we’ll do experiments about geologic periods, fossils, and sediment.
Outside we’ll match various natural shapes.
The songs we’ll be singing are Them Bones, I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing, Catch a Falling Star, and Ain’t It Great to Be Crazy.
Our art activities are dinosaur eggs, dragonfly wings, and dinosaur rubbings.
Creative dramatics will be to play musical dinosaurs to learn the names of dinosaurs.
For motor development we’ll build flexibility with hamstring, inner thigh, and shoulder stretches, For body development, we’ll work on bilaterality with crawling relay, homerun derby, play to music, and play/pass to music.
LEARNING DIFFERENCES
One of our teachers has been studying Betty Osman’s Learning Disability: A Family Affair. Although the book is a support system for parents whose child has been diagnosed with a learning disability, the information in Osman’s book can be useful to all of us. The point is that every one of us has a unique learning style. We may learn exactly the way the teacher teaches or we may be clueless to her way of communicating. It’s almost the luck of the draw. Certainly talent is a factor, although the child who is gifted in language concepts may have a great deal of difficulty in gross motor skills. Osman points out that recognizing challenges early can eliminate a lot of problems later. In addition, an authentic partnership between parents and teacher becomes supportive of the child.
When a developmental difference is perceived as a “problem”, it becomes a negative mindset that affects both the approach and the outcome. Parents may feel guilty, overwhelmed, or angry. Some may feel responsible because they had similar issues when they were children. Siblings may feel abandoned because the “problem” child saps so much energy from the family, or siblings may have a concern that they may “catch” the problem. They may be teased by peers because their sibling is a lot of trouble, or they may feel guilty because they are successful. A healthy dynamic is that every member of the family understands and appreciates the contributions of every other member.
Osman makes recommendations that children need stability and routine in order to feel secure enough to do their best. In the area of discipline, she recommends anticipation and prevention rather than criticism and punishment. It’s incredibly more effective to anticipate that a child will have a low sugar level just before lunch, and have a late snack before placing a child in a challenging social situation on the playground. We can anticipate a boring wait at the doctor’s office and bring fun things to do rather than produce a constant string of “don’t’s” and “no’s”.
Creativity in figuring another approach on how to learn a skill, and being patient as the child tries and fails and tries again can be wonderfully affirming for our children. Unpleasantness in the child’s social situations can be as difficult for children as they are for us as adults. Empathy from adults for that pain is more useful than blame. Talking through how to be a friend, how not to punch Johnny’s lights out, or inviting Susie for a play date keeps you connected in that precious relationship with your child.
For Your Information
Vocabulary We’re Learning – In our theme about prehistory, we’ll be learning words like ‘extinct’, that means forever, and ‘eon’ for our preschoolers who can barely understand tomorrow. We’ll also do a cool experiment about what fossils are and how they came to be. Join with your child in the curiosity that prehistory is.
Got Fossils? – If you have fossils, please allow your child to share with the classes. Trilobites are wonderful, but anything works.
classroom news
Anderson and Kazuki use the numbers and counters work to work with numbers 1- 10. Younger classmate; Anderson seems to be inspired by Kazuki as he stays engaged with the work for a long time. Once a child can recognize various numbers they are ready for the numbers and counters work. This work helps to reinforce the knowledge that each number is made up of separate quantities.
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