November 30, 2018

Social/Emotional Development

 Our guiding study of the year, Social and Emotional Development: Emotional development is learning to recognize and express feelings while social development is the process of learning self-expression and how to interact with others. They both begin from very early on. 

Toddlers are growing and developing and learning what feelings and emotions are, understanding how and why they happen, recognizing one’s feeling and those of others.  Children are exposed to different situations, and they manifest different emotions. Each child has their differences and similarities in how they express their thoughts and feelings.  It is essential to provide and develop effective ways of managing them.

We have been approaching and investigating different ways in which we are Integrating Social Emotional Learning throughout the Day in the Classroom:

• Make it a goal to start each day with a personal connection.  For example, giving a warm greeting to welcome each child as they arrive in the morning

• Give children opportunities to work with a partner and groups.  It helps children learn to cooperate and share the space they are working in

• They learn to share materials

• They learn to make decisions and respect each other’s decision

• Give them new words to say; for example, thank you and please

As the children are exploring, they are also recognizing and articulating their emotions. We are creating Emotions book! Each book will contain their different facial expressions: for example, happy, sad, surprised, and sleepy. Being able to recognize the feeling helps them to understand them.

Thank you for attending the curriculum.

Please take a little time to read and look at the different documentation we have displayed on the wall during drop-off or pick-up. Thank you!

Leo and grandma are painting at the easel.

Highlights of Week!

Happy Birthday Rohan!

Rohan’s grandmother came to visit us! We sang Happy Birthday to Rohan, ate a special treat, Halwa (cream of wheat, butter, and sugar), Rohan’s grandmother read some books, and we listened to some Spanish songs!

Rohan selects a book of his choice for grandma to read.

Sensory:

Providing opportunities for children to explore different sensory materials at their own pace, and in an unstructured way, enables them to have different experiences.  Flour exploration offers many benefits for young children.  The soft and light touch warms their hands and fingertips as they interact with the material. It is mold-able and sprinkle-able; the children can spread it, lump it, pat it, and pinch it; swirl it around, watch it fall through the gaps between their fingers, and rub it into their skin until their hands turn white!  They were making lines in the sensory table, filled and emptied cups — some of the children engaged for quite some time at the sensory table.

Painting with Sticks!

The children enjoyed creating different prints as they pressed the sticks onto the paper.

We are beginning to create our Holiday decoration!

Mirrors are more than just fun for toddlers; mirrors are an essential learning tool.  Looking in the mirror helps toddlers to learn to focus, track images and explore the beautiful things a face can do.  Mirror game fosters social and emotional development, as they interact. Even though Nathaniel is not verbal during his interaction with the mirror, we are responding to his emotional and physical cues.  These observations help us to have an idea of his interests in new material, or it also allow us to discover what new project we can create. I wonder what Nathaniel thinks as he looks in the mirror.  

As Nicole mixes the colors, she pauses to observe and then continues to mix them. Combining both colors creates a different color from the original hue, blue and gold. It seems Nicole is aware of the changes and is exploring colors as she paints.

.

Leo appeared sad when his grandmother left after curriculum day.  The teachers noticed Nathaniel giving Leo some of the animals from the manipulative center. It seemed Nathaniel was trying to make him feel better and it worked.  They both were articulating the different animals.  Children are gradually learning, recognizing, and understanding each other's emotions.  Also, they are taking the initiative to help their peers to feel better.

Cooking with Diane!

Salad (Red Peppers, Cucumbers, Chick Peas, Yellow Cherry Tomatoes)

Spanish

Music

Before lunch, we usually have a short circle time. today, we counted pegs and articulated the color and number of pegs that were in the container. (Yellow!)