Feely Box, Feelings and Family

Dear Parents,

We began our week using our sense of touch to guess what was in the Feely Box. Children guessed an acorn, popcorn, a present, a stick, a dinosaur, a pinecone, and an elephant. It was an elephant.

We added the letter E to our alphabet and brainstormed words that begin with E: eek!, eel, elephant, ear, eat, exit, extinguisher, earring, England, and Egypt are all on our list.

We asked the children to name two good feelings and two bad feelings. They said: happy, angry, excited, and sad. We asked what color would each feeling be? Happy- pink, angry- black, excited- purple, and sad- blue. The class took turns telling us times when they felt these feelings. Several brought up sad feelings when siblings took toys away or called them names. One person talked about feeling happy when riding bikes with his mama. Someone said last year they were excited for Christmas. No mention of this year. 

We read I Was So Mad, Ooops!, and Feeling Angry. We reviewed the things we can do when we feel angry: leave the room, punch a pillow, or punch our bed, count to ten, and tell a grownup. We encouraged taking deep breaths too. 

During yoga with Tasha, friends were seen hopping, and shortly after, lying quietly. 

We reviewed our feeling chart and talked about how we can have many different feelings in one day. Children talked about how we go from feeling sad back to happy. Some said talking to their parents, a hug, or a bandaid, helped them to feel better when they were sad. 

We sat quietly for one or two minutes, listening to a meditation chant. The class listened intently to the music while two people hummed along. 

We played Duck, Duck, Goose again. Once again, lots of excited laughter. Two people chose not to run. Afterwards, a few friends continued the game while others went to the block area or to play in the kitchen. 

We played lots with our small wooden blocks this week. The class built, and knocked down, many structures. We talked about only knocking down your own buildings and not your friends'. 

On Friday we made a list of who lives in our homes. Everyone listed their family members while we wrote it down. We read a few books about families. One book said that all families are different but held together by the same glue: love. 

Have a loving weekend,

Therese

Friends and Bagels

Dear Parents,

We began this week by playing with our parachute. We reviewed how the game works before going into the big room to play. We talked about listening eyes and ears. We talked about how the game works best when we’re in unison. We practiced without the parachute first. In the big room we made a circle around the parachute, wiggled it, and added balls and bean bags to it while singing songs. Everyone took turns sitting on top of the parachute in pairs, while we sang London Bridge Is Falling Down. Then we all went under the parachute together and sang a song about colors. We named all the fruits and vegetables we could think of that are red, green, yellow, and blue: the colors of our parachute. 

On Tuesday we played Duck, Duck, Goose. We reviewed this game before beginning, too. We made sure the class knew that everyone gets a turn, and that everyone runs in the same direction. Although, not everyone ran in the same direction. 

These games always produce squeals of delight and plenty of laughter. While we are having fun, we are also practicing listening to teachers and friends, paying attention to our body space, taking turns and waiting patiently, speaking up for ourselves if we do not want a turn, stopping and starting a physical action, and working on gross motor skills.

We are talking a lot about how to be a kind friend, and what we like or do not like our friends to do. We reread Hands Are Not For Hitting. We asked if words could hurt friends too? The class responded: “When you say mean things it can hurt someone’s feelings.” “I don’t like when people say bad words to me.” We concluded that when someone hits us, it hurts our body, but when someone says mean words, it hurts our feelings. One friend said “it hurts our heart”.

Yoga with Tasha was relaxing and quiet.

La Bagel Delight was informative and delicious. We learned that the bagel makers arrive at 4 am, the oven is 450 degrees, there is some brown sugar in the bagels, lots of flour, and they take about 30 minutes to bake. The class gave La Bagel Delight rave reviews while enjoying the hot bagels. Someone said, “These are the best bagels in the world!” Another replied, “This is a happy restaurant!” 

On Friday we played Red Light, Green Light. We used our Stop sign, which has a Go sign on the opposite side. Before beginning play we reminded everyone to look and listen for other running friends. We ran, hopped like bunnies, galloped like horses, slithered like snakes, crawled like spiders, and rolled like rolling pins. 

Have a friendly weekend,

Therese