Love and Kindness

It’s no secret at times that teachers are parents have important roles  in the classroom.  We now more than ever, are charged with the task of creating a more kind and inclusive environment for ALL of our children.  One way to face those challenges is to provide direct instruction on kindness, compassion, and mutual respect.  

In addition, us as teachers present relevant activities to promote compassion by modeling expected behavior and incorporating inclusive instructional materials and decor in our classrooms. Today, we continued our modeling game of Love and Kindness with our Friendship Can!

We started our day as usual with free play in the morning. The carpet area was hustling and bustling as children created a animal park with each other. At the table we brought out their fine motor practice sheets. Starting from now, we have “sign up” sheets for children to do every morning. The aim here is not to get them to write perfect letters (though it is a bonus), it is to get them to enjoy using pencils and pens, name recognition, along with strengthening their finger muscles. Children really seemed to enjoy it and some where even able to focus 30 minutes straight and complete it all!  

After our morning fun, it was time to get ready for a special surprise party. Today we celebrated Gaelle’s (in the office) Birthday at Ohana. We went down to Buds class and waited for her to come down. For the second time in a row, we surprised her big time! Gaelle was so shocked to see everyone downstairs. She had thought she was coming down to get some “information” from Buds teachers...hehehe...we can be very sneaky! Wishing the warmest and most loving Happy Birthday Gaelle, form Petals Class!

We had a late snack, and by the time we finished, we had a very short time for the park. The children requested to stay inside had wanted us to do the Super Mario dance again (a new song we introduced yesterday with Kiki and Pauline).

Kiki started her circle time. Today she requested Petals class to make a circle without holding hands. They had to look and see where they were standing, problem solve and use their words to make a circle with each other, whist their hands were by their side. This was a little tricky, but after 10 minutes they started to figure it out. According to some friends it was an oval shape and not a circle, but Kiki said it was a great effort and a good job from her side!

She then continued with Sayaka’s game from yesterday.

Recap from Yesterday: Sayaka showed us a special can which was called “Friendship Can.” She said that we will pass it around while the music is playing, and when the music stops, we would open it. Inside there are some heart cards when you open it. In the heart cards are alphabet letters and one friend’s name in it. Once we have that heart, we will say something nice about our friend whose name is in the card. We will practice to also say full sentences like, “I have a red heart. The letter is L. It is Louise.” Let’s get started!

This was the conversation we had with our Friendship Can:
A: I have pink heart and H. I have Harriet! I like her because she plays with my toy. And we have playdate!
B: I have R. Red heart. I like it when he plays with my toys.
C: My heart is pink. I have Luca. I like having playdates with him.
D: I have red heart. I have M. Magnus! I like when he plays my toys.
E: I have orange heart and O. Umm I like orange juice. When I like orange juice, I can say mommy that I like orange juice then she gives me orange juice then mommy and I can sit together and drink orange juice.
Sota: I have purple heart. I have Sayaka. Umm. She plays with me. She says “I love you, Sota.” Umm.. she also love Rafael and she hugs me. Sayaka loving papa mama at home.
Jamie: I have purple heart. I have R. It’s Ryoma. I like it when he’s using the train. You and me (Him and Ryoma) in a circle and then play.
Ryoma: I have purple heart. I have K. I have Kiki! I like... hair. And tooth. And... finished.
Evie: I have purple. S. Sara. She plays with toys. I like the way she walks.

As you can see Petals children are getting better at sharing complements, kindness and love with each other! 

After our game, as promised it was time to dance!

Have lovely evening and see you all next week!

Loving Petals class.