Waffles Anyone?

When Baby "E" turned one, she was given this little waffle block set with animals.  She loves carrying around the animals, but the school friends have loved using the waffles as building materials.  They are amazing!  Easy to use, conducive to imaginative play, and SO fun!

At "E's" birthday party, the school friends opened the box and said, "Wow!  These are just like the blocks in your yard but tiny!"  So true!  But also, these have more kinds of shapes, including circles and rods, that are cleverly planned out to be compatible with the other pieces.

Today, Friend "Sandwich" literally worked to make this "playground" for 30 minutes.  He designed it to be an obstacle course for the people included with the toy.  He assigned voices to his figures, and helped them "race" through the obstacle course.  Then he decided it would be a "video game" where he held the pretend controller to push imaginary buttons, and Ms. Harmony guided the players through the course where they received medals at the end.

We had ladders to climb, merry-go-rounds to spin, slides to descend, climbers to leap on and off of, and more.  It was truly amazing to spend a solid 30 minutes on a single plan... and the only reason we stopped working on this was because it was time to carry on with the day.  I'd say this was waffles for the win!

Fun with Fall Work Time Plans

During October, we've worked with learning to name forest animals and various ways that they are getting ready for winter.  This Alone Table plan was a super way to help us remember which animals live in our local forests and develop understanding of size as well!  The Russian Doll style of toy challenged the school friends to put the animals in size order to correctly nest them.

We also mixed yellow with red paint to make orange.  Even basic art experiences like this are amazing to young children, which supports the idea that art does not need to be complicated to be educational and fun!

This day the children decided to stack the log blocks as high as they could go before they toppled!  Ms. Harmony supported this play by describing the blocks that they were choosing to use: large or small, heavy or light, flat or round, etc. as the children experimented with the best way to build.  At key opportunities, she would ask questions like, "So when we put the heavier blocks on top, the tower fell.  What should we change?" or "What happens if you turn this Y-shaped log upside down?"  The children did the work, did the thinking, and worked through the trial and error experience.  Not only did they develop greater understanding for gravity, balance, and weight, but also they were challenged to sustain attention and tolerate frustration as they practiced the scientific process of identifying a problem, having an idea to solve it, testing it, and reflecting on the results.

Did you know that some of the animals are better climbers than others?  After building the tower, the soft toy animals like Fox, Deer, Bear, Raccoon, and Mountain Lion pretended to climb the tower that the children made.  Ms. Harmony voiced Deer and asked the children to help her solve the problem of reaching the top since Deer wasn't great at climbing trees.  Deer is good at running and jumping.  The school friends built stairs for Deer so she could play too, although it's fun to pretend that Deer can fly too.  ;)

Happy Halloween is in the Explore Table!  We've stacked pumpkins, made skeleton stories, studied the movements of slinkies, filled cauldrons with beans and eyeballs, and SO MUCH MORE.  This is such a fun way to talk about the things we see at Halloween time.  :)

All in all, the children have certainly been BUSY!  It's so fun to build on THEIR ideas and see them learn through play.

Toddler Aggression: The Reasons and the Responses

Toddlers are super cute, but they can be super hurtful as well!  There are several reasons that toddlers behave aggressively, and being a sociopath is typically not one of them!  ;)  Take a breath... when your small child hits, they are very much like most toddlers out there.

Although feelings are always okay, certain actions are not because they are hurtful.  As teachers, caregivers, and parents, we need to respond to our toddler aggressors in a way that helps them develop prosocial skills.  To do this, we need to determine the function (the why) of the behavior.  Depending on the child's motive in the situation, our response to the child must differ.

Below you will find different strategies for responding to aggressive behaviors according to the behavior's function.  Be prepared to use many strategies with the child.  Be ready for it to take a few months for the child to incorporate new replacement behaviors.  Be patient, with yourself and the child.

Attention Seeking

• Young children figure out right away that hurtful actions get a lot of attention from grownups!  (We naturally want to prevent other children or ourselves from getting hurt right?)  Negative attention is still attention, and counts to the young attention seeker.
• Strive for five: for every one criticism/correction/redirection you give, strive to find five positive things to also share with the child.  ("Yes!  Your hands are pinching play-doh!  That is a great choice.  You look like you are having fun.)  This does two things: the child feels capable of making good choices, being a nice friend, and that you care about him/her.  Additionally, it helps you maintain positive feelings toward the child and avoid the rut of, "Sigh.  Why do you ALWAYS hurt people?!"  Likely, the child does not ALWAYS engage in negative behaviors and pointing the positives out to the child helps you as the adult remember this too.  CONNECTION.
• Respond to the victim first.  "Are you okay?  Let's get you... cleaned up, back on your feet, etc. Did you like what happened?  Let's tell your friend that..."
• Respond to the aggressor second.  "You pushed... (enter hurtful behavior) your friend.  You were upset... (enter applicable emotional label) and didn't know what to do."  
• Be sympathetic so the child is able to hear your message.  If you are angry the child will be defensive or possibly afraid.  The brain will not be able to incorporate the next part of the exchange as readily due to that stress.
• Continue: "You MAY NOT hurt your friend.  That is NOT okay.  You may do... (this or that) instead.  Let's practice that now."

Sensory or Motor Seeking

• The growing child's body craves movement and challenges!  This is one way both hemispheres of the brain learn to communicate and synchronize.  We want children to learn about their bodies, the environment, and how to interact with the people and the world.
• Hitting, kicking, and throwing are developmental milestones that we expect young children to meet, and they will typically practice these behaviors until they achieve mastery.  In certain circumstances, it is very appropriate to hit, throw, poke, pinch, or kick.  
• Redirect hitting/kicking/throwing/pinching behaviors from peers to play-doh, instruments, pillows, beanbags, balls, and/or toys where it is okay to hammer.  
• Redirect biting to chewable jewelry.

Undeveloped Social/Emotional Understanding

• Because children this age are so young, they haven't yet learned to distinguish the idea that people and animals are different from objects because they have feelings.  They haven't learned perspective-taking yet, and so they are unaware that they might be hurting a friend and that friend has different feelings about what is happening than the instigator does.  This lack of social/emotional development (which is totally NORMAL for this age!) can lead to treating friends as objects.
• This behavior might look like spontaneous, unprovoked injuring of another person.  Small children find that peers respond consistently to pain with howls, crying, etc. in the same way that maracas respond to shaking, piano keys respond to hitting, and pegs respond to hammering.  The aggressor is enjoying the consistency or sound of the response because they don't understand that what they are doing hurts.  People are not instruments or toys, and people have feelings.
• To teach social emotional awareness, try this: "Look at your friend's face.  That's sad (hurt, angry, etc.- label the feeling)  They didn't like that.  To help our friend feel better, we need to apologize.  Say, 'I'm sorry I hurt you.  I will use soft hands next time.'"
• Outside of the conflict, intentionally plan opportunities to teach social emotional awareness: 
• sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with different emotions.  Use dramatic facial expressions for each feeling and invite the children to do the same.  Explain what caused the feeling: "I am sad because biting hurts!  I hurt so I cry!"
• read books and point out the faces and feelings of the characters, explain the cause and effect of those feelings in the plot
• play with the mirror- children like making faces in the mirror, use this as an opportunity to talk about feelings versus body parts and features
• role play- pretend to be an animal or person, act and talk the way someone else would
• connect with past experiences- "Remember when your friend hit you and you were really sad?  That's how Johnny feels right now."

Undeveloped Communication Skills

• Toddlers have better RECEPTIVE language than EXPRESSIVE language.  This means that they understand what you say a lot more than what they can say themselves.  Let's face it, actions come out faster than words at this age.  Even if the small child knows what to say, s/he may forget to use words in the heat of the moment.  
• Teach social and problem solving language.  Intervene when a child makes a grab for a toy in another's hands and prevent a potential fight.  Prompt the child to use words, "You want that toy.  Let's ask first before we take: 'Sally, can I have that cat?'  'Oh, Sally isn't done yet.  Sally tell her, 'You can have it when I'm done.'"
• Teach and model the words for sharing (using the toy together at the same time), trading (exchanging a toy for the one you want), and waiting for a turn (eg. using a timer).  Resolving problems with these tools demonstrates respect for other's feelings and fosters positive feelings between friends.
• Practice taking turns in speaking and listening.
• Use consistent language with the child so they learn what your words/instructions mean: "Use soft touches" or "Your friends like nice hands..."
• The younger the children, the simpler the language (both vocabulary and number of words)

Undeveloped Executive Functioning

• Executive functioning skills are higher level brain functions.  They allow you to choose your response instead of responding with emotion.  They allow you to delay gratification.  They allow you to make plans, and review how they went.  They allow you to use logic amongst other things... and they are continuously developing in a person until s/he is a young adult.  Therefore, we cannot expect young children to cope with the environment and people in the same capacity as an adult.  But we CAN support the development of executive functioning skills within the child.
• Be consistent with redirection and consequences.  For example, the child might need to lose privileges if s/he is repeatedly acting in hurtful ways.  A logical consequence is that the child must walk away from the activity where the hurtful behavior was occurring.  Perhaps the child requires the use of a time-out or calm-down place.  Remember that negative consequences cannot be the only response to replacing these behaviors with positive ones.  
• It is critical to maintain a positive relationship with the aggressive child and be the child's "safe place" while providing consistent redirection and consequences.  When the child decides that s/he is "just a bad kid" or that the teacher "can't be pleased" then s/he will likely stop trying to improve.  Don't create a self-fulfilling prophecy for the child.
• Maintain proximity to help the child in the heat of the moment make the best choice instead of waiting to clean up the aftermath.
• Let age and maturity work magic on your efforts.  It will happen for each child at a different time in a different way.  Every day, every minute, YOU get to help build this child's brain.

Music, Meals, and Monsters

The instruments have been a huge hit with the new class.  One starts playing, Ms. Harmony starts singing, and soon everyone is sitting around playing keys, shaking maracas, or tapping a tune!

The "popcorn piano" is especially popular.  When you push the keys, in addition to playing a sound, the "popcorn" pops up inside the instrument!  Friend "Sandwich" patiently waited for his turn at the Alone Table to play it.

For young preschoolers and toddlers, joining/working a collaborative plan is developmentally challenging!  This week we worked more with this objective by:

• asking to join a friend by saying, "Can I play too?"
• inviting a friend to join by saying, "Do you want to play with me?"
• Ms. Harmony modeled both through play via the Duplo Lego people and invited the children to "talk back" with a person

In the plan featured here, we used the log blocks to make a table, chairs, booster seats, etc. and helped all the Lego people sit down.  Friend "Sheep" suggested we serve cupcakes.  We realized we didn't have any cupcakes so we used a bristle block instead.  We helped our Lego people sing "Happy Birthday" and the school friends chimed in.  They helped their person "eat."

This was a great opportunity to practice playing together, and most of our friends contributed to the plan in a productive way by building, "talking" through a Lego person, or helping the Lego person to "eat."  Over the course of the year, Ms. Harmony will facilitate these spontaneous group plans less and less as the children do them independently more and more.

Including the Bristle Blocks into the plan prompted more building.  Friends "Sheep" and "Sandwich" both experimented with using the bristle blocks to make cars, cakes, and especially monsters!  Here's Friend "Sandwich's" Monster Man!

Do You Drink Lemonade?

Our classroom songbook has a song called "Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime?" and one verse mentions drinking lemonade!  Summer done right MUST include making lemonade from scratch.  :)

We used our scientific observation skills in this tasty process.  First Ms. Harmony sliced open the lemons and the school friends removed the slimy seeds.  After the seeds were out we put the lemon slices in ziplock bags to be squished, smashed, twisted, and more to juice those babies!  We really got a kick out of beating up these poor lemons!  :P

The kiddos tasted the lemon juice on their hands and realized that it was SO sour!  We then heated a cup of water and dissolved one cup of sugar in the water.  Each child took a turn using the wire whisk to stir the hot water.  Then we added a few more cups of cold water to the juice and sugar mixture.  After an hour we came back to sample it, and it was SO good!  "Better than my mom makes!" one child said!  ;-)

It's probably because they worked so hard to make it themselves.  While enjoying lots of cups of lemonade on the playground, one child wanted to make more lemonade.  I told him he needed more lemons, and he should plant the lemon seeds.  He wanted a "lemonade tree" so he took on the responsibility of planting the seeds in a pot, and watering it profusely.  We will see how that works out.  Hah!

Your Interests Matter to Me

Friend "K" has recently made little obstacle courses during Work Time.  One of the best ways to enhance learning in the classroom is to build on the student's inherent interests.  They are motivated to learn about subjects and ideas that they are personally invested in.  The brain readily incorporates the new information and experiences in relation to what they already know, making learning both easy and exponential!  Additionally, using their interests in the classroom also promotes better teacher-student interactions by demonstrating the love that the teacher has for the child in a real and tangible way.

With that being said, check out our Leprechaun Obstacle Course!

Step 1: Carefully navigate the coney forest.

Step 2:  Leprechaun Jig (hop or skip) through the hoops.

Step 3:  Navigate the windy river.

Step 4: Run through the rainbow to the pot of gold at the end!  (Take home leprechaun house and bag of gold to catch a leprechaun this weekend!)