Practice, and Practice Some More
2/29/2020
For this last month our students have been focusing on friendship and social/emotional problem-solving skills. There are many reasons we encourage dramatic play in early childhood learning. While well-planned dramatic play can support a child in learning literacy and math skills, it functions mainly to support a child’s imagination in role-playing. This kind of play provides fertile ground for practicing social and conflict-resolution skills. One thing we’ve added to our dramatic play area in the last month is a pretend Post Office area. This has been very popular center, and the children have practiced negotiating for the roles of clerks, customers and mail carriers. It doesn’t have to be a complex center to provide lots of practice in these important skills! What young children need is continued support as they practice applying these principles and skills. As adults, it can be frustrating when we know that children know the right things to do, and yet they often choose to lie, hit, be mean, etc. It is important to remember that learning these social/emotional skills is much like learning to ride a bicycle. Children have seen it modeled many times, and they may want to do it very badly. They have been told what to do, shown how to do it, helped onto the bike, received hands on help, and given lots of verbal encouragement. Then wow! Finally, they can do it! And they (and we) are so excited! And then they fall off. Or crash. Probably multiple times!
We don't chastise a child for falling off or crashing. No, we tell them we know they can do it -- it just takes practice. We tell them how we understand that it is hard for them to learn to do it, because it was hard for us to learn also. As parents and caregivers, we help them up, tend their wounds (and their self-confidence), and help them back on so they can try again. We know that crashing and falling is just part of learning how to ride a bike. It is also part of learning how to behave properly in the face of strong emotions, as well as so many other things in life! And, so it is with social/emotional learning: it requires a whole lot of practice within a safe environment, with lots of loving support before a child begins to become proficient in resolving their own social and emotional difficulties. Home, of course, is the primary place this learning happens. However, a good preschool program can provide another positive emotional environment for young children to learn these (and other) skills; and PNA is not just a good place to go to preschool, it’s a great place!
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There's No App Like Your Lap
2/22/2020
The Value of Outdoor Play
2/15/2020
In Early Kindergarten we have outdoor recess for 45 minutes every day, except when the temperature is dangerously cold. For children who participate in the Extended Day Program, there is at least an additional hour of outdoor play following the regular dismissal time. Most children can’t wait to get outside! There are many reasons that outdoor play is vital in early childhood programs. Outdoor play improves physical development and promotes physical health. When children play outdoors, they increase their ability to run, jump, skip, throw, climb, and balance, and they also improve their muscular coordination and cardiovascular endurance. Outdoor play in early childhood helps children learn to seek out exercise, fresh air, and activity as stress relievers, and it also increases the likelihood that a child remains active as they grow and mature. It creates opportunities for social interaction. Outdoor play provides children with the opportunity to gain many social skills as they interact, negotiate the rules of their games and share the available toys. Playing physical games together, helping one another build things, and engaging in dramatic play (pretending) all help children learn grow in their capacities to negotiate, take another’s perspective and collaborate. Outdoor play helps children gain knowledge and appreciation for the natural world. To learn about the physical world, children must have opportunities to experiment with the physical world. Young children learn primarily through their senses, and they must have lots and lots of experiences in the natural world to learn about weather, the seasons, and the animal life in their locale. Learning about their natural environment helps children understand what nature provides for us, as well as our responsibility to care for nature. It invites children to learn science. By interacting with the outdoors young children are constantly learning concepts of physical science such as gravity, motion, force, and conservation. Outdoor play gives children opportunities to explore cause and effect and initiate informal investigations of the natural world. It allows children to be actively engaged with the physical world. “When it comes to thinking about physical matters -- learning about objects, kinetics, spatial relationships, and natural forces -- active exploration is especially helpful. It beats merely hearing a message, or observing somebody else act" - (Gwen Dewar, PhD). It allows children to be children. For a variety of obvious reasons, activities such as jumping, running, climbing, swinging, racing, yelling, rolling, hiding, and making a big mess cannot happen in the classroom. Yet all of these activities are necessary in childhood! Children need to have time where they feel free from being under adult control. They need time and space to explore, have adventures, experiment with the natural world, take risks and just be children. Time spent outside actually increases a child's ability to learn inside! For more information on outdoor play, you may be interested in the following articles:
https://naturalstart.org/feature-stories/learning-doing-how-outdoor-play-prepares-kids-achievement-stem https://www.ucy.ac.cy/nursery/documents/importance_of_play.pdf http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=275 This week in our classroom we have been focusing on our feelings and our relationships with others. We are learning about the different emotions we all experience as well as some ideas about how to manage them. We have also begun talking about how to be a good friend. One day a few weeks ago, after a particularly long day, my TA looked at me and said, "We do SEL all day long, don't we?" I agreed with her and was happy that she understood that social-emotional learning is woven throughout all of our preschool activities. A quality early childhood program does much more than prepare a child academically for kindergarten, although this is very important! A great programs should also support a child’s growth in all developmental domains. Most early childhood educators would agree that social and emotional growth in the preschool years is just as important as academic achievement. One reason for this sentiment is that social-emotional growth has an impact on every aspect of a young child’s life. Self-esteem, personal relationships, and academic growth are all affected by a child’s ability to feel good about themselves and their ability to successfully interact with others. Families play an integral role in the development of a child's social-emotional development, where situations and conversations arise naturally, and parents model positive relationships and problem-solving. The classroom environment, too, can also provide many opportunities to learn social skills as children grow in emotional literacy. Managing a child's challenging behavior can be difficult at times. It is important to remember that because a child's emotional, cognitive, and verbal skills are still developing, it can take a long time for them to develop impulse control as well as the ability to share and take turns. Being able to appropriately express negative emotions can also take time and lots of practice. It is essential during this stage of your child's life to accept their feelings as real and valid, even if behavior is not acceptable in a particular situation. By accepting and acknowledging how a child is feeling, you begin to build trust and help children recognize that you are trying to help them. Reflective listening is a good way to validate a child’s feelings and show empathy. By talking with a child you can help comfort them, identify their feelings, and give them perspective. Talking also enables you to teach words that will help a child build an emotional vocabulary. This will help children be better able to express themselves in future situations. Next week, as we celebrate Valentine's Day, we will be continuing our study of friends, and we also will be talking about what it means to be a good friend.
Arctic Adventures
2/1/2020
This week in early kindergarten we continued our study of Arctic animals. We discussed where these animals live, how they hide themselves, what they eat. and how they take care of their babies. We learned words like habitat, predator, prey, qiviut, and blubber. We watched several clips about polar bears, musk oxen and walruses, and we also watched a short a video of a father teaching his son how to build an igloo, as well as several clips about polar bears, musk oxen and walruses. The children were so engaged! When Mrs. Jaeger, our dedicated PNA art teacher, entered the classroom and discovered what we were studying, she immediately (and happily!) changed her plans on the spot and began teaching us how to paint musk oxen. This involved learning how to mix the primary colors to make dark brown and the add the teeniest bit of white to make light brown. Paint mixing was a big challenge for the preschoolers, but they loved it! The next time that we had art we got to practice paint mixing again in order to get the black paint we needed to paint orcas. We began with painting an orca tail and then we made another painting with an entire orca. When it came to mixing the paint for the water, all kinds of blues emerged from the preschoolers’ palettes! Thank you for your enthusiastic help, Mrs. Jaeger, in extending our learning about Arctic animals!
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Melissa SmithMs. Smith has a degree in Early Childhood Education and has taught kindergarten for many years. Alaska has been home to Ms. Smith for 28 years, and she can't imagine living anywhere else! She has four children, a dog and two cats. She loves reading, camping, gardening, and genealogy! Archives
April 2021
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