We had a wonderful first week of preschool this week! On Tuesday, we talked about our new classroom guidelines: Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Gentle. We started by talking about what it means to be safe. The students brainstormed what it looks like to be safe on the playground, and they came up with some important ideas to help keep their classmates safe. We also read the story “Franklin Goes to School” and talked about the big emotions that can come with the first day of school. On Wednesday, we talked about the meaning of kindness. Again, students came up with some wonderful examples of what kindness could look like in our classroom. We made it our mission to notice kindness throughout the day, and wow do we have a kind group of kids this year! On the playground, the students were introduced to loose parts by using our PVC pipes and connectors as well as some small objects like different-sized rocks and acorns. It was amazing to see how they used those materials! There was talk of fort-building and rain collection, the challenge of creating a stable structure, the discovery of the way that different objects move through the tubes, and amazing perseverance! Some big kids even came over to join in the fun! On Thursday, we celebrated Grace’s birthday by having a special birthday snack and reading our new favorite birthday book, “Happy Birthday Hamster.” We also started our new birthday tradition of having the student who’s birthday it is hold a globe and walk around the “sun” one time for every year of their life while the teacher talks about one thing that the student did during that year. This is a Montessori tradition that I recently learned, and I love how it helps children understand how the Earth orbits the sun, as well as the fact that they are continuously growing and learning new things! On Friday, we talked about what it means to be gentle. Students came up with their own examples during morning meeting. At story time, we read “Hugopotamus,” a story about a Hippo who loves giving hugs, but his hugs are too rough, so his friends feel scared to play with him. By the end, the hippo learns to be gentle, and his friends love playing with him and receiving his gentle hugs. After the story, we went outside and played a game that centers around gentleness. I introduced my friend Otis (a teddy bear that is usually in the quiet space in the classroom), and told the students that Otis loves getting gentle hugs. I passed Otis around the circle and each kid gave him a very gentle hug while Otis gave them feedback about how gentle they were being. Once Otis had been passed around, he told the group that he knew he could trust them to be gentle, so he was wondering if they could give him a gentle ride on a parachute. I took out the parachute and the students shook it very gently while Otis told them how much fun he was having. If a student shook the parachute too hard, Otis told them he was feeling scared and wanted them to shake it more gently. The students did an amazing job with this game! We will continue working on the concepts of safe, kind, and gentle throughout the year using games like this one. Next week, we will start our All About Me unit which centers around the uniqueness of each child and what makes them the person that they are.
Playing with Play-Doh in the art center
Loose parts construction workers ready to build!
Samuel Morey Preschool Blog 