February 2023: You are loved!
There are many ways to say, “I love you!”
Mindful Focus: The many ways to say I love you
Explorations: Pets and animals
Practical Life Skill: Scissor cutting
This month the children practiced cutting out hearts to decorate our classroom for our Celebration of Love. The focus being on their effort, not the way the heart turned out.
The use of scissors doesn’t need to be about a craft product. Let children practice using scissors to their needs, even if that means cutting a million little pieces up or a straight line. Add challenges as they grow. If this makes you nervous, play dough scissors is the perfect place to start.
A mentor teacher once told me, “One of these children may become a surgeon one day. Using scissors is the first step towards a scalpel.” How eye opening the comment was for me. And not only surgeons, but the MANY skills that require fine motor, hand eye coordination, and safety responsibilities.
Now let’s talk about confidence. Children are always hearing “this is for grown ups to use, it’s not safe for you…” etc. It is empowering for young children to be trusted to use a sharp tool. Teach them the safety rules and put trust into them.
Animals is a very broad topic, we can go into so many different categories! We looked at lots of informational books and taught each other what we know about many different animals.
Books read to enhance learning experiences:
Ranger Rick Jr. Magazines
Some Pets by Angela Diterlizzi, Illustrated by Brendan Wenzel
I Love You, Little One by Nancy Tafuri
Dabble Duck by Anne Leo Ellis
Hop by Jorey Hurley
Babies on the Go by Linda Ashman, Illustrated by Jane Dyer
Wiggle Waggle by Jonathon London, Illustrated by Michael Rex
Daddy Hugs by Nancy Tafuri
This is the Farmer by Nancy Tafuri
Life in the Sea by Melvin Berger
New songs we sang this month:
The Many Ways To Say I Love You - Mr. Fred Rogers
5 Little Speckled Frogs
Taking care of pets:
What is a pet? What do they need?
Last month we learned how to take care of our bodies. We expanded that topic into how different living creatures have different needs. The children deeply thought about all the things pets need to live a happy and healthy life, including love!
We had some pet visitors, which was very exciting for the children! Children got to share stories of their pets and what pet they would like to have. Using up-cycled materials, the children got to make their own pet. The idea was a like a rock pet, but because of weather, getting rocks didn’t happen, so we used what we had. The children LOVED this silly activity. They were so excited and engaged. All the children couldn’t wait to take their cork pets home.
With the help of the book Dabble Duck, the children got to think about what animals are pets and what animals belong in the wild. Some animals can do both! Taking care of pets teaches children responsibility, confidence, time management, and empathy.
Animal Explorations:
Types of animals, babies, sounds, homes, and habitats
Types of animals: This topic can get very complex. To simplify and keep it developmentally appropriate we categorized animals into two groups. Hatches from an egg or comes from an animal mommy’s tummy. We also explored words like fish, reptiles, and birds.
Baby animals! Baby animals just makes learning about animals so much fun, and cute! The children played a matching game where they matched baby animals to their parent animal. We learned many different names of baby animals! At the end of the month, we learned about the life cycle of a frog. Frogs are special because they are nothing like their parent when they hatch. We had lots of fun in our frog sensory pond and jumping around like frogs!
We listened and matched animals to their sound, we even learned some new tricky ones! We incorporated sounds into yoga by listening to them and doing animal poses.
Homes and habitats! We learned all about the different types of animal homes and habitats. We introduced our play frames which is an excellent activity that encourages collaboration, includes creative innovation, supports large and fine motor skills, and is very engaging!
How to let someone know you care:
There are many ways!
Hugs, high-fives, sharing, making food, giving compliments, drawing pictures, the list goes on!
Inspired by Mr. Rogers “There are many ways to say I love you”, we sang and had children think deeply about all the ways they are shown love and how they show others love!
“Through their interactions, children learn how to treat others and how they can expect to be treated. In developmentally appropriate practice, educators create and foster a community of learners. The role of the community is to provide a physical, emotional, and cognitive environment conducive to development and learning for each child. The foundation for the community is consistent, positive, caring relationships between educators and other adults and children, among children, among educators and colleagues, and between educators and families. Each member of the learning community is valued for what they bring to the community; all members are supported to consider and contribute to one another’s well-being and learning.”
-National Association for the Education of Young Children: Developmentally Appropriate Practice
Letting people you know you care is important. Spreading love and ensuring physical, mental, and emotional safety creates a place where children can grow into confident, well-balanced people. ALL children deserve unconditional love. Always.
Love Day Celebration:
Giving, receiving, and showing love for others.
We celebrated love and caring for people with a Love Day Celebration. Children decorated bags to take home cards and gifts from their friends. Children handed out cards and were encouraged to practice writing theirs and/or their friends’ names.
Art Explorations:
Step-by-step animal drawings & focusing on details
Free choice art is always available at table time.
Children were encouraged to draw animals this month. We helped guide them through step-by-step drawings. This teaches children how to follow written directions, like in a recipe or game board instructions, use words like ‘first, then, next, and last,’ and manage when faced with challenges. We praised the children’s hard work, deep thinking, and perseverance; not the product of their drawing. We want children to find value in their efforts, not achievements that please other people. We supported children to deepen their thinking and challenge themselves by focusing on details in the animals and getting outside of their comfort zone. We loved how different all the children’s projects turned out!
