November 2023: Attitude of Gratitude
“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.”
– Maya Angelou
Mindful Focus: Gratitude/Thankfulness
Explorations: Tools, Africa, Homes around the world
It is so important to implement a life of gratitude early in a child’s life. We are such a fortunate community. Many children’s around the world basic needs aren’t met, making learning impossible. Luckily, we come to school each day healthy. How do we teach children to be grateful? This is tricky because how are they suppose to know that there are others less fortunate than us? We also want to protect them and give them everything we possibly can.
Miss Jenny spent two years living in Zambia for the Peace Corps and has a lot of knowledge, artifacts, photos, and stories to share about the similarities and differences the way our lives are lived.
Tools are so fun! Allowing children to use tools and teaching and trusting them how to empowers them!
New songs we sang this month:
I’m So Glad I’m Here by Elizabeth Mitchell
Three Little Birds by Bob Marley (Elizabeth Mitchell version)
Tools Exploration:
A tool is an object that helps us complete a job.
Our special guest, Mr. Rogers, showed us all his tools and demonstrated what they do. He even let us try them out! The children adore being a part of something so meaningful. They were all so engaged in the lesson and took it seriously.
The children also got to play with toy tools in the downstairs classroom. It’s so fun to see what their imagination takes them to build!
But wait, is a tool only hammers, saws, wrench? No! A tool is an object that helps you complete a task. This might be a paint brush, fork, magnifying glass, and a musical instrument!
Our hands can do so much good! Let’s encourage our children to use their hands in progressive and loving ways.
Homes around the world:
There are so many different places to live!
What does your home look like? What is it made out of? What kind of tools were used to build it? I sure am grateful to have a place I call home, and so are each on of these children. In the downstairs classroom, we set up a village and talked about how some houses are set up in a specific way so everyone can work together. Using our play frames, fabric, and large clips, the children can build their own houses! Allowing children to see real photos of different places is important. By playing a game with pictures of all types of different living spaces, each child told us what their own home is like.
Africa Exploration:
Miss Jenny spent two years living in Zambia for the Peace Corps
There is value in learning about other people’s culture and way of living. Miss Jenny has taught us so much about all the amazing things the villagers she lived with could do! It might be different, but that doesn’t mean it is bad. We adore hearing her stories about how happy her friends in Zambia are and their own gratitude practice.
We got to explore instruments, tools, artifacts, clothing, dance, and music! Our good friend Miss Lacey came in for a teacher training and taught a musical circle time, the children adored having her!
Gratitude and Thankful Celebration:
What are you thankful for?
To teach children how to be grateful, we first have to model it. It is so crucial our children hear us say our expressions of gratitude each day. It is okay to share with children what other people do and don’t have. Maybe a home without running water, or a place to explore and play, how many clothes we have in our closet, and the loving family members we get to be with. We help the children understand through empathy, “How would you feel if you didn’t have any toys in your house?”
During our thankful celebration we celebrate our strong bodies by bouncing balls on a parachute, show gratitude to nature by having a mindful moment in nature with people we love, and sharing special, favorite snacks! I am so grateful for each and everyone of our children and their families.
Art:
Pinch Pots, Glazing, African Block Print
While exploring Miss Jenny’s African artifacts, the children learned that in many villages people cannot go to a store to buy what they need, so they have to make it. We made “Pinch Pots”. Children used clay and their fine motor skills to create a small pot, then at our Thankful Celebration they got to eat some of their snack out of it! This was continued practiced from our clay exploration previously. It takes time for the clay to dry and be fired. We finally got around to glazing out clay slabs. This is a special type of paint meant for ceramics. It goes on dull, but after being fired again comes out shiny.
Also connected to our African Exploration, the children got to learn about chitenge, a decorative cloth that is used for multiple purposes in Zambia. We used pain, fabric, and stamps to create a cloth with a pattern. We discussed what a pattern is and how they could make a pattern. We also allowed children to choose how they wanted to decorate their cloth.
Nature Time:
Planting garlic, jumping in leaves, fall clean up.
Nature Time is a foundational part of SimpleLife curriculum. We want to involve children in all the jobs and experiences in nature. Did you know garlic get planted in the fall? We tucked in our garlic bulbs into the soil and covered them with a blanket of leaves to protect them from the snow. We sang them to sleep and are excited to see them come up in the spring!
It’s fall time, so of course we jumped in the leaves! The children also helped us rake and clean up the leaves. Our leaves got used to cover our garden beds, garlic, and placed into our compost center.