Happy 2011!
During the first two weeks of January, Kindergarten students will be learning the importance of caring about others. Students will learn that we communicate to others how much we care about them through our actions and our words. We will be reading "Bear Feels Sick" and paying close attention to how the other forest animals comfort bear when he is feeling ill.
Having empathy for others can motivate children to respond to others in caring ways. Young children often try to comfort others through physical affection, by offering a toy, or through kind words. However, young children may also have trouble showing care and concern in situations that are emotionally overwhelming for them, such as during a situation that makes them angry or frustrated.
Feeling concern for others and expressing concern for others are two different skills, both of which will require practice, modeling and positive reinforcement.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Interrupting Politely
Over the past two weeks, our Kindergarten children have been learning how to interrupt politely.
The children have learned to recognize appropriate times for interrupting a conversation. We have also practiced laying our hands gently on a person’s arm or shoulder to let them know we are waiting to talk with them, waiting for the person to be able to talk with us and opening our sentence with “excuse me”.
Ask your child to show you the sign for waiting using sign language!
During our lesson, we have also talked about emergencies and the need to interrupt a grown-up quickly to ask for help. The children have learned to recognize situations that are emergencies, find a grown-up and say….”Excuse me, it’s an emergency”.
You can help your child to master the skill of Interrupting Politely in the following ways:
1. Reminding your child to wait until you are finished doing what you are doing before they begin to speak.
2. Encourage your child to lay their hand gently on your shoulder or arm, for a brief moment, to signal their need to speak to you. This will help you to know that they are waiting for your attention.
3. Ask if they are having an emergency when they interrupt. If the answer is “no”, remind them to wait.
By ages five to six, children should be developing an awareness of appropriate times to interrupt, although their behavior is often not consistent with this awareness. At this age, constant and inappropriate interrupting becomes one of the hallmarks of impulsive children.
Good luck with this one! Learning to Interrupt Politely takes lots of patience and practice, (even for grown-ups)!
The children have learned to recognize appropriate times for interrupting a conversation. We have also practiced laying our hands gently on a person’s arm or shoulder to let them know we are waiting to talk with them, waiting for the person to be able to talk with us and opening our sentence with “excuse me”.
Ask your child to show you the sign for waiting using sign language!
During our lesson, we have also talked about emergencies and the need to interrupt a grown-up quickly to ask for help. The children have learned to recognize situations that are emergencies, find a grown-up and say….”Excuse me, it’s an emergency”.
You can help your child to master the skill of Interrupting Politely in the following ways:
1. Reminding your child to wait until you are finished doing what you are doing before they begin to speak.
2. Encourage your child to lay their hand gently on your shoulder or arm, for a brief moment, to signal their need to speak to you. This will help you to know that they are waiting for your attention.
3. Ask if they are having an emergency when they interrupt. If the answer is “no”, remind them to wait.
By ages five to six, children should be developing an awareness of appropriate times to interrupt, although their behavior is often not consistent with this awareness. At this age, constant and inappropriate interrupting becomes one of the hallmarks of impulsive children.
Good luck with this one! Learning to Interrupt Politely takes lots of patience and practice, (even for grown-ups)!
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Ignoring Distractions
Over the past week, your child has been learning how to pay attention and ignore distractions. We have worked on paying attention to someone or something while ignoring a distraction.
Remaining focused while resisting distractions is an important emotion-management skill. Some children may worry about ignoring their close friends. It is important to let them know that there are ways to pay attention and keep a close friendship at the same time.
In each classroom, we divided the class into two teams and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat in a round. The children tried to pay attention to their song leader and ignore the other group who was singing the same song but on a different verse of the song. The children have also practiced various ways to let a friend know they cannot pay attention to them right now (e.g. using their sign for “stop”, ignoring, saying “tell me later”, or moving away from the friend who is distracting them).
The children have learned that they may be in trouble if they ignore a grown-up who is talking to them or ignore a friend because they want to exclude them from playing. Ignoring distractions is a difficult skill to master, even for
adults. Again, be patient with your young child. It is hard to pay attention all the time and even harder to ignore a particularly noisy or large distraction.
Remaining focused while resisting distractions is an important emotion-management skill. Some children may worry about ignoring their close friends. It is important to let them know that there are ways to pay attention and keep a close friendship at the same time.
In each classroom, we divided the class into two teams and sang Row, Row, Row Your Boat in a round. The children tried to pay attention to their song leader and ignore the other group who was singing the same song but on a different verse of the song. The children have also practiced various ways to let a friend know they cannot pay attention to them right now (e.g. using their sign for “stop”, ignoring, saying “tell me later”, or moving away from the friend who is distracting them).
The children have learned that they may be in trouble if they ignore a grown-up who is talking to them or ignore a friend because they want to exclude them from playing. Ignoring distractions is a difficult skill to master, even for
adults. Again, be patient with your young child. It is hard to pay attention all the time and even harder to ignore a particularly noisy or large distraction.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Listen Up!
Over the next two weeks in Kindergarten, your child will be learning about the importance of listening. Often, impulsive children lack listening skills and do not look at the person talking or pay attention to what is being communicated. When a child doesn’t listen, it hinders their ability to learn and to react in a caring way to the other person.
Your child will learn that the most important part of listening is thinking about the same thing the talker is talking about. (e.g. If you are reading a book about Polar bears, your child should be thinking about Polar bears).
Here are some suggestions for helping your child learn to listen:
1. Say to your child, “I will know you are listening to me when you are looking at me and thinking about what I am saying”.
2. Tell your child how it makes you feel when they are/aren’t listening to you. Use “I” messages to talk about your feelings.
3. Have your child repeat what they heard you say.
4. When your child is talking to you, make sure that you are looking at them and thinking about what they are saying.
In this world of cell phones, multi-tasking and full-time jobs, our children are often trying to talk to us and we are busy doing something else. Please…..take the time to stop what you are doing and give all the people you interact with your full attention. Your children are watching you!
Your child will learn that the most important part of listening is thinking about the same thing the talker is talking about. (e.g. If you are reading a book about Polar bears, your child should be thinking about Polar bears).
Here are some suggestions for helping your child learn to listen:
1. Say to your child, “I will know you are listening to me when you are looking at me and thinking about what I am saying”.
2. Tell your child how it makes you feel when they are/aren’t listening to you. Use “I” messages to talk about your feelings.
3. Have your child repeat what they heard you say.
4. When your child is talking to you, make sure that you are looking at them and thinking about what they are saying.
In this world of cell phones, multi-tasking and full-time jobs, our children are often trying to talk to us and we are busy doing something else. Please…..take the time to stop what you are doing and give all the people you interact with your full attention. Your children are watching you!
Attendance Counts
The Jessamine Early Learning Village is dedicated to providing your child with a high-quality, child-centered environment that promotes success for all children.
Consistent attendance is important to your child’s success in school and
it is the law. Please make every attempt to have your child present and on time each day.
If your child has been absent, you will need to send a note from you, a physician or a court excusing the absence. The note must be received within 5 days upon you child returning to school. After 5 days, the absence will be recorded as unexcused.
Please bear in mind, we can only excuse a total of eight (8) days per school year with a parent note. This includes excuses for student illness not treated by a physician, family vacations, illness of a family member, family emergency, funeral, religious or holiday absences. After eight parent notes are received, additional absences must be recorded as unexcused unless they are excused by a physician or court.
As a reminder, if your child accumulates six unexcused absences, I will be contacting you by letter or phone to schedule a mediation to discuss the absences. If attendance problems cannot be resolved, we will refer the matter to the Director of Pupil Personnel to pursue mediation or court action, as stated in the Code of Conduct.
We love having your child here at the Village! The Jessamine Early Learning Village, as other public schools, receives continued funding based on our Average Daily Attendance. Please help us make an effort to improve our school attendance and your child’s academic performance by sending your child to school on days they are well, and by limiting the number of late arrivals and early dismissals.
Together, we can work to provide consistency for your student and the best education for all children!
Consistent attendance is important to your child’s success in school and
it is the law. Please make every attempt to have your child present and on time each day.
If your child has been absent, you will need to send a note from you, a physician or a court excusing the absence. The note must be received within 5 days upon you child returning to school. After 5 days, the absence will be recorded as unexcused.
Please bear in mind, we can only excuse a total of eight (8) days per school year with a parent note. This includes excuses for student illness not treated by a physician, family vacations, illness of a family member, family emergency, funeral, religious or holiday absences. After eight parent notes are received, additional absences must be recorded as unexcused unless they are excused by a physician or court.
As a reminder, if your child accumulates six unexcused absences, I will be contacting you by letter or phone to schedule a mediation to discuss the absences. If attendance problems cannot be resolved, we will refer the matter to the Director of Pupil Personnel to pursue mediation or court action, as stated in the Code of Conduct.
We love having your child here at the Village! The Jessamine Early Learning Village, as other public schools, receives continued funding based on our Average Daily Attendance. Please help us make an effort to improve our school attendance and your child’s academic performance by sending your child to school on days they are well, and by limiting the number of late arrivals and early dismissals.
Together, we can work to provide consistency for your student and the best education for all children!
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