Game creation- playing a version of peek-a-boo through the lego bases. Emilio and Mia had each other laughing hysterically as they played this game. Parker joined in a little bit later, but his lego base was not see through, so his view was a bit different!
Our personalities and identities are flourishing this week, now that most of us are settled and comfortable at school. A word that has been popping up much more is "Mine." This is, perhaps, the first way we express ownership, desire, need and want. It's a way to communicate with our peers that something should not be taken away from us. Children recognize that certain toys, food, and objects are within their control and they feel free to use "MINE" to retain those things.
Dylan sat down and found these adult sneakers to try out. Part of our identity is our curiosity and our preferences.
This has given us an opportunity to start exploring the concept of sharing and using our ability to make our friends happy. We are encouraging children to openly decide to give to others, or to use their words to let their friends know that they can have a turn soon. On a whole, we are doing SO well with these concepts, but it takes a while to settle into the routine. Especially when we finally get a chance with a special toy. We'll continue to work on sharing and caring throughout the school year so we can work as a cohesive and happy community of learners.
Morgan and Jackson make sounds to each other through the tube. We can use toys together!!
This week we have also talked a great deal about our emotions and how things make us feel. When we fall down, we can feel very scared or sad. When our Mommies and Daddies leave, it makes us feel sad and sometimes angry. When we go to the gym, we get excited and happy! How we feel and how we express it is such a big part of being human and of being social; it's a huge facet of identity and expression! Next week one of our goals is to create a feelings chart so we can further uncover ways to talk about our emotions.
Where's Charlotte? There she is, in the tunnel! Enjoying making new friends and helping them find joy and comfort through the day.
“One, two. Two eyes.”
We made a new self-portrait in our special books this week and the change in ability from the first week to now has blown me away! We are talking so much about ourselves, our bodies, and our features.
“Hair on top. Leg. Toes. Toes. Feet. More feet. ”
Nina working on her self portrait.
Our handprints were so much fun to play with- Jackson and Parker were especially curious about matching their hands against all of the prints to try to discover which one was their own. Some were too big, some were too small, and of course one was just right!
Which hand is my hand?
Another physical component of who we are is our height. Everyone was able to lay down on our chart to get measured! It was so much fun that many friends took four or five turns laying down on the paper. We've also started using unit blocks to measure our bodies and see how tall we are in another way. We love embedding mathematics into our play! Come in and check out our height chart!
“I measure again, Rachel!”
“That’s Katerina!”
One last identity component for the week: we have been doing such an amazing job learning everyone's name! Great job, 2A!
Hooray! Have a great weekend!