This week was filled with love! In lieu of Valentine's Day, the children and the educators decided to think about friendship. We started by asking, 'what is a friend'. We were very curious to know what the children thought a friend was. However, they looked puzzled when the question was asked because generalizing a definition or an idea is not an easy task at the age of three. So the question was changed to "what do friends do?" Then the answers started coming from all directions. Charlotte said, "friends give hugs." Emilio said, "friends play." Nina said, "friends share toys." Katerina said, "friends kiss (sometimes)" and she also said, "friends meet" like playdates! Mia said, "friends say sorry." Clare added and said, "friends say thank you and that's ok."
It was truly impressive to see how our young children were able to understand what a friendship is. On Valentine's day, we had time to exchange the cards that they prepared for the class. Each friend took their turn to give their Valentine Day cards to their classmates. The joy of receiving a card was definitely there, but it was surprising to see how much more joy was seen through the act of giving. Showing gratitude and being able to cherish the presents friends gave each other was just so precious to witness.
We also played a friendship game called 'ball of string'. We each thought of one nice thing about our friend. Then I started the game by passing yarn to Katerina as I held onto one side of the string, and said "you are always nice to other friends." Then Katerina said to Mia as she was passing the yarn, "I like you." Mia said to Harper as she was passing the yarn, "I like playing with you." Harper said to Malina as she was passing the yarn, "I like your dress." Malina said to Levi, "I like your dress," though she meant his shirt. Then Levi said to Nina and talked about how he loves running in the gym with her. Then Nina said to Emilio as she passed the yarn, " I like when you come to my house." Emilio said to Mercer, " I like your shirt. Mercer said to Debbie, "thank you."
