Dear Parents,
We began this week by playing with our parachute. We reviewed how the game works before going into the big room to play. We talked about listening eyes and ears. We talked about how the game works best when we’re in unison. We practiced without the parachute first. In the big room we made a circle around the parachute, wiggled it, and added balls and bean bags to it while singing songs. Everyone took turns sitting on top of the parachute in pairs, while we sang London Bridge Is Falling Down. Then we all went under the parachute together and sang a song about colors. We named all the fruits and vegetables we could think of that are red, green, yellow, and blue: the colors of our parachute.
On Tuesday we played Duck, Duck, Goose. We reviewed this game before beginning, too. We made sure the class knew that everyone gets a turn, and that everyone runs in the same direction. Although, not everyone ran in the same direction.
These games always produce squeals of delight and plenty of laughter. While we are having fun, we are also practicing listening to teachers and friends, paying attention to our body space, taking turns and waiting patiently, speaking up for ourselves if we do not want a turn, stopping and starting a physical action, and working on gross motor skills.
We are talking a lot about how to be a kind friend, and what we like or do not like our friends to do. We reread Hands Are Not For Hitting. We asked if words could hurt friends too? The class responded: “When you say mean things it can hurt someone’s feelings.” “I don’t like when people say bad words to me.” We concluded that when someone hits us, it hurts our body, but when someone says mean words, it hurts our feelings. One friend said “it hurts our heart”.
Yoga with Tasha was relaxing and quiet.
La Bagel Delight was informative and delicious. We learned that the bagel makers arrive at 4 am, the oven is 450 degrees, there is some brown sugar in the bagels, lots of flour, and they take about 30 minutes to bake. The class gave La Bagel Delight rave reviews while enjoying the hot bagels. Someone said, “These are the best bagels in the world!” Another replied, “This is a happy restaurant!”
On Friday we played Red Light, Green Light. We used our Stop sign, which has a Go sign on the opposite side. Before beginning play we reminded everyone to look and listen for other running friends. We ran, hopped like bunnies, galloped like horses, slithered like snakes, crawled like spiders, and rolled like rolling pins.
Have a friendly weekend,
Therese