Weeks twenty-two and twenty-three 2009

Theme: “I Can Be Your Friend. Can You Be Mine?” Classical composer: Georges Bizet (1838-1875) was a French composer. He composed one of the most loved operas, Carmen, which was a critical flop until after his death. Here is a link to the overture from Carmen which we listened to extensively this week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvCvzizkI3U Spanish: el amigo (friend), Te Amo (I love You, familiar), te quiero (I love you, friendship) Theme: We decided to spend these five days really focusing on some specific social skills. We’ve touched on these skills all year, but we wanted to give some serious teaching to the following: Personal Space, Tone of Voice, Asking Friends to Play, Joining In with Groups, Saying “No, Thank-you” Politely, What to do when someone tells you “No”, Including Others, and Understanding How to be Part of a Group. These are tough skills and we have been proud of the students’ efforts. They have really done well with the activities and are showing progress in their use of these skills. On Thursday the 19th, we had a prospective student, Michael, and his parents come for a visit for 50 minutes prior to lunch. The students went out of their way to befriend Michael, and many happy hugs were exchanged. It was phenomenal to see how inclusive and helpful they were, and Michael’s parents were thankful and happy to see that! The class certainly makes their teachers proud most every day, and that day was no exception! Another game we played was blowing cottonball “kisses” to our friends using straws. Andres made a great referee! Some of the theme-specific activities we did are as follows: Personal space: Misses Tracy and Cameron composed a social story that explained this important concept as an invisible bubble that everyone has and feels comfortable inside. We should ask before entering somebody’s “bubble”, and the other person might say “No” or “Yes”. We then need to ask someone else or find something else to do and maybe try asking again later. We played games holding hoops around our mid-section representing our bubbles, or sitting in the hoops, etc. The hoops were one of those surprise hits that have been consistently requested for free-play and used in some very fun and creative ways! Joining in with Groups or Asking Friends to Play: The teachers used puppets to role-play these scenarios with happy outcomes or not-happy endings. The students then played with the puppets to create their own social-experiments. The students all stood together and did the same action as a group, like pounding their hand with their fist. Miss Cameron approached the group and asked if she could play too. When the students said, “Yes!”, Miss Cameron joined in the group and did the same action. We discussed the importance of doing what the group is doing, and how to suggest a different activity appropriately. Including Others: We hid plastic people around, had the students find them, then place them in the “Circle of friends” (a hoop on the floor…those handy hoops!) Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day fit in marvelously with the theme of friendship, or maybe the theme fit in marvelously with Valentine’s Day? :-) The students had a lot of fun creating their valentines bag using stickers, hearts, and water-colored filter-paper. Valentine’s Day was a blast! We played a very fun game called X’s and O’s, where you make an X with your body if the leader says “kiss!” and an O with your arms if the leader says “hug!”. You have to hold still, though, if any other command like “sit down!” or “jump!” is called out. We did actions to the song, “4 Hugs a Day” We played a game where the students each had half of a heart with the midline cut in a certain pattern. They had to find the student with their matching piece….this was a very cool game! . Table Activities: marble mats & tongs, farm animals, dinosaurs, cutting out hearts and X’s and O’s, slates, Play-doh, friendship-themed puzzles, coloring . Music: Activity songs included “I am Glad for Many Things”, “A Special Gift is Kindness”, “The Six Penny Song”, “Skinnamarinky Dinky Dink”, “Four Hugs a Day” . Art: Miss Cristina reviewed sculpture with the children, emphasizing the three dimensional aspects of sculpture. The children used molding clay to create a sculpture with a head, a body, arms and legs. The next week the students enjoyed mixing colors and painting their project. It was quite interesting to see the different interpretations of animals, aliens, monsters and humans that emerged. Indoor Obstacle Course and Outside Free-Play . Math, Handwriting and Reading: For math we used our Number Eating Alligators to compare two numbers, sometimes very close numbers, such as 15 and 16, and sometimes some very high numbers like 80 and 50. The children are showing excellent understanding the “greater than”, “less than” concepts. In fact, we had to keep challenging them further. We are using the “math sentence” language (15 is less than 16, or 80 is greater than 50) and doing lots of repetition. Symmetrical shapes were reinforced, the circle was discussed….no beginning, no end. For handwriting, we used 3x5 cards with the letters of our first name to put them in order and correctly spell our name. Many of the children went on to give their last-name a try, which was definitely more challenging! For reading we learned to read the words “kiss” and “hug”. . Storybooks: Personal Space, Squeak and Pip, There’s a Bird on Your Head, Are You Ready to Play Outside, Hug, Snog the Frog, Jungle Bullies, Bear Feels Sick, Edwina, Knuffle Bunny, Knuffle Bunny Too One of our favorite authors is Mo Willems. If you aren’t familiar with him, we encourage you to discover him! His Elephant and Piggie books, Knuffle Bunny books, Pigeon books, Edwina, and latest Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed are hilarious, delightful, and teach great concepts in a very fun way. . Free-Play Fun: Hoops, Train tracks and cars, Reading Loft, Free play with the music terminology puppets and other hand puppets, lassos and ropes. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….