social emotional skills
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Community art projects
I love to do community art projects! When children work on the same project they learn to value others’ ideas and perspectives, they have to share materials and work space, and they practice communicating with each other. On top of all of these wonderful lessons, community art projects are also better for the classroom logistically. You don’t have to worry about having the same amount of materials for everyone, you can hang one large piece of finished art work instead of 20 little ones, and cubbies don’t fill up with excessive amount of artwork to send home. Plus they require far less drying space! Here are some amazing ideas for…
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Preschool Activities that meet Social Emotional Standards
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for some activities aligned to a specific standard. This is the sixth week of this feature, and we’re still on social emotional standards. (The Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly). Let’s see what great ideas we can find today!Domain: Social Emotional DevelopmentStrand: RelationshipsTopic: Interactions with AdultsAll children should be able to make a list of adults that they trust and feel comfortable with. The key to meeting this particular standard…
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Preschool Activities that Meet Social Emotional Standards
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for some activities aligned to a specific standard. This is the fifth week of this feature, and we’re still on social emotional standards. (The Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly). Here we go!Domain: Social Emotional DevelopmentStrand: RelationshipsTopic: AttachmentAttachment is healthy, we want children to feel attachment to parental figures, and to want their parents near them. We also want young children to feel safe and comfortable at school, so that…
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Friday Freebie!
Happy Friday! I worked my behind off this week so that I could spend my Friday afternoon getting crafty – make sure to watch my instagram feed for project photos, I haven’t quite decided what I want to work on yet, so it’ll be a surprise for you and me! Today’s freebie is Ready, Set, ME from A and M Productions. This activity asks children to choose their favorite things (colors, pets, etc.) in order to create an all about me book that they can share with everyone. This is a great activity for the beginning of the year, but it would also be wonderful for a self-concept and confidence building…
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Social Emotional Activities
Social emotional skills are a huge priority in the preschool classroom. I plan a social emotional experience or activity for every single day, for a couple of reasons – the first being that I want to give my students every opportunity to practice recognizing and regulating their own emotions. The second reason that I focus on this so heavily is that the classroom is a safe place to practice social skills, if my students have the opportunity to practice these skills in the classroom, then they will have more confidence in their ability to behave appropriately outside of the classroom. Finally, I include these skills on my lesson plan because…
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When Sophie gets Angry
I’m linking up with Mrs. Jump’s Class for Deanna’s Let’s Talk About Books linky. I love learning about new books, and I love the opportunity to share my favorites with you! This is also perfect because the book that I want to tell you about today sets the tone for the rest of my posts this week. Last week I told you that I have a hard time choosing my favorite books, there are just too many that are amazing, and perfect for different seasons, themes, lessons, situations – you name it. When Sophie Gets Angry – Really Really Angry is one of my favorite social emotional stories, because it…
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The Best for the Best!
I am so excited to be participating in my first ever blog hop, and I have to say a huge thank you to Amy over at Teaching in Blue Jeans for organizing it! This blog hop is all about celebrating teachers, and I could not think of a more deserving group, let’s face it, we all know that teachers work long, hard hours and don’t get the recognition that they deserve. I’m happy to help change that! Today I want to share one of my favorite products with you. This particular product shows just how far I’ve come in the last couple of years, and it shows the incredible difference…
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Crumpled Hearts
On Monday I posted that I have been having a lot of issues with empathy and children who are generally unkind in the classroom. One of the ideas that I had found was an activity where children crumbled paper to see how their words and actions affected others. This was an idea that I was really excited about trying with my class, so I wanted to share how it went. I wanted to make the meaning of this activity as obvious as possible, so I started by cutting each piece of paper into a heart. Then I wrote each child’s name on one of the hearts. During circle time I…
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Taking a step back
I can tell that my students have been spending too much time together (since I teach in a child care center my students can potentially be together from 7am until 6pm 5 days a week, and I am with them from 9am until 6pm every day) because of the ways that they have been treating each other lately. Little ones can be downright mean, and it breaks my heart the way that they talk to each other. I know that some self-centeredness is developmentally appropriate, that doesn’t mean that it is acceptable in my classroom. I do my best to encourage kindness and caring, but I too find myself responding…
