Save the drama for your mama

I thought that with 12 boys in the classroom, we'd have fewer issues with namecalling and friendship and more with rough play. Of course they do play rough and hit each other, but there's quite a bit of drama about who is whose friend on which day.  Today at the lunch table, a couple of boys decided they weren't friends and started arguing back and forth.  I...

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How to get a picky eater to eat

Every class has its own picky eater and mine is no exception.  Just by looking at something, he decides he doesn't like it.  He's especially this way with apples, so we had a happy accident today.  We're talking about apples this week and did lots of fun things like make a chart of the children's favorite colors of apple.  Today, the children got to observe...

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Confession Time

Everyone, I have a confession to make: I underestimated my preschoolers today. I know! If you've read the last couple of posts, you may have noticed it's been a rough week.  Everyone has those times when you wonder if anything you teach your kids is actually getting through and this week was one of those.   So, we've been focusing on social skills for the past few weeks: we've talked about the children, their families, making friends,...

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A Reminder

This week, it's been hard to find something good to take away so I thought I'd post some reminders on what we're teaching children during their tough moments.  My goal this year involves executive functions, which you can read more about here: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/multimedia/videos/inbrief_series/inbrief_executive_function/ and here: http://www.ncld.org/types-learning-disabilities/executive-function-disorders/what-is-executive-function When...

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Mmm...pretzels

Whew! Another year ahead of me. Some kids are those from last year, some are new faces, and some moved up from the younger class. We definitely have a wide variety of learners. I'm focusing on executive functions and social skills these first few weeks, specifically calm-down strategies. I got some great activities from Conscious Discipline, so we went ahead and tried out some of the breathing strategies. So far, success has been mixed. One...

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