Thanks and Gratitude!
Gratitude is one of the trickiest concepts to teach children, who are by nature self-centered -- but one of the most important. Sure, thankful children are more polite and pleasant to be around, but there's more to it than that. By learning gratitude, they become sensitive to the feelings of others, developing empathy and other life skills along the way. Grateful children look outside their one-person universe and understand that their parents and other people do things for them -- prepare dinner, dole out hugs, buy toys. By age 2 or 3, children can talk about being thankful for specific objects, pets, and people .By age 4, children can understand being thankful not only for material things like toys but for acts of kindness, love, and caring. So where are our Petals Class at?
We started our day with a continuation of our art work from this week. We had a fun train puzzle set up at the other table for children to complete. At the carpet area we had trains out for them to play with too. As today was a special day, we had quite a busy morning.
At the table, Kiki and the children finished up the special art work for our Winter Party. Children loved the idea of the art work and wanted more to do. Kiki told them that this is not the end of their art, we will be doing much more creative and fun things, as we get closer to Thanksgiving and Winter celebrations.
The puzzle was quite tricky today, so Sayaka helped the children figure it out, BUT just a little bit. We try not to give our children the answers to their questions, but hints and clue for them to figure out on their own. With the little clues here and there, or Petals class children were able to finish it! Good job Petals Class!
At the library, children sat with Pauline, cooking up a storm. Children prepared yummy meals for Pauline, but oh no….What happened? Pauline ended up getting and ouchy tummy from eating too much. This was a job fir doctor Eddie and Rafael, but wait more doctors arrived to help out. It was becoming a serious situation….hehe. Eventually the doctors decided that Pauline needed to poo to relive the pain.
We would also like to add a big thank you to all the parents for sharing spare change with your children for the Cambodian Fund. We are also so proud of our children for remembering to put the change into the Fund, without any assistance. They all came up and told their teachers, “coins for..C..Cambonia.” Close enough Petals class, and thank you again for help!
After our photos were taken, snack and morning fun, it was time for circle time with Kiki. Today we continued with “Thankfulness.” Kiki introduced a new “Hello Song” which greeted all the children of the world. The song had different ways of saying hello in different languages. They really enjoyed it. We even had a look at our globe to see which part of the world we all come from. They were a little confused and fascinated to see where their family is from.
Kiki then introduced The Hungry Caterpillar, but what's this, he isn’t hungry. He visited Petals class to say s THANK YOU!. We read the book together and the children were very thankful to the caterpillar for saying thank you. There were many “Thank youS” going around in circle time.
Today we had our phonics class with Kiki. But it was with a twist. We revised our alphabets and sang two really cool alphabet songs. Children “rapped” and “body contorted” the alphabets. Kiki had an interesting list on the board. It was “A-Z Thankfulness.” We practiced phonic sounds, “a, b, c, d, e, and f” and then asked the children to think of words that begin with the sound that they are thankful for. It goes without saying it was interesting, funny and very loving, all at the same time. You will have to wait for a while before you know what we wrote…wink, wink.
After that wonderful and funny circle time, it was time to move our bodies. As it was a busy morning, time was cut short for the park, but Petals children wanted to have a dance party with Pauline and Kiki. Their wish is our command! Kiki taught Petals Class a new dance, “Cha Cha slide.” A little tricky, but nevertheless fun! After all that, it worked up an appetite and it was time for lunch.
We have a wonderful day filled with thinking.
Have a lovely evening and see you tomorrow!
Love, Dancing Petals class.