Remember Your Ps.

When I was growing up, children were often reminded to remember their Ps and Qs. It was a way to remind children to remember their manners and say please and thank you. As teachers, we need to remember our Ps. To get off on a good foot, remember to be present, positive and predictable.
Be Present. Be there when the children are; from the moment they walk in the door until they go home. It is so easy to become distracted by phone calls, visitors, and other distractions, but to be successful with the children, you need to be there for them. Even the best teachers and child care professionals can’t be everywhere at once and will miss some things now and then, but do your best to keep out extraneous distractions
Be Positive. We all know what a difference it is to be with someone who is positive throughout the day. It is even more important for children. Role model a positive, can do attitude so children will have a positive outlook and better self-esteem.
Be Predictable. Children will learn to trust when teachers are predictable in routines, guidance, and in what they say. Of course, there is lots of room for innovative ideas, teachable moments, and a change of pace, but when the school year is starting out children need predictability. They need it most at stressful and hectic times. They need to know the day’s routine, when it will be time to go home, where to find what they need, and what will happen if they demonstrate mistaken behavior. Once children know what to expect, they will be better able to handle the changes that must come.

Have a great school year!!

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

During our recent pre-service, I surveyed the staff on the best way to start the school year off right. The number one answer from the staff was to communicate with the other people with whom you work. I have to agree. We need to build positive relationships between staff members first. We must take the time to talk and most importantly to listen to each other. Even as we do this, we are teaching ( modeling) for the children how to behave in a pro-social manner. We also need to know that we are working on common goals and working together and not against each other. We cannot be consistent and follow routines, if the one staff member is not aware of what the other is doing.
Communication with parents is equally important. If we truly want to help children succeed, we need to help parents be the best they can be and let them help us to be our best. We need to listen to their knowledge, needs, and concerns. Children who observe teachers and parents building positive relationships will be quicker to trust their teachers.
And finally, we must communicate with the children. We must listen to what they have to say and respect their feelings. If we are to build a positive relationship with the children, we need to take time to get to know them and to let them know a little about us. Relationships are a two way street, so allow the children to care about you and help you.
While registering children for our Health Fair, one little boy came up to the table, immediately turned down my offer of a sticker, and said very seriously, "I’m mad." He responded a little more to each of my questions and comments, telling me he didn’t like this school. I don’t know if he was afraid he might not like the school or simply was fearful of not knowing what to expect, but by taking time to let him express his feelings, reassure him that we were happy he was here, he became more comfortable and he left the table with a more positive attitude.
Take the time to communicate. It just might make a difference in someone's day.

More Great Read Alouds

Lee Ann emailed to share a wonderful resource. She must have been reading my mind, because just the day before I was thinking I should write about the book, A Splendid Friend Indeed. This is the story of a somewhat annoying goose who only wants to be friends with Polar Bear. She saved me all the work of thinking of activities to go along with the book by sending me a link to a website with information on this very special book and a list of more books about friends. http://www.schlowlibrary.org/splendid_friends/schlow.htm
That website links to another which has even more resources pertaining to the same book. http://www.paonebook.org/onebook2007/splendid.htm

A Splendid Friend Indeed by Suzanne Bloom was the Pennsylvania One Book in 2007. Some PA libraries will have traveling kits which they can lend to teachers in the classroom. After reading this book, the class may enjoy, Treasure, a new book by Bloom which tells of the continuing adventures of Goose and Polar Bear.

Suzanne Bloom has written some other worthwhile books about social emotional topics, but I think my favorite must be Piggy Monday. The story starts one Monday when Mrs. Hubbub's class was getting out of line. The teacher warns the class that they need to listen or they will all turn to swine. My class really enjoyed this very funny book and best of all, I saw an improvement in their manners after we read it.

Getting Your Child Ready for School

It won’t be long until school starts. Time for mom or dad to put on a brave face and assure his or her child things will be just fine. It doesn’t matter if your child is starting preschool or kindergarten, there is still time to help your child gain some valuable skills. Work on building your child’s confidence by teaching independence, and problem solving skills. Some children may not know what to do if they have a problem, so build those skills. Talk to your child about what he can do if he wants help or needs to use the bathroom. Discuss how it looks when you are listening to the teacher. Teach him to put his eyes on the teacher, use his ears to hear, sit still, keeping hand to self and to sit without talking when the teacher is teaching the group.
Increase your child's independence by making sure he can handle self help skills such as dressing and toileting himself. Let him practice buckling belts, fastening shoes, snapping snaps, and buttoning buttons. If you know other children who will be in your son or daughter’s class, it might help to have a playdate before school starts. It always helps to go through new situations with a friend.
Be sure to attend any orientations to help you and your child learn about his or her new school. When people know what to expect, they feel more comfortable. The same thing is true for children. The more you know about what is happening in school, the more you can help your child.
Children who demonstrate confidence, independence, and problem solving skills are generally well liked and successful in school. When children can take care of small day to day matters, they gain confidence to tackle the harder tasks and are less likely to have problems with bullies.

If you have other tips for parents, about ways to help young children have a successful first week of school, please share them in the comment section.

If you live in the Greencastle- Antrim area, you can sign up for Ready, Set, Kindergarten!—A Special storytime for children entering kindergarten (10:00-11:00 a.m.) on Wednesday, August 20 at Besore Library.

Pictures Books and Feelings

This month my focus has been on books to help children express and handle feelings.

On Monday When It Rained (1989) by Cherryl Kachenmeister
Credit goes to Andrea, at Besore Library for finding this great book for me. It is a simple story of how a young boy feels through the week. The clear, black and white photos illustrate the various expressions of the main character. They remind me of those in the Second Step Curriculum. This book will give you a straight forward way to discuss emotions and how they change. If you have a camera handy, ask the children to tell you about times they felt different emotions. If you can’t afford an individual book for each child, make a class book. Go through the week and chronicle the feelings of the group, as the occur. "On Monday, we surprised Miss Lisa with a birthday party." "On Tuesday, we were sad that Eli's dog was sick." On Wednesday, we were disappointed that it rained at recess." On Thursday, we were happy that.." Of course, children can always illustrate such a book. Another good extension would be to have the children start and keep a feelings journal. One of my past classes had some success with this. We added a simple rebus vocabulary list at the back, to encourage independent writing.

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard
Grumpy Bird wakes up grumpy. He doesn’t even feel like flying, so he starts to walk. As he passes friends, they join him in his walk. By the end of story they are all having fun together and Grumpy Bird isn’t so grumpy any more. A simple story of how negative feelings can change.
Children may enjoy making pictures of Grumpy Bird and Happy Bird.
You might make a class list of things that make people grumpy and things they can do when they feel grumpy. If you involve parents in your curriculum, your impact will be greater. Have the children create a Grumpy Bird to take home. Encourage them to share the story with parents. Ask parents to come up with a family plan of things family members can do when one or more is feeling grumpy. Ideas could included, reading stories, going for a walk, taking a nap together, watching a family movie, or making cookies. As a parent, I would much rather have a child come to me and tell me he needs a little extra attention because he is grumpy than to have to deal with the consequences of arguing with a grumpy child for hours.

I visited Kennedy-Kruger Center, yesterday, and was listening to a doctor talk about the needs of kids with ADHD. She talked about having plans and routines for them. This correlates well with an article I read about the value of having a plan of what to do before the emotion happens. When a child feels out of control, a place to go or a practiced habit for recovery might be just the remedy that works for the child and the adult.

Teaching Self Regulation to Preschoolers

I’ve been doing a little research for an upcoming training. I thought I understood the importance of a teaching social emotional skills, but it really hit home when I read why we need to help young children learn self regulation. In the article, Promoting Children’s Social and Emotional Development Through Preschool Education (Preschool Policy Brief March 2005, National Institute for Early Education Research) by Judi Boyd, W. Steven Barnett, Elena Bodrova, Deborah J. Leong, and Deanna Gomby, the authors write "if preschoolers do not practice self-regulation enough, the related brain areas will not be fully developed" I find that statement so powerful. Adults must teach children how to self regulate behavior or the ability to do so may not fully develop. As preschool teachers, we have a tremendous opportunity ( and responsibility) to teach skills which can make a positive difference in the lives of the children in our classrooms.
I hope to effectively share this information with the parents in my classroom. Parents need to understand if they do not take the time to teach skills to their preschooler, they are more likely to have to deal with self regulation issues in the future.

You can learn more about this topic at: http://nieer.org/resources/policyreports/report7.pdf

Picture Books and Feelings

For awhile, I thought I might not find enough good picture books about feelings to share, but that hasn't been a problem. There are so many, I will post one or two at a time throughout the month. I'm including both of these in my lesson plans.

How Are You Peeling? Food with Moods By Saxton Freymann and Joost Elffers
Children seem to love this book, but I would guess their focus is on the illustrations rather than the words. That’s ok because the feelings are clearly illustrated, even though they are made from food. It is a good book to attract children who need a little extra to draw them in at story time. Showing the pictures and discussing them before reading the story, may be the best way to introduce it. You may even find it valuable to draw a smiley face ( and other iconic faces) and discussing what feeling the icon represents. Afterwards, children may want to play a game, much like charades, in which a child makes a face and others guess how he or she is feeling. You may want to share the book with parents and encourage them to work with children to make faces on food. This could be a great extension for families which celebrate Halloween.

Angry Dragon by Thierry Robberecht is the story of a very angry boy who says he turns into a dragon when he gets angry. The little boy expresses his feelings as he goes from becoming angry to again being calm and able to allow his parents to comfort him. Phille Goosens illustrates the boy's feelings in a clear way. After reading the story, children will probably want to discuss how they feel when they become angry. I think the real value in the story is in helping children see they are not the only ones who have strong , hard to control feelings. Teachers may want to discuss appropriate ways to handle anger. In small groups, children could draw how they feel when angry and then how they feel when calm.

Exclude or Include?

Does every child in your classroom feel safe and included?
I always thought that I was doing a good job on this topic until I read "A Matter of Trust" by Carollee Howes and Sharon Ritchie. They write about a girls’ relational aggression being difficult for teachers to see because it is so much a part of our culture. They go on to discuss that teachers may feel they should not intervene as children work things out for themselves or they try to change the outsider to be more acceptable to the others. They conclude that a child who feels left out or bullied does not feel safe and by now we all know the problems which can come from that. When I think back to some of the scenarios that have happened in my classroom, I’m sure I have allowed some of these types of behaviors to occur. I too, have worked to make the outsider be more acceptable to the group, when maybe I should have been working to make the group more accepting to others. I know I did some excluding myself as a child when I had a club house and decided who could and could not be a part of it. ( mostly my friend’s little sisters were not allowed.)
Howes and Ritchie make an important point in saying, if children are expected to include all others, the teacher has a responsibility to see that she is not excluding children- from circle, from activities, from recess.
Do I have the answers? Certainly not, but it is food for thought, lots of thought. If you want to learn more about including, read Vivian Paley’s "You Can’t Say You Can’t Play" or maybe even re-read it. I read it when it was first published in 1992, and again a few years ago. I’ll probably go back for a third read.
Do you agree with Howes and Ritchie? Should children always have to include others? What if the other child is being mean and disrupting the play? Please join in the discussion of this topic by posting your comments.