Kindness Month: BE KIND CHALLENGE (free download)

February is a great month to focus on kindness

as well as February 17th is National Kindness Day

Children are not always naturally kind. They need to be taught lots of different ways to show kindness as well as the importance of showing kindness. Children also need lots and lots of modeling of kindness from the adults in their lives.

Kindness Challenges…

ONE: Challenge yourself and your colleagues to show 20 acts of kindness throughout the month and share those with the students.

TWO: Challenge the students to find five things you do each day that show kindness. They need to tell what you did AND HOW it showed kindness.

THREE: Challenge for the students to think of the different ways to show and think about kindness- kindness to others, to our environment and to themselves!

Here is a free download of a FIVE DAY KINDNESS CHALLENGE- appropriate for grades K-3rd

five-day-kindness-challenge-sel-slides-for-in-person-or-at-home-learning-journeyintoearlychildhood.com_Download

Building Friendships through Transitions and Using Names

Aristotle once stated, “who would choose to live, even if possessed with all other things, without friends.”

Many of our students struggle with the basic components of building friendships such as asking to join in play, suggesting play “Let’s…”, sharing, taking turns, changing perspectives, cooperating, and using respectful language.

We, therefore, must directly teach friendship skills through intentional, deliberate discussions and opportunities throughout the day. These opportunities can be embedded into the activities and work that is already occurring in the classroom setting.

journeyintoearlychildhood.com

journeyintoearlychildhood.com

journeyintoearlychildhood.com

journeyintoearlychildhood.com

 

Examining SEL Defintion and Week 2 of SEL Remote Style

In the blog post, Social Emotional Learning Remote Style, posted on September 10, I added the SEL definition from CASEL. As a district SEL team, we did a deeper dive into the defintion by pulling out the verbs, nouns and adjectives. It helps to provide a perspective of the key words and the focus, especially when you group together all of the words in one part of speech and ponder each set separately and then together.

We are all in this together for distance learning. Therefore, I am sharing as a FREE DOWNLOAD the second week of social emotional activities for home.

prek-k-and-1st-social-emotional-learning-at-home-week-2-1Download

SEL Remote Style- Sharing a Week of Online Activities

See more SEL resources in my teacherpayteachers store- many items are FREE

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Journey-Into-Early-Childhood

Social Emotional Learning: Remote Style

The Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) defines SEL as “…the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.”

CASEL also reminds us that social emotional learning starts at home. Families play a crucial role in the child’s development of self-regulation, emotion management, problem-solving skills as well as the building of a healthy positive self-esteem.

Social emotional learning is more critical than ever right now but the challenge for teachers is how to help students engage in SEL activities through remote or distance learning. I developed a week of activities for families to complete together. Keep checking back to journeyintoearly childhood.com for further weeks of activities or just sign up to receive the blog directly to your email on the home page. https://journeyintoearlychildhood.com/

Please feel free to use any part of this slide deck that will benefit your students. If sharing with other staff members, please refer them to this website page.

Click picture or “FREE DOWNLOAD” to access the week of SEL Activities

FREE DOWNLOAD

See additional SEL resources in my TpT store- many free resources:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Journey-Into-Early-Childhood

Building Friendships through Interactive Read Aloud with Purposeful Talk

                         

Aristotle once stated, “who would choose to live, even if possessed with all other things, without friends.”

Many of our students struggle with the basic components of building friendships such as asking to join in play, suggesting play “Let’s…”, sharing, taking turns, changing perspectives, cooperating, and using respectful language.

We, therefore, must directly teach friendship skills through intentional, deliberate discussions and opportunities throughout the day. These opportunities can be embedded into the activities and work that is already occurring in the classroom setting.

Intentionally Choosing Literature to Discuss Friendships during Interactive Read Aloud with Purposeful Talk:

Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Compelling Questions to Explore:

• Do we always need to share to have friends?
• Why does sharing help us have friends?
• What are ways that we can share in the classroom? How does it make our friends feel when we share? How does it feel when we don’t share? (have students show the feelings on their bodies and discuss how our bodies feel physically when we are happy and when we are upset)

Set up intentional opportunities for students to share such as limited supplies in small group activities, math and literature centers and free choice play centers.

Our Tree Named Steve by Alan Zweibel

Compelling Questions to Explore:

• What are the qualities of a good friend?
• What qualities of a good friend do you think we should demonstrate in our classroom? How can we use those qualities?

 

The Sandwich Swap by Queen Rania of Jordan Al Abdullah

Compelling Question to Explore:

• Should we have just one friend or lots of friends?

 

 

 

Reread the book and explore one or more of these compelling questions…

• Should we always tell the truth?
• Should we take sides when friends are arguing or stay neutral?
• Should we have friends that like different things than we do?

Read Two of a Kind by Jacqui Robbins

Explore the same compelling questions as The Sandwich Swap through the experiences in this book. Compare and contrast.

 

 

note: book titles are linked to Amazon.com

 

Building Friendships through Intentional Design of Centers

Aristotle once stated,  “who would choose to live, even if possessed with all other things, without friends.”

Many of our students struggle with the basic components of building friendships such as asking to join in play, suggesting play “Let’s…”, sharing, taking turns, changing perspectives, cooperating, and using respectful language.

We, therefore, must directly teach friendship skills through intentional, deliberate discussions and opportunities throughout the day. These opportunities can be embedded into the activities and work that is already occurring in the classroom setting.

Intentional Design of Free Choice Centers and Small Group Learning Centers:

• To encourage sharing, do not provide materials for each student. For example, if 5 children are working on a project that requires glue sticks, only provide three. Teach the students how to ask for the glue sticks instead of grabbing and model how to share.
• Have students complete a self-reflection sheet on friendship skills following center time. Example of a Self-Reflection form. (FREE DOWNLOAD)
• Designate students who are the distributors of certain materials. For example, in a small group, Carlos has all of blocks, Juanita has all of the magnetic letters and Ian has all of graphic organizers and pencils. Each student must ask their friend for the materials needed by using the student’s name and by using kind words.

 

 

 

 

 

NO Worksheets in Early Childhood Part IV

NO Worksheets in Early Learning

WHY?

Reason Number Six: Worksheets do NOT develop social skills.

In the adult world, it is rare that we are told to do our own work and keep our eyes on our own paper. We collaborate on challenging tasks with colleagues. We gather information and learn new perspectives when we can work, brainstorm, and problem-solve together. This is the same for children. They are social beings who need multiple opportunities to engage in hands-on and inquiry learning experiences with their peers.