A Teacher’s reflection….
In Early Childhood Education, a child’s learning experiences should encompasses multiple opportunities to grow not just cognitively, but also socially and emotionally. Social emotional growth for young children is one of the most important developmental milestones in learning and in life. The emergence of social emotional skills at this age means that children are increasingly able to focus on tasks, to engage in play, and to incorporates the ideas of others, to create a plan and initiate actions, to take turns, and to successfully separate. All of these lay the groundwork for healthy relationships, effective choice-making, and positive self-image as children grow into adolescence.
I often take notes of our Bambini engaged in social behavior, dialogues, and interactions with peers and adults. Observational notes from this week, examples of which you can read below, show the children’s progress in social awareness and self regulation:
Yesterday, I was thrilled to see that our children were engaging in and enjoying the different activities in the classroom. Regardless of what they decided to play with, it was clear that they were ‘learning’. They have grown so much over the past few weeks. Little by little, our children are creating a sense of community and respect in our classroom. It also means that their awareness of their social world has expanded, from self to the larger community. I am looking forward to observing our continuous growth as a classroom community.
In Early Childhood Education, a child’s learning experiences should encompasses multiple opportunities to grow not just cognitively, but also socially and emotionally. Social emotional growth for young children is one of the most important developmental milestones in learning and in life. The emergence of social emotional skills at this age means that children are increasingly able to focus on tasks, to engage in play, and to incorporates the ideas of others, to create a plan and initiate actions, to take turns, and to successfully separate. All of these lay the groundwork for healthy relationships, effective choice-making, and positive self-image as children grow into adolescence.
I often take notes of our Bambini engaged in social behavior, dialogues, and interactions with peers and adults. Observational notes from this week, examples of which you can read below, show the children’s progress in social awareness and self regulation:
- “Children greet each other in the morning by their names (or by waving if not verbal) as soon as they see their friends arrive in the morning”
- “Begin to see purposeful mind in each child’s play”
- “Follow routines and participate in Morning Meeting”
Yesterday, I was thrilled to see that our children were engaging in and enjoying the different activities in the classroom. Regardless of what they decided to play with, it was clear that they were ‘learning’. They have grown so much over the past few weeks. Little by little, our children are creating a sense of community and respect in our classroom. It also means that their awareness of their social world has expanded, from self to the larger community. I am looking forward to observing our continuous growth as a classroom community.
Helpful tips for the conversations with your children about school
I received a great question from a parent and I would like to share my answer with all of you.
The question was:
“Are there any questions/prompts for parents to ask their children that would provoke some conversation about school and school experiences?”
I have found, regardless of the age of a child, it is always hard to get information out of our children about what they do at school. For the Bambini in particular, this is because:
1. They live in a moment.
2. They may not have enough cognitive skills and language skills to organize their thoughts to tell you the story about what happened at school.
That said, here are some tips to help initiate and spark a conversation with your child...
Age and Stages Questionnaires
We will be sending an Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) home on Thursday, October 23. The ASQ is a tool that assesses a child’s social emotional and overall development physical, cognitive and language skills. I would like to stress that our purpose of ASQ is to illuminate individual strengths and weaknesses so that we can provide the appropriate support to each child from the very beginning at Bennett Day School. We will share the findings from the questionnaires with you during our fall conference in November. Please send the completed ASQ forms by Thursday, October 30, 2014.
I received a great question from a parent and I would like to share my answer with all of you.
The question was:
“Are there any questions/prompts for parents to ask their children that would provoke some conversation about school and school experiences?”
I have found, regardless of the age of a child, it is always hard to get information out of our children about what they do at school. For the Bambini in particular, this is because:
1. They live in a moment.
2. They may not have enough cognitive skills and language skills to organize their thoughts to tell you the story about what happened at school.
That said, here are some tips to help initiate and spark a conversation with your child...
- Ask open-ended questions with a specific topic (e.g. How was playing with a red tunnel in indoor play room?)
- Use pictures (I recommend you use images from our blog) to talk about your child’s day at school.
Age and Stages Questionnaires
We will be sending an Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) home on Thursday, October 23. The ASQ is a tool that assesses a child’s social emotional and overall development physical, cognitive and language skills. I would like to stress that our purpose of ASQ is to illuminate individual strengths and weaknesses so that we can provide the appropriate support to each child from the very beginning at Bennett Day School. We will share the findings from the questionnaires with you during our fall conference in November. Please send the completed ASQ forms by Thursday, October 30, 2014.