The third year of life is a period of transition between toddlerhood and preschool, and children make much progress in all areas of development.  The most significant is in social/emotional development.  Three year olds can identify and talk about personal feelings, can identify and talk about others’ feelings, shows interest in helping, and can recite rules but cannot follow them consistently.   Even at three years of age, children show caring for those around them.  Empathy is elicited by concrete occurrences.  Today, a child came to school with a broken arm.  Every child was willing to help her throughout the day. For example, they helped her get her sandals, helped her wash her hand, helped her put away her cup, helped her play with toys, and helped her lay out her sleeping mat.  It was very heart-warming to observe.

Friendships provide opportunities to communicate and compromise, and create independence.  In a preschool setting, most children are friendly, but, the art of friendship takes practice.  With many kinds of relationships, both good times and not so good times exist.  We have been helping the children to express exactly what they “want” when a problem arises.  In fact, we explained to the children that they can no longer say, “Aaaaaaaa,” to express dissatisfaction.   Instead, they have to say, “Please stop (and express their want).”  For example, if another child comes and pulls a toy that you are playing with away, say, “Please stop taking my toy.”   At home, can you please help your child practice using this strategy?  Next, we will be helping the children to learn to respect the wishes of others.  For example, if someone asks you to, “Please stop,” you need to respect their wishes.

Today we had a visit from Aunty Naomi.  Aunty Naomi is our Outreach Counselor.  She did a large group lesson about body safety using puppets and a story book.  The name of her big bear puppet is Pua.  They each had a chance to give Pua a hug.  She talked to the children about “good touch” and “bad touch.”  Then, she did a small group lesson where she had each child draw a body with markers than used crayons to color on clothes to cover the parts of the body that are private.  Each child received a copy of the book that she read, Children Are Special.

When Halloween’s over, what do you do with your old jack-o’-lantern? One easy approach is to simply leave it to rot.  Where else but preschool can you let children observe and explore a rotting pumpkin with their senses and with science tools and gardening equipment.?

Teaching preschool students about recycling can be a fun and educational experience. It can teach children to love and take care of our planet.  Children also learn to observe, create, and remain in touch with the ever changing world, and to develop a caring attitude towards the earth by learning to recycle and use materials for art and crafts rather than throwing them away.  In this picture, the children are planting bean seeds into toilet paper rolls.  We are also making rain sticks with large tubes that came from a doctor’s office.  We are using paper towel rolls to print circles.  For the November PACT activity, you will be asked to recycle a baby formula can and make a drum with your child.

The Big Book this week is entitled, Yuck Soup. One of the ingredients in yuck soup is feathers. Today, we did a large group activity where each child got to place a feather into the “yuck soup”.  The children placed their feather on a blank black board.  The finished product becomes an Ephemeral Art piece.  Basically, the term Ephemeral Art refers to an art piece that is not permanent but rather transitory and exists only briefly.  Usually it involves materials found in nature.  The children have the opportunity to use the materials to create a picture that they can label or that tells a story.  In the past, we’ve used river rocks, natural wood pieces, coral, and flat gem stones.

Today was Picture Taking Day.  It was not an easy task taking a group and individual photographs of 16 energetic three year olds. But, we did it!   Hopefully, your child’s personality was captured in their picture.  The picture packets will be ready in a few weeks.

Today we played instruments in a large group.  Each child got to select their own instrument from a pile in the middle of the circle.  Some children enjoyed the experience, while others did not like the loudness of all the instruments playing at once.  Music and movement is an important component of early learning curriculums.  Children love to sing and learn through song. Three years eagerly participate in large and small group activities.  The emphasis in this area is on engagement rather than on mastery of skills and techniques.