During the first six weeks of school, our students have delved into what it means to create a happy and healthy learning environment. Utilizing books, activities, and conversations, the children have developed a deeper understanding of how to foster kindness and care for members of our classroom and the Dwight-Englewood community as a whole.
It is important to start the year off with clear expectations for the environment in which the students are entering. With that in mind, a list of rules were generated by the children to help build the foundation for a strong classroom community. These rules support pro-social behaviors as they learn to function as members of the community. After hearing ideas from many of the children, their suggestions were consolidated into six rules including, “wear your mask”, “keep your hands and feet to yourself” and “clean up after yourself.” These are rules that encompass ideals to live by and are rooted in the core values of mutual respect, inclusiveness, and kindness towards others. After the list was completed, one by one, the children signed their names to this contract to demonstrate their acknowledgment and agreement to uphold the rules to the best of their ability.
To enhance their social-emotional skills, following the stories, Rana DiOrio’s What Does It Mean to Be Kind? and Have You Filled A Bucket Today? by Carol McCloud, each child got the opportunity to share something that could be said or done to fill someone else’s bucket. There were a variety of unique responses including, saying “I like your backpack” to “drawing a heart for someone,” which were followed by the children pretending to put their ideas into the bucket. Carol McCloud’s book teaches children that kindness builds up the people around them. We discussed how emotions, feelings, and moods are affected by bucket filling and bucket dipping (unkind actions or words).
As teachers, we listen carefully to the children’s conversations. We interact with the children to model behavior and facilitate language that helps them to express their feelings appropriately. We encourage the children to use their verbal skills and a growing vocabulary to communicate with one another.
Building community and developing social relationships are imperative to creating a happy and thriving learning environment, thus our Sunshine Word Wall was created. We began by painting paper to make our sun. Next, the children thought of words and phrases that make others feel happy. Some of the words and phrases they thought of included, “please”, “thank you”, “I love you”, and “may I?” These are also known to the children as “sunshine words.” The children then wrote them on strips of yellow paper that became the rays of our sun. Some of the children also drew and painted individual beautiful suns. To expand upon their learning, during Spanish class with Señora Garcia, the sunshine words were translated to “gracias” and “por favor” (please and thank you) and to sing songs about being “amigos” (friends). We encourage the preschool 4 children to continually add new sunshine words to our wall and be mindful to use these phrases with each other.
Acts of kindness have a positive impact on everyone and result in creating and strengthening social connections. The children demonstrate their pride and growing self-confidence when they engage in acts of kindness with their peers, adding joy and happiness to our classroom. Smiles are contagious!
