Joy of Sharing & Service Day 1

Hi moms.
The first day of the unit Joy of Sharing and Service went well and (I think) the kids all had a fun day. We started with circle time and Isabel and Emily sat like little angels on their mats. The boys were a little wiggly but also did a great job. Grant volunteered for everything and nicely led the children in the Pledge of Allegiance. After Circle Time we started to learn the Christmas songs to sing at the Board and Care. We practiced "Jingle Bells" and passed around the bell during the song for each child to ring as we sang. They seemed to really like that and they all knew the song really well. Kai did an especially good job in making sure everyone had a turn ringing the bell. We also practiced "In a Little Stable." Emily and Grant were great with the hand motions that go to the song. We then chose "Secret Buddies" and I explained to everyone that they should try to do especially nice things for their buddy the next three school days.

We had a lesson learning about nice helpful sharing and service things we can do for others. We made little strips of paper with the sharing and service ideas on them and then stapled a chain together with the sharing and service ideas. They all had a difficult time working the staplers at first but I think they all were doing an OK job by the end. Throughout the next two days of school we will be cutting the chain links off as we practice and accomplish each of the sharing and service tasks.

In our craft time we sewed and decorated stockings. The children all seemed to enjoy the craft. Emily and Isabel were in a competition to make the most beautiful stocking (I told them they were both equally beautiful). Joseph particularly liked putting the Santa Clause together on the stocking. Kai seemed to like trying to figure out the best way to sew it together. Grant took great care in placing the stickers and Santa Claus on his stocking perfectly and spent a lot of time on it.

I think a hit with the boys during freeplay was the Thomas Train. Kai told me he had seen the movie and Joseph had a tight grasp on the remote so as not to set it down and potentially lose it to one of the other boys. Emily and Isabel liked being in their own little girl world. Kai also really liked playing with the big dinosaur and all five of them loved the magna doodles. First Isabel and Emily started with the magna doodles by sitting at the table and saying they had serious school work to do. Then Joseph also wanted a magna doodle to do serious school work, and eventually they all ended up with one. Luckily we have many of them in various types and sizes.

I look forward to our next school day with the children. They are all so unique and wonderful in their individual ways. I really enjoyed spending time with each of them.

Joy of Thanksgiving Day 1

Hello fellow moms,

Today was a great day1. We talked all about being thankful, and we made a Joy School "thankful tree". The children listed many wonderful things they were thankful for including, family, friends, brothers, sisters, pets, and toys to name a few. We learned a new word for thank you, Ma halo, (that is thank you in Hawaiian). And we sang a song about that. They played well together. I think they are settling into the routine we have planned and that is a compliment to all the mommy teachers! They all sat "criss-cross" very nicely and Kai did a great job with the share. He let everyone hold his "little rat". And none of the kids grabbed or got up..they just waited for their turn. And they did so great at asking questions about what the object was before he took it out. And I was so impressed at how well they know the Pledge of Allegiance. It was awesome. They stood so nice with their little hands over their hearts...so sweet.We must be doing something right!

Grant has the share bag for Thursday.

We will be having a mini "Thanksgiving Feast" on Thursday. It would be nice if all the kiddos could bring something to contribute. We will be making bread and butter here that day. So anything they would like to bring to share would be lovely. Emily will be bringing turkey. So maybe a veggie or apples or whatever! We will be eating outside just like the pilgrims and Indians did.

I will take lots of pictures...it should be cute.

So see you Thursday!

Amy

Reyes Adobe House

Joy of Communication & Relationships--day 2

Yesterday was a great day with the kids. Eve brought a recorder for her share, which was the perfect segway to musictime where each child got to play a different instrument. I taught them the song, "Two Little Magic Words", which emphasized saying "please" and "thank you". They loved playing their instruments We then read "Enemy Pie" for storytime which really held their attention.

Snacktime was great. Thank you everyone for bringing a contribution for our "Friendship Mix". We talked a lot about the symbolism--if one of them is missing from Joy School one day, the day couldn't be as fun as it would be if they had been there. Just like how our snack mix wouldn't taste as good if one of the ingredients were missing. We talked about how much more fun yesterday was than Tuesday, because Eve was there (she was absent Tues.). Grant brought the apple chips, Kai brought the craisins, Eve brought the goldfish, Isabel brought the yogurt-covered raisins, Joseph brought the peanuts, and Emily brought the pirate booty. Great mix!

We played with the bubble wands for outside play (thanks Cheyenne!) For lesson time we talked about the Golden Rule and I told a flannelboard story. We then practiced more writing the letter F on their little chalkboards and drawing pictures of fish.

We made paper-bag turkeys for our craft, with the polite words we had learned about on the feathers. I was amazed with how fast these two days flew! I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at the Reyes Adobe House.

Leslie

Joy of Communication & Relationships-day 1

We lots of fun at Joy School today, we really do have a great group. We all missed Eve:( Hope she can make it Thursday! Today's focus was on being a good friend. We did "Buddy Paintings" for our craft. Each partnership (Emily & Isabel, Joseph & Grant, Kai & me--he was the lucky one...they all wanted to be my partner:)) worked on a painting together, and then each child got to take half of it home. It was supposed to be a printmaking craft (we used all kinds of halved produce for the "stamps"--apples, peppers, tangerines, & mushrooms), but by the end most of them turned into fingerpainting. I didn't feel like the end result was a good representation of the creativity I saw in the process, wish you could've been there... Most importantly I think it was a good experience for each of them to work with a friend on a project and to practice communication skills. They loved the stories in the lesson about communication. Those little flannelboard stories are like magic for keeping their attention. The Joy Boy visit was a big hit. They loved singing the new song they learned, "Talk, Talk, Talk" to him. They had to explain to him exactly how to draw a Jack-o-lantern while he drew it on the whiteboard only drawing exactly what they said. We had to erase a few times until they learned to explain it more clearly, it was lots of fun. We then sang "One Elephant" (a song about friendship) and they each got to come up one by one and put a paper elephant on their finger (which represented the trunk). They were each so adorable. The letter of the day was "F is for Fish" so we had goldfish crackers & apples for snack. We talked about the letter F and practiced writing it together before doing the coloring page. I was impressed at how well so many can write their letters. I look forward to having everyone back on Thursday. Don't forget to bring a contribution for our "Friendship Mix" snack :) Leslie