It has been a busy month in the 2s/3s-2 classroom. We had a very busy Week of the Young Child 2023. Thank you families for taking a moment to celebrate your child. The children appreciate the time you took to draw a picture with them in the hallway. Thank you for your kind words you shared on your child’s photo- I know they will love to see it in the future. The teachers at the NIU CDFC take pride in the work we do with the children every day. We love having the opportunity to celebrate and showcase the children in our care during this time. Every day was filled with fun activities centered around a “theme” for the day. We ended the week with a visit from our NIU mascot- Victor E. Huskie and his real-life sidekick- Mission III.
Yoga
During the Week of Young Child, one of our parents- Amanda McCarthy came in and did some yoga and breathing exercises with the class! The children learned some simple yoga moves and we spent some time practicing those moves as a group. At the end, Amanda gave each child a pinwheel to use as an aid for breathing exercises. Yoga and controlled breathing have tremendous benefits for children and adults. Amanda’s demonstration gave me the motivation to find some useful information regarding all the benefits practicing yoga with young children offers.
Why Yoga and Kids Go Together | Parenting Tips… | PBS KIDS for Parents
YouTube has an abundance of yoga videos geared towards children. The channel “Cosmic Kids Yoga” has yoga videos that are tied to children’s stories/movies. I have included the link to a video in which a yoga sequence is done to the popular story by Michael Rosen, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAT5NiWHFIU
Music and Movement
Yoga isn’t the only way we move our bodies in the classroom. We listen to a variety of music and dance daily. The children will request their favorite songs and we will throw in some new songs every now and then. When the music comes on, the children will gather on the carpet and start dancing. Sometimes they will seek a friend or teacher to dance with and sometimes they want to dance by themselves. The fun thing about music and movement is that there’s no right or wrong way to do it! Creative expression has no limits and that can be seen when you observe a group of children smiling and dancing in the classroom.
April says Goodbye!
As you all may know, April’s last day here is May 31st. April has been a Child Development Supervisor at the CDFC for 19 years. This is bittersweet for me as I have only worked with April as a co-teacher for 1 semester. I feel as if we made a great team and I’m sad to see her go. I am also excited for April to start some new endeavors and enjoy this next phase of life (hence the “bittersweetness”). I know April will miss all the 2s/3s-2 families because she has built such a solid rapport with all of you. Be sure to wish April a warm “see you later” in the coming weeks!
Classroom Reminders:
- With the season changing- make sure your child has appropriate extra clothing at school.
- Please bring a water bottle for your child. We can keep them here.
- If your child wears diapers, please make sure you bring in diapers as needed.
- When the summer semester begins, we will put sunblock on the children daily. Feel free to bring in another kind for your child if you choose.
Until next time,
Nadine and the 2s/3s-2 staff
