Hello 2s/3s-2 families!
Routines
Taylor and I hope everyone is off to a great start this semester. Seeing as this is a brand new batch of 2s/3s to our center, providing consistent care with to children is vital to classroom management. We have designed our schedule to have minimal transitions while still providing varied experiences throughout the day. With consistency, the children are beginning to show us that they “understand” our classroom routines. There have been moments where the children hold EACH OTHER accountable as well! For example, yelling “Cup!” to a peer as they leave the table (they are telling their peer they forgot to take their cup to the sink after snack). Grabbing a friends’ hand at the sandbox when we say “It’s time to go in and have some lunch,” demonstrates both social skills and an understanding of transitions/routines. Routines/schedules just provide us all with that sense of safety/security to help us move along with our day with minimal angst. Everyone feels good when they know what to expect and what is expected of them! Check out this infographic from the Pyramid Model Innovations website illustrating how routines can work at home!
https://challengingbehavior.org/docs/Family-Strategies_Infographic.pdf
Literacy
In our classroom, the children have shown a continued interest in our classroom books. Our classroom books are basically DIY “books” featuring the children! Taylor and I have created several books with each of the children’s picture inside. A couple of our books include the child’s picture with a simple rhyme. One of our books feature them engaging in various playground activities. Sometime we use the books at group time as the children stay focused until that moment they see their face on the page! Other times the children will be looking at the book independently and then move around the classroom to show the other children their picture. Many literacy/language and social/emotional skills are being demonstrated during these classroom moments.
Our most recent classroom book features the children AND the staff’s favorite foods. When creating this book- my goal was to expose the children to some environmental print as we included some familiar food labels of our favorite foods. However, after it was all put together, the book became so much more. It provides a sense of community as we all got the opportunity to come together and read about what our favorite foods are. We also got the opportunity to share some new words/pictures of food the children may not be exposed to regularly such as: pozole, enchilada, sushi, lasagna, and gyro. We look forward to creating new books for the classroom this year. I have provided a link about what “environmental print” is and tips on creating your own book at
Reminders:
- Please make sure to bring in diapers/wipes
- Please make sure to bring in extra clothes regularly (as you can see- we are messy at play!)
- Please bring in (or email us) FAMILY PICTURES! The children LOVE looking at them and they provide a sense of pride and comfort in the classroom.
Until next month,
Nadine, Taylor and the 2s/3s-2 team!
