I would like to add to the author’s suggestion for getting pictures of emotions from Second Step. The Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning (CSEFEL) website also has many free options of how to use emotion pictures and includes the pictures. Go to csefel.vanderbilt.edu and look under the resources for teachers. There is also link on the right side of this blog under Website Resources. As you read the chapter on Empathy I could not help but think of myself on many occasions causing stress in my classroom because I had to be in charge and in control. Stress on my part and that of a child could have been reduced by being more empathetic letting my control go and allowing the child to hold a toy during circle time or lay down instead of sitting. It would have meant adjusting “my own preferences for what would benefit the class as a whole.” (p.64) Can any of you relate to that? I also like her suggestion the if a certain procedure is not working smoothly, then stop and reteach it. I also had to think.
I would have to question her comment on the bottom of page 71, “Easing the journey from oracy to literacy” This implies scaffolding and I would prefer to think about it as Christopher Kliewer, Ph.D does, more cyclical. His document Building Blocks for Literacy and Language is for parents and it references children with special needs. It can be found at http://www.pealcenter.org/images/PEALBook_Kliewer_for_web.pdf and I will add this link to the resource section.
Moving on to Kindness… I have put every one's name in a hat for the book The Invisible Boy which is a great story about kindness and Kristine Koerner-Bowe has won this children’s book -I will bring it to you next Friday since I will be seeing you then! Congratulations!
On page 73, I was mulling in my head - do I feel that addressing a situation with the whole class is appropriate for 3 and/ or 4 year olds as well? Any opinions out there?
My other thought as I read was obviously this has taken years for her to get to the point where she could write a book about it. Where would you start? What can you do right now and what can you aspire to do the rest of the year?
One last thought - I tend to believe that everyone in a class are not “friends” I prefer to call them classmates. What I do feel is important is that you are friendly with all your classmates. This might look different for 3 year olds - we could possible talk about everyone being our friend then but by 4 and 5 I think it changes. Agree? disagree?
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