Hi all,
I again want to Thank You for all your wonderful suggestions, feedback, resources, and ideas. They have all been so helpful to me. I wanted to give you a little update. I said earlier that I had planned to do an activity with students on Tuesday by making a card for my co-teacher- to say how we care. I had to postpone it, unfortunately, but I actually think it works out better with my updated plan. Tuesday was crazy lesson-wise, and I just did not have the time. Plus, I didn't feel adequately ready to talk about death and how to show we care. I did get another activity started with students who were there that day (I have less students on Tuesday and Thursday). I had hoped to get all other students going with it on Wednesday- but school ended up being closed because here in the Twin Cities, MN. We have been having extremely cold temperatures. I will now introduce the other students to it Friday. The activity was actually on of your resources. It is
"The Great Kindness Challenge." It is supposed to be going on this week- the last week of January. Since that has not worked out so well, I've decided there is really no reason why we as a class cannot simply continue it throughout next week. I signed up for the challenge and have access and downloaded the tools to use for the challenge. Some of my students are already started, and I will extend it into next week, since others will just get started next week. It provides many different "Acts of Kindness" that are on a checklist that can be marked off. I talked to all my parents about it, along with the students. I told them that if their child does any other Act of Kindness not on the list, to just write it on the back of the page. I sent home a short reflection page for parents to do with their children (telling them to just pick a few of the questions), and also provided some reflection activities they could choose to do. Later next week, all students will bring their pages back to me, and we will have a group reflection discussion. I'm going to look at the reflection activities closer to see if there is one we could do together. All students will be receiving a "Kindness" certificate for participating (another tool provided when I registered). All students and parents were excited to do this.
I just received in my class book order the book
"What Does It Mean To Be Kind" by Rana DiOrio. I read it to the class on Tuesday. We will read it again Friday when more students are here. It is an excellent book that gives many examples of how we can be kind.
Now, to get back to my original planned activity of making a class card for my co-teacher. I decided to order the book
"Lifetimes: The Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children" by Bryan Mellonie. This is another of the resources that many of you shared with me. It will arrive at my school on Monday. I will look it over Monday night and formulate a more specific plan for my lesson at that time. I plan to read the book, and have a lesson and discussion with students on Wednesday of next week, when most the students will be there. I haven't talked to my co-teacher yet to discuss- but I'm hoping she will be comfortable enough to be a part of our lesson and share with students how she has felt and dealt with the loss of a loved one. I am thinking we can approach how the laughter last Friday made her really sad, and connect that back to how we can be kind and show her we care. I then plan to end by us making the class card for her. My plan is to have each student dictate a few words they want to say to show they care- I'll write it for them and then they will sign their name. We will then give her the card. I think it will be a much better approach then just having us make a class card. This will help them develop some understanding of what has happened.
I have also ordered two other wonderful looking resources you all provided to me:
"The Kindness Curriculum: Stop Bullying Before It Starts" by Judith Anne Rice and "The Peaceful Classroom: 162 Easy Activities to Teach Preschoolers Compassion Cooperation" by Charles Smith. These two books will also arrive Monday. They both sound like they have some wonderful learning activities to do with students. The Kindness Curriculum also says it has some activities that can be provided to parents to connect/continue their learning at home. I know my parents will really appreciate that.
As many of you mentioned, modeling is also essential for students in order to really learn Social-Emotional Skills. We do practice this in our classroom. We will continue to really work hard at providing positive modeling.
I also really like the "Kindness Pledge" that was shared. I' have written it down, and am thinking I would like to start teaching it to students and added it into the beginning of our day.
I greatly appreciated all the other resources you provided to me. I have been taking time to explore them all. I can't say enough how I truly appreciate your input, guidance, suggestions, and resources. They have all been beyond helpful! I will let you know how "The Great Kindness Challenge" turns out, along with giving you an update after I give the lesson next Wednesday and we make the card.
THANK YOU!!!
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Heidi Van Amburg
PreK Teacher
Primrose School of St. Louis Park West
Crystal MN
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Original Message:
Sent: 01-27-2019 02:42 PM
From: Heidi Van Amburg
Subject: Teaching caring and compassion in the PreK classroom: New Teacher
Hello All,
I am a first year PreK teacher. I am hoping some of you with more experience will be willing to provide me with some suggestions and guidance on how to best approach teaching caring and compassion with my PreK class (4-5 year olds).
The past two weeks I have done a lot of discussions with them about Martin Luther King Jr. We have talked repeatedly about how he believed we all needed to love each other and treat each other with kindness. My students really seemed to understand that, and are able to talk with me about how it is better to be kind and loving to people, even if their are not kind to you, then to hate them back. They understand about treating each other with love and that "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that." They are able to say it is not okay to use your bodies to hurt others, break things, or to yell/say mean things when you disagree with someone. They know they should use their words. They are still developing an understanding that it is okay to disagree with other people- many still think that is not okay...but I am continuing to reinforce that it is okay, you just need to do it in a respectful way.
A situation arose at the end of the week that has made me realize that while they know we should be kind and loving to each other- I do not think many of them actually know what that means behavior wise. My co-teacher lost her grandfather last week. Students were asking about what happened. One students made a very unkind comment to her, and other students began laughing at it. My co-teacher began to cry, as she was still upset about his passing, and what was said was hurtful. I had a stern talk to my students, again bringing up being kind and loving to each other. As I was talking I began to realize that the students involved really, I do not think, know why what was said and the laughing was unkind.
Tomorrow starts a new theme for us, and our new Happy Hearts Life Skills theme is caring and compassion. I think this is perfect timing. They have the foundation of knowledge to be kind and loving, now it is time for them to learn how that is done. In my reflection of the situation, I further remembered that at this age they are just learning to understand their emotions and the emotions of others. They are also learning that their behaviors have consequences (both good and bad). They have recently left their more ego-centric, everything is about me, stage of life.
I would so appreciate suggestions and advice on how you have approached teaching caring and compassion with young children. I know much of it comes from what they observe from adults, but if I'm thinking right, it also needs to be taught. Can any of you help steer me in the best direction? Thank You So Much!!
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Heidi Van Amburg
PreK Teacher
Crystal MN
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