Individual Plans
With each day comes new possibilities. The children open up doors to new things they want to learn. As teachers we watch. As teachers we listen. There is much planning to promote active engagement while having fun and learning. Another thing that we do as teachers is offer support for children that are struggling. Everyone has a bad day once in a while. Sometimes we even have children That exhibit a little anxiety. This is the time of year you see that more often . They don’t know us as well. They don’t know our routine. As our routines become more natural and consistent the children will feel more safe. Last night I printed off a book called ” I can be scared.”
One of our littles is struggling when I leave the room. We will read this book with her and help her find ways to handle her fear. Another little one displays strong leadership skills and often wants to go her own way. Sometimes that’s OK. Sometimes it’s not. So we have some structures in place for her as well for when we see that anger service we can quickly find a way to help her handle that. . This is our job as teachers to look at each of our individual children and see what help they need.
One of the things that you can do at home in your family is help your child label their feelings. When you see something emerging immediately immediately name it for them. ” You look like you’re sad, you look like you are angry” then Breathe and say ” you can handle this.” I think the most important thing conscious discipline has done for me is giving me the courage not to join their chaos. If I jump in the middle of their mess I cannot be helpful or support them.
Another one of our conscious discipline structures is the Wishing well board. When you walk in with your child in the morning they will find their name on the Wishing-well heart and move it to the side.
The idea is that whoever is left in the middle of the heart is a friend that is not with us for the day and we wish them well. Last week Elijah was the Wishingwell director and each day he went and got that board and brought it to family time. We sing a wishing well song too . Ask your child to sing it to you.
In the coming weeks I will introduce you to many of our school routines and conscious discipline structures. All of these things combined promote a safe place for your children to grow and learn.
It’s been a good day.
