Character Education: Reflection of the Day!

Over the past few weeks, our class has been setting a goal every day- something we can work on and get better at. I'm a huge believer in self-reflection and it's so rewarding to see students reflect on their own behaviour. We're not quite there, but we will be soon! For example, our goal for the day might be to use our manners, be responsible, or use our listening ears. We do multiple check ins during the day to remind students what our goal is. If I think they did a good job, they get a heart in their chart. Soon, students will help to decide :) When we get to 10 hearts, we get a special reward. Today we reached 10 hearts, woohoo! We achieved our daily goal 10/12 days :) When we don't meet it, we just work on it again the next day!

Our class voted on having an extra recess, so that's exactly what we're doing tomorrow! We will even bring our the tricycles. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures :) Feel free to ask your child what the goal for today was, and if we met it or not! Happy reflecting :)

Character Education: Manners!

This week we have been listening to stories that are all about using our manners! Using our manners is one of our classroom rules. We learned to say words like "please", "thank you", "I'm sorry", and "excuse me!". Ask your child what they learned about using their manners this week :)

Character Education: All About Our Feelings!

Over the past little while, we have been learning about different kinds of feelings. We asked students if they knew of any types of feelings and this is what they came up with!

Maxwell - Jealous

Olivia - Nervous

Ryder - Frustrated, Surprised, Weird

Clarissa - Happy

Tania - Silly

Yousef - Sad

Stuart - Excited

Ana - Shy

Darius - Angry

Janiyah - Tired, Hurt

Alex - Scared

We are making a feelings chart, we will be sure to show you when it's done!!

We practised showing different feelings on our faces!

Can you tell how we're feeling?!

Special Events: Egg Week! Day One

It's Egg Week! We will be doing something egg related every day this week, and today was a lesson on accepting people for who they are and how we're all the same on the inside. We used eggs to explain this! Each egg was different; one was white, one was brown, and one had some marks on it.

We talked about how they looked different and wondered if they would look the same on the inside. We made some predictions and then cracked them open to find out! What do you know; they were all the same! :)

Even though we all look different on the outside, inside, we're pretty much the same! We all have feelings, we all hurt, we all get scared! We also read a story about how we're all different shades to bring the whole idea together :)

Character Education: Self-Regulation

Today we had our first lesson on self-regulation. What is self-regulation?

Self regulation has two sides: First, it involves the ability to control one's impulses and to stop doing something, if needed... for example, a child can resist his immediate inclinations to blurt out the answer when the teacher poses a question to another child. Second, self-regulation involves the capacity to do something (even if one doesn't want to do it) because it is needed, such as awaiting one's turn or raising one's hand. Self regulated children can delay gratification and suppress their immediate impulses enough to think ahead to the possible consequences of their actions or to consider alternative actions that would be more appropriate. While most children know that they are supposed to "use their words" instead of fighting, only children who have acquired a level of self-regulation are actually able to use them".

It's an important component of the Kindergarten program. A part of self-regulation is being aware of our bodies and behaviour and being able to modify them based on the situation at hand.

Today we learned about the "engine" that is inside of us. Our lesson today explains our level of energy in 3 kid-friendly ways: slow, fast, and just right. Today we learned about what each level looks like. Fast is when we are running in the classroom, acting silly, screaming across the room, etc. Slow is when we're lethargic, sluggish, and just need a little boost. Just right is well, just that! Attentive and doing what we're supposed to be doing. We will continue to learn about our "engine" levels, how we can identify which one we're at, and how we can change levels to adjust appropriately to the task :)

Today we introduced bins that can help us alter our engine levels to "just right". The theory behind altering our engine levels is by using our five senses. Of course, we couldn't include all of them, but this is what I've come up with :) I've created 2 bins to help students get to "just right".

The first is called the "Calm Down Bin", and it's filled with all kinds of things that will help us chill out a bit :) It includes the following:

• a soft teddy bear (to cuddle with)
• pad of paper and crayons (to relax and draw a picture)
• squeeze toy (balloon filled with sand, to get out any aggression)
• lavender-scented rice with gems (evoke our senses)
• mini windmill toy (blow out any excess energy) 
• glitter 'calm down' jar (shake it to get out any excess energy and watch the glitter settle)

The next one is called the "Rev Up Bin", and it's filled with a couple of things students can do to help peak their energy. Unfortunately we couldn't include pixie sticks or redbull, so this is what I came up with :D

• coffee grounds (no, not to eat, but to smell... it works!)
• paddle ball (to help us concentrate and get us moving a bit)
• the game "Perfection" (to wake us up a bit!) 

Of course, the calm down bin will be used more than the rev up bin, and we will be helping students to identify how their engine is running and direct them to the appropriate bin. We have also helped try to minimize any distractions in the classroom (natural colours, comfortable environment) and keeping it as organized as possible.

Character Education: A Lesson on Kindness

Today we did a lesson on kindness, a very visual lesson! We did this lesson last year and it worked so well, we wanted to do it again. It seemed to really help the students understand what happens to others when we use hurtful words.

I had 2 apples in front of me: Apple #1 and Apple #2. I told students that we were going to use nice words to the first apple. We took turns passing the apple around in a circle, saying nice things to it like, "I love your color!", "I like you", and "You're a nice apple". We handled that apple very carefully. For the second apple, we took turns being mean to it, saying mean things like "I don't like you", and "You're ugly!".

Once we were done passing around both apples, we talked about what the apples looked like. They both looked the same on the outside- no noticeable changes yet (I may or may not have pre-bruised it;)). Then I took a knife and cut the apples in half. Apple #1, the one we were nice to, looked perfectly normal on the inside. When we cut Apple #2 in half, it was all brown, bruised, and squishy. This lead us to discuss that using mean words can make someone feel really bad on the inside, even if they don't show it on the outside. The idea behind this lesson is a bit abstract, in terms of relating it to how we feel, but I think students really understood what using mean words can do someone... or, some apple ;) We always have to think about what we're going to say before we say it, or we can make our friends really sad.

Character Education: Learning to Self-Regulate

Today we continued our learning on our "engine" levels. We reminded ourselves of what it looks like when our engines are running too high or too low. Now that we can recognize how fast our engine is running, we needed to learn how to alter it to get it to "just right". The theory behind altering our engine levels is by using our five senses. Of course, we couldn't include all of them, but this is what I've come up with :) I've created 2 bins to help students get to "just right".

The first is called the "Calm Down Bin", and it's filled with all kinds of things that will help us chill out a bit :) It includes the following:

• a soft teddy bear (to cuddle with)
• pad of paper and crayons (to relax and draw a picture)
• squeeze toy (balloon filled with sand, to get out any aggression)
• lavender-scented rice with gems (evoke our senses)
• mini windmill toy (blow out any excess energy) 
• glitter 'calm down' jar (shake it to get out any excess energy and watch the glitter settle)

The next one is called the "Rev Up Bin", and it's filled with a couple of things students can do to help peak their energy. Unfortunately we couldn't include pixie sticks or redbull, so this is what I came up with :D

• coffee grounds (no, not to eat, but to smell... it works!)
• paddle ball (to help us concentrate and get us moving a bit)
• the game "Perfection" (to wake us up a bit!) 

It was hard to think of things to put in the "rev up" bin, so if you have any suggestions, let me know! However, we feel as though students will most likely be needing the calm down bin, because engines tend to run pretty high in our classroom :\

The end goal is to have students understand what level their engine is running at and take the necessary steps to get them to "just right". However, we think it's probably more realistic to have students simply identify what level their engine is running at, and proceed to the right bin when directed by an adult. Maybe next year we can hope for that, but seeing as how it's the end of the year, we might not have enough time to get to that! We also reinforced that we shouldn't act like we're at a certain engine level just to go to a certain bin... we had some sleepy eyes after our lesson :P Feel free to use any of this language at home :) Some students are able to self-regulate better than others, and that depends on many external factors, but knowing the language and being "self-aware" is always a good thing!

Character Education: Introducing Self-Regulation

Today we had our first lesson on self-regulation. What is self-regulation? I explained it in a post which you can read here (Yay for me doing what I said I would!) :) It's an important component of the Kindergarten program that we will be exploring for the rest of the year. We received some resources to help us implement a new program, and this is what it's all about!

It explains our level of energy in 3 kid-friendly ways: low, high, and just right. Today we learned about what each level looks like. High is when we are running in the classroom, acting silly, screaming across the room, etc. Low is when we're lethargic, sluggish, and just need a little boost. Just right is well, just that! Attentive and doing what we're supposed to be doing. We will continue to learn about our "engine" levels, how we can identify which one we're at, and how we can change levels to adjust appropriately to the task :)

Character Education: Rule 3 - Helping Others!

We are on to learning about rule 3 of our class Friend Ship: helping others! We sat down together and came up with some ways we can help our friends in the classroom. Here are some ideas we came up with:

• Help them tidy up
• Help them feel better if they're sad or hurt
• Help them make something
• Help them do up their zippers or shoelaces
• Help them find something they lost
• Help them on the computer/iPad/SMARTboard

From the start of the year, we've encouraged our friends to help each other out, but it never hurts to give them a friendly reminder! :)

Character Education: Learning to Share

Today we had another lesson on sharing and what it looks like in our classroom. More specifically, we learned how to ask someone to share something and what to do if someone asks us. We learned that someone doesn't have to share something with us if they got it first. As a class, we came up with these ideas together if this did happen:

When you want someone to share something with you: 

"Can I play with you?"
"Can I have that after you're done?"
"Can I play with that when you are finished?"

When someone asks you to share with them:

"Yes, of course!"
"I just started playing with it, but I'll bring it to you after I'm done".

We got a chance to role play some scenarios. Here's an example:

We will practise this in the classroom during play and reinforce what to say when a problem arises :)