Our work this week in honor of Dr King’s birthday is made of leftover watercolor paintings, affirmations and many stories to go with it.
Watch out world for these confident, curious, choice making, body relaxing, expressing, listening, hope filled children who belong in this world.
THE “STOP HAND” SAFETY PLAN
originally posted in September 2018
It seems timely to share one of our newest “safety plans” at preschool. We have preschoolers who, for a variety of reasons, are nonverbal or limited in their verbal communication.
In an attempt to equip them with another option for self advocacy, I spontaneously instituted a new safety plan:
If someone puts their hand forward in a “stop” fashion, the plan is that the other person immediately turn and walk away. (not just stay outside of their bubble, but actually retreat)
What we do next depends on the moment. Does the “stopper” feel safe? Did the “walker” leave? Does the “walker” or “stopper” want to process what happened? Does the “walker” feel wrongly accused? It’s potentially messy, with misunderstandings and hurt feelings possible…and that’s what we teachers are there to help navigate.
And, imagine this….deep breath….
imagine living your life
where silently lifting your hand
forward in the direction of anyone
would guarantee
your boundary
completely
honored.
It heals me.
With the 2020-2021 school year online other than a weekly lending library of toys/books/equipment, we honor the life of Dr. King via YouTube, Facebook and Zoom.
At one point during Circle Time today, I will say the word “capital” when I’m referencing the letter M that we are making. I would invite you to watch your children’s faces as an indicator if that word is yet a “trigger” for them.
Young children are beautifully complex creatures and capable of feeling many things at the same time. My hope for this week is that we can have the blend of joy over celebrating a birthday of a great leader of our nation and at the same time grieve what life was like for him when he was a little boy and have the courage to look around us and see how some of those things persist in our nation today.
Here is a video from years ago of our preschool honoring the life of Dr King (These sweet children are in middle school and high school now!): https://youtu.be/zsYJELiMkDw
During Circle Time, we take picture walks through several books that I recommend if you’re looking for young child-friendly books on Dr King. They are listed below in the Circle Time schedule.
Here are the links for Circle Time today:
via YouTube:
via Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/newcreationpreschoolnewton/posts/5312169008800890=
Circle Time: M is for Martin
🛎 Bell ringing: black and white
🌀Breath with Famous Amos cookies (thanks, Mr Wally Amos!)
🎶 We Wish You Well
🎂 Birthday Song: Maxton
🌟 Golden Letter of the Week song: Maxton, Macie, Matilda and Maddux
🎂🌟BONUS Birthday/Golden Letter friend: the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr
🍎 Letter of the Week project: M is for Martin (using a magnifying glass!)
✏️ Drawing Time: restaurant rules
📚 Picture walk:
“The Story of Martin Luther King Jr,” Moore
“Welcome Books: Martin Luther King Jr,” Walker
“The Story of Ruby Bridges,” Coles
“Mae Among the Stars,” Ahmed
🌈Alphabet actions: blast off like Mae
☀️ Goodbye poem: While we are under the same sun, life experiences and opportunities are different.
New Creation Preschool PLAY DAYS are back. This summer will be a hybrid of virtual learning and hands-on activity boxes. Ms. Kristin will broadcast from her home in Kansas and ship PLAY DAY BOXES via USPS.
Facebook live PLAY DAY CIRCLE TIMES will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 am CST (see schedule below). Like our school year live Circle Times, these are free with no registration required. Watching the PLAY DAY CIRCLE TIMES will not be necessary to utilize the PLAY DAY BOXES.
PLAY DAY BOXES can by purchased for the suggested price of $10 (shipping included) to arrive by mail with supplement materials. Each PLAY DAY BOX has one kit of supplies. You can add additional kits in a box for the suggested price of $5/kit.
There is one box for every PLAY DAY (meaning 21 in all). You can choose which ones you would like to receive.
I will demonstrate using these materials during the live circle times but I will not talk with children about the option to purchase them. This way, children without PLAY DAY BOXES are full participants in the PLAY DAY CIRCLE TIMES.
With this form you can
•place an order to receive PLAY DAY BOXES at your house
•place an order for PLAY DAY BOXES to be shipped to someone else
•place an order for PLAY DAY BOXES that kristin will distribute to families experiencing financial stress
•request to be notified when donated PLAY DAY BOXES are available
If there is more than one child in the home, you have a couple of options:
•purchase a PLAY DAY BOX for each of them and they will ship separately (fill out a separate form for each)
•purchase a single PLAY DAY BOX and indicate how many separate kits you want included within that box (suggested price of additional $5/kit)
All funds generated beyond shipping and supply costs will be added to the Preschool Fund (used to purchase new equipment/supplies for our preschool).
PLAY DAYS 2020:
june 2: rainbow day
june 4: hug your cat day
june 9: iced tea day
june 11: corn on the cob day
june 16: fresh veggies day
june 18: juneteenth
june 23: pink (it’s for everyone) day
june 25: chocolate pudding day
june 30: postal worker day
july 2: mae jemison appreciation/ufo day
july 7: strawberry sundae day
july 9: teddy bear picnic day
july 14: shark awareness day
july 16: snake day
july 21: world jump day
july 23: amelia earhart day
july 28: milk chocolate day
july 30: international day of friendship
august 4: chocolate chip cookie day
august 6: wiggle your toes day
august 11: the (final) dog day of summer
h is for hunger, part one: the collecting
we collected and sorted food all week for The Salvation Army Harvey County.
hooray for teamwork, strong bodies and gentle hearts.
🌈💪🏽❤️
h is for hunger, part two: the pricing
each piece of food got at least one heart sticker. this food won’t cost anyone anything and we give it away to The Salvation Army Harvey County with love. ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
(also, in order to make this video i had to turn off the music that had been playing…so they are “freezing” until it’s back on. 😂)
h is for hunger, part three: the counting
we estimated, guessed, hypothesized and did a lot of counting.
the final count as the last mama brought a bag of donations when picking up her thursday afternoon kiddo was 108 items of food.
lining the food up to make a “parade” helped with counting.
this video is thursday morning, by thursday afternoon the food went all the way under the tub table and touched the wall!
h is for hunger, part four: the bagging up
while we permitted playing with the food all week which included bagging things up, thursday afternoon had the final opportunity.
we recognized the skill it takes to effectively pack a bag of canned goods and called out “thank you” to the workers in our community who do this work so well.
h is for hunger, part five: the processing
one of the things i hope to impart on these children is that there doesn’t have to be the “other.”
we all experience hunger, we all need food. there are some of us who have resources to get food into our home and there are some of us who use the resource of The Salvation Army Harvey County to get food.
this is not about the other, the poor, those less fortunate than us. this is about us, our community, working together.
and honestly, i don’t think they learnt any of it from me. they already knew it. “if someone is hungry and doesn’t have food, then someone who has extra food gives it to them.”
simple.
h is for hunger, part six: the giving
a few days later, during church on sunday morning, a few preschoolers (who also attend New Creation Fellowship Church) brought our donations to the front of the sanctuary.
and one day later a preschool family took the food to The Salvation Army Harvey County and found out it weighed 126 pounds!!!
way to go, families. we made a difference in our community. and if you imagine those young hands blessing as they handled the food, that food is BLESSED. 😂😂
🌈🖐🏻🤚🏼🖐🏽🤚🏾🖐🏾🤚🏿🌈
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