Dear Green Room Families,

This week in the Green Room, we talked about flexibility using the gingerbread stories familiar to children. We used different variations of the same story with different endings to show how things can and do change. Flexibility is key in these situations. Teaching flexibility to preschoolers is crucial for developing problem-solving, emotional regulation, and social skills, helping them adapt to changes, manage frustration, understand others' perspectives, and build resilience for future learning and life challenges. It reduces tantrums, fosters creativity, and makes them more open to trying new things, setting a foundation for lifelong success and wellbeing. 

On Monday, after reading The Gingerbread Man by Karen Schmidt and The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst with alternate endings, Teacher Karla talked about how important it is to be flexible and how things can change throughout the week, so we could practice our flexibility. We switched where we sat, made tiny changes in our schedule (such as singing the goodbye song in the morning and the good morning song at the end of the day) and put out centers demonstrating flexible vs. non-flexible material. We used puppets to act out sharing or different ideas, showing how to be flexible when two puppets want the same toy. The children made their own gingerbread people with diverse hair, eyes and colors. We talked about how we are all different, yet all the same.

 OnTuesday, Teacher Karla worked with the children while they made beautiful, creative gingerbread houses, each one unique and different using recycled materials, dot paint, beads, buttons and pom poms.

In Music class, we met our new interim teacher, Brian. He started class with the “Name Song” to introduce himself and get to know the children’s names, before engaging the class in a music movement song using the drums and giving the kids scarves to dance along with the song. Teacher Brian gave the children tambourines and played along with his drum and ukulele. He ended class by teaching the children musical notes using solfège (or sol-fa), an education method that involves assigning syllables (do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti) to scale tones.

In preparation for our MLK Day Celebration and Community Feast Friday, we read Be A King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford and Good Night Martin Luther King Jr. by Adam Gamble and Mark Jasper. We talked about Martin Luther King Jr. as a kind leader who wanted everyone to be treated fairly and with respect, focusing on his dream for a world where people are judged by their character, not skin color. We used simple concepts such as kindness, fairness, and conversation (not fighting) to solve problems. The class made a project called “Small Hands Change The World,” in which we painted our hand prints with a small poem that read, “With these hands I'll share and care, spread love and kindness everywhere.” The children also partnered up and made Ruby Bridges and MLK JR. posters for our walk.

Fun Friday brought us a special Friday 15 where we had a MLK Day Celebration, Walk Around the Dream Court to honor Ruby Bridges, and followed this with our Community Feast. We thank all of the families that contributed to the feast/potluck and joined us for this celebration! 

We wish everyone a wonderful weekend.

Warmly,
Nancy & Karla 

Click on the picture below to sign up