Praising and Rewarding Young Children

"Praise your children more than you correct them. Praise them for even their smallest achievement." - Ezra Taft Benson

Praise nurtures children’s confidence and sense of self. By using praise, we can show our children how to think and talk positively about themselves. It's a way of helping our child learn how to recognise when they do well and feel proud of themselves. When we feel good about our children, we can convey the same to them. We can try and give our children some words of encouragement regularly. The small things we say can build up over time to have a big effect on our children.

Coming up with encouraging words for kids can be tricky. Experts say, descriptive praise is when we tell our children exactly what it is that we like. It can help the child understand exactly what it is that they’ve done well. It’s also more genuine than generalized praise like ‘You’re a good boy’. We can help our children recognise when they’ve done well and encourage good behaviour.

Encouragement should be focused on praise for effort – for example, ‘You worked really hard on that Lego tower – well done’. Praising effort can motivate the child and encourage them to try hard in the future. Parents’ encouragement for kids can enhance children’s engagement and perseverance.

We can also use encouragement 'before' the child does something. For example, ‘Show me how well you can put your toys away’. Some children, especially those who are less confident than others, need more encouragement than others. When praise is focused on effort, children are more likely to see trying hard as a good thing in itself. They’re also more likely to keep trying and to be optimistic when they face challenges.

A reward can be termed as a result of good behaviour. Rewards can help make praise and encouragement work better. So when we praise or encourage the child’s behaviour and then reward it, the behaviour is more likely to happen again. It could be a treat, a surprise or an extra privilege. For example, as a reward for picking up the toys, we can take them to the park, or for keeping their room tidy, children can choose what’s for dinner. Or giving the child a surprise with a reward for good behaviour like a playdate. Children are more likely to repeat behaviour that earns praise or encouragement. This means we can use praise and encouragement to change difficult behaviour and replace it with desirable behaviour. It’s best not to overuse rewards though. The first step could be to watch for times when the child behaves in positive ways, or makes an effort. When we see this, we need to immediately get the child’s attention and tell them exactly what we liked – for example, ‘David, I liked how you waited your turn to play with that toy. Well done’

Nonverbal ways to praise or encourage children can be a good idea. A thumbs up, smile or high five can be powerful ways to show the child we’re impressed by their behaviour or efforts. Rather than waiting until the child has done something perfectly, little changes and successes can be applauded. Giving a compliment or trying to praise any effort or improvement can do the trick.

Trying to praise more than criticise is also important. Experts say, praise your child five times for every one time you say something negative. Praising the child for their strengths and encouraging the child to feel excited about their own interests can help the child develop a sense of pride and self-confidence.

Trying to make the praise believable and appropriate to the behaviour is another important aspect. If our praises are exaggerated, the child might not believe it. We sometimes praise our children purposely to boost their self-esteem, motivate them, encourage certain behavior, or protect from them from hurtful feelings. However, if encouraging words are not perceived as sincere and honest, children won’t feel very encouraged.

However we choose to do it, it's important to praise a child with words appropriately and effectively. Words of encouragement for kids, when used right, can have a lasting and powerful positive impact.

Thank You

Purva Deosugur

Center Head Olive Trails

The wellness week

Nursery

Olive Trails Preschool goes beyond ABCs and 123s to instil the skills of ideation, confidence, communication and collaboration – skills that are needed not just for school but for life. Such special celebrations allow us to foster these skills in the nurturing minds of our preschoolers. With an objective to educate children about physical, mental, emotional and social health Olive Trails RBKIS celebrated Wellness Week from 23rd February till 25th February.

Wellness Week is a school wellness program that consists of different themes each day. Wellness isn’t just about healthy eating, it is a state of health in body, mind and soul. We can teach and help our children to grow up with an attitude of wellness.

Staying healthy and well is important. It makes us feel better, be more productive and ultimately live longer. Children who enjoy good health and well-being are innately curious. They have a zest for life which results in their taking advantage of opportunities to grow and develop, to advance their knowledge, skills and attitudes in all areas of learning. It’s never too early to begin practicing healthy habits for overall wellness.

Children at this age gain many new skills, and they feel more and more independent. They may be curious, wanting to explore the world around them, and act without thinking. In order to ensure physical well being our nursery learners were imparted knowledge on Safety measures and First aid as our wellness week commenced so that they learn how to identify problems and communicate their ideas and feelings about potentially dangerous situations. They learn how to think through problems and create solutions.

Oral health and Nutrition were the highlights of the Day 2 of wellness week. Children need to eat healthy to help keep their teeth free from decay and other dental problems. Good nutrition involves all the food groups, and healthy choices make for good dental health. An activity on sorting food for strong teeth not only helped learners to gain knowledge on the foods that are good for the teeth but also helped to imbibe healthy eating habits among our little ones.

Day 3 emphasised on the social and emotional well being for the learners. Children have ways to receive comfort, express their feelings, strengthen their connections with people around them. Learners made stress reliever pouches which helped them to recognise emotions and to use it as a coping mechanism to deal with anxiety and overwhelming situations. Learners also learnt about social wellbeing by sharing the stress ball with people around them to help them deal with difficult emotions.

Our K1 Teachers conducted a Yoga session with the learners On the first day of the celebration. The teacher displayed a few yoga poses and guided the learners to replicate them. The learners were refreshed after the session.

On Day 2 of wellness week, learners of K1A prepared a healthy and delicious tossed salad using different veggies, corn and sprouts. Salads are packed with lots of nutrients and vitamins and the super easiest way to get kids eating at least two servings of vegetables which they need to grow big and strong.

Wellness – a word that is being used abundantly especially during the current times as we are fighting the Covid-19 pandemic. However, wellness is a continuous process that needs conscious and continuous attention. When we talk about wellness, there are five dimensions that define our complete wellbeing which include- Physical, Mental, Social, Intellectual, and Spiritual. So we take care of our physical health by doing certain physical activities which include, eating healthy, exercising, and sleeping on time and so on. Similarly for mental health, we need to consciously take care of the thoughts that we think, exercise our mind through meditation, and so on. Social well being is all about having healthy social relationships, maintaining happy friendships, and so on. To celebrate the wellness week our K2 learners were packed up with activities to build an awareness of overall good health. K2 teachers planned a week of fun and engaging activities designed to get learners on the path to wellness. The week consists of different themes each day. Learners were encouraged to eat vegetables, move their bodies, and have fun.

The theme for day one for K2 was ‘Munchies Monday’, where we munched on salad bite by bite. Teacher further stated the benefits of eating salads and reasons why it must be a part of our daily food habits. The activity began with eating healthy….Our learners were instructed to make “Tossed salad with a French dressing”. They followed every step of making a healthy salad. The ingredients included cherry tomatoes, zucchini, iceberg, bell peppers, cucumber, boiled broccoli, mushroom and babycorn, etc. accompanied by mustard sauce, lemon/vinegar, pepper, olive oil and salt to taste. They were shown a video on healthy food versus junk food as they were encouraged to munch through their salad and enjoy it. The teacher then asked the learners to share their views for the same.

The theme for day two for K2 was, ‘Fitness Tuesday’. Teacher stated the benefits of exercising and how one must practise healthy habits to attain better physical and mental health outcomes. Teacher further added that each of us must understand the importance of exercising as it’s linked to our health. Teacher played a fun game, ‘Spin the wheel’. Learners did different poses as mentioned on the wheel. Teacher also incorporated a little bit of yoga at the start and end of the lesson.

The third day we incorporated few tips on washing hands to fight germs and diseases which should be practiced regularly and made a part of our routine. An experiment using water, pepper powder and hand-wash was conducted in class by the teacher to demonstrate how a hand-wash works as a disinfectant.

It was followed by an activity where learners could express their emotions and write about their feelings.A template was shared on Seesaw ,How I am feeling today? regarding the same. The learners enjoyed expressing themselves in different ways.They were introduced to different kinds of emotions like,happy,sad,excited,content,angry,overjoyed etc.

“Emotions influence every action we take. So the more we are aware of our feelings, the more we gain conscious control over our lives.” “Being able to be aware that we have thoughts, but that we are not our thoughts, is a major breakthrough for people seeking emotional health and spiritual wellbeing."

Nursery - Math - Shapes

From an early age, kids notice different shapes even if they don’t yet know that the shapes have names. It takes longer for young children to learn the specific properties of each shape, such as the number of sides or how the shape looks. Giving preschoolers lots of practice with shapes helps them solidify their understanding of the two-dimensional structures. That knowledge of shapes gives the young children an advantage in many areas of learning like literacy,math,categorising and comparisons and problem solving.

Learners of Olive Trails RBKIS Nursery reiterated their shapes with the help of an activity wherein they created an image with the usage of different shapes. It was great to watch our preschoolers determining the correct spot for different shapes and using them creatively to build a new image.

Nursery - theme - sorting animal types

Sorting is a common preschool activity that children enjoy doing all on their own. Sorting helps make sense of the world. But it’s also a great way to talk about attributes and differences in the items one is planning to sort.

A category sorting activity looking at the categories items including sea creatures, farm animals and wild animals was planned for the learners of Olive Trails RBKIS Nursery Categories are an important area and support learners in learning vocabulary and making links between words.

Kindergarten 1 - Theme - school magazine

As a continuation of the School magazine making activity, the third page of the magazine was made by the learners. They made their own drawing wearing the school uniform and labelled it with their name.

Kindergarten 2 - English - Positional words

Positional words (or positional language) are words and phrases that describe the position of people or objects. Examples would be the words 'in', 'under', and 'over', or the phrases 'on top of', or 'next to'. Positional words help kindergarten-age students relate to where they are in the world around them and understand how objects relate to one another. The importance of teaching preposition words to children resides in the fact that they mark the relationships between persons, objects, and locations and directions. By using them correctly, young learners will significantly improve their communication skills since prepositions will help them put their vocabulary together in order to structure more complex sentences that could represent their thoughts and ideas more clearly.

Teacher began the lesson with a fun activity to unpack ‘Positional words’. Teacher along with the learners played ‘Simon says’ and the learners had a blast with their soft toys. Examples would be, Simon says take your toy outside the room and bring it inside the room, Simon says, Place your toy above your head’, Simon says, ‘Place your toy under the table’, Simon says, ‘Place your toy on your knee’...In this lesson, teacher further explained that we use position words to describe positions of objects. These activities work one-on-one, in learning centers or in small groups. We ended the lesson with jotting down all the positional words in their respective books namely, in, out, far, near, under, above, behind, next to, in front of, between, inside, outside.

Kindergarten 2 - theme - Money (Ways to earn money)

We all know that experience trumps everything else. Kids who grow up getting paid for chores will have a better concept of the value of money than kids that don’t get paid for chores. Having some sort of allowance for higher level chores will help your kids learn the value of a paise, a rupee and perhaps a 100 rs bill as they get older. The value of money is something we all need to learn in order to succeed in adulthood. When you take the time to pay kids for chores, they start to develop a strong work ethic. They understand that they will lose out on money if they slack and in turn their internal drive to earn cash increases. This teaches your kids a good solid skill of knowing they must work to earn money for their wants as well as needs. To inculcate this value our K2 learners were given different tasks to complete and earn money for jobs completed. A chore list with the rate attached to it was shared with the parents. The learners had to work for every penny mentioned and make a list of their earnings and share it with the total amount in class. The learners were quite excited as they shared about their hard earned money. This activity taught them money management skills as well as about money spending decisions.

Kindergarten 2 - Theme - Money (Needs and Wants)

Needs are something that you must have, in order to live. On the contrary, wants are something that you wish to have, so as to add comforts in your life. Needs represents the necessities while wants indicate desires. Needs are important for the human being to survive. Needs include air, food, water, clothing and shelter. Wants are things that we would like to have, such as toys and games. Sometimes needs and wants overlap. For example, a person needs food to survive, but he doesn't need ice cream.

K2 teacher began the lesson with an introduction and defined what’s needs and wants. Teacher further explained that ‘needs’ are things that we have to have and ‘wants’ are things that we wish to have. Teacher discussed examples of ‘needs’ including food, water, shelter, clothing and ‘wants’ including car, expensive chocolates, fancy clothing, house with a garden, etc. Learners were motivated to sort them into their respective categories through a group discussion.

Kindergarten 2 - Math - Subtraction

Subtraction means to take away from a group or a number of things. When we subtract, the number of things in the group reduce or become less.

K2 teacher began the class with Introduction of Subtraction. Teacher explained to the learners subtraction is to take away or to remove the object from group and then count how many object are left. She showed learners the symbol of subtraction ”-” She also gave some examples followed by an activity.

Learners were asked to build a tower out of paper glass and then knock it off with ball. At the same time they were also informed to write it in their math book. They were suppose to write the total number of glass built in the tower and when they knock off the tower with ball, the glass that falls down they will minus that much number from the total. So it was play, fun and learn at the same time.

wishing our Birthday Stars a very happy birthday!

Devansh Darshan Valanju - K1 - 29th March

Zion Asifali Karediya - K1 - 21st March

Tanay Amit Verma - K2 - 6th March

Vihaan Bharat Choudhary - K2 - 7th March

Reya Pranay Tadilkar - K2 - 10th March