Community Helpers

 We talked about community helpers this week, and particularly focused on firefighters. We read books about firefighters and their work. There were books that showed a "day in the life" of a firefighter, and imaginative books about visits to the fire station. We sang firefighter songs, and one of our art projects was to glue a "fire truck."

 There were small fire fighters, trucks, ladders, and a fire house for small group play. The children enacted the roles of rescuers and helpers, "sleeping" at the fire station, organizing  and sorting the fire trucks and fire fighters, and staging rescues.

 City blocks, policemen, and all sorts of vehicles were provided for imaginative play. We had coloring pages with fire hydrants, fire trucks, and firefighters for the children to color and cut out as they wished.

 Lavender play dough to create with. This group made birthday cakes!

 Palabras de la Semana:

Bombero - firefighter
Carro de Bombero - fire truck
peligro - danger
seguridad - safety

A coloring and gluing page helped to reinforce the Spanish vocabulary.

 Good times at the fire station! Singing songs, and trying out our driving skills on the big fire trucks. The children watched a dad get dressed up in the Fire Fighter gear and then got to shake his hand. Familiarity with the work of the fire fighters helps the children to feel safe.

I noticed the  many wonderful interactive moments and something that 4's do best, which is learning from each other. Sometimes behaviors are imitated that aren't successful for the child and we, as the teachers, remind the child in our calm response, choices, and consequences,  that there's another way to get what we want.  Typically there is a lot of negotiating in our classroom, particularly in the block corner, as ideas are shared and structures are built.  We help the children to speak to each other and support their attempts to cooperate with each other. We say things like "try talking to _________, she's a listener," and "if you're not sure what to do, you can ask ___________" which helps the children to recognize each other 's abilities as well as their own skills. There is so much conversation, which is the gift of being in a classroom with a group of 4's.

 The block rug became a fire truck rescue space on Thursday! The children donned gear, grabbed "radios", and built a long fire truck together. There was a lot of negotiating regarding the driver and the captain, but somehow it worked when one child said "I'm the driver and the captain."


The children "radioed" each other to ask for help, worked together to rescue and put out fires, and then decided that the fire engine was also a place to sleep.

"Pets" and dollhouse people were rescued by the basket full.  

We love being in a school community! We had an impromptu "kindness summit" with our K-1 friends. We talked about how to be a good friend.  We shared some pictures of conflict and friendship as conversation starters, and problem solved what could be done to change the outcome of a conflict, or why it feels good to have friends. We were so proud of the respect that the children showed each other in our meeting. Some of the words that the children shared included "my mother says to treat others as you want to be treated" and "this is a peace zone" and "you can wrestle at home, but no wrestling at school!" We wrote the words down, on circles of paper ("kindness bubbles") and the children colored them in small groups. We will hang up our "kindness summit" work in the hall-please take a look!

Until Next Time,
Michele