This is how we roll...

the teachers that is! 

Counting is FUN

We have introduced these counting cards.  They are helpful in may ways.  Young children often lack the finger dexterity show "how many" on their little hands. These cards can help illustrate the finger movements.  They also work on number identification, counting skills and one to one correspondence. AND they are fun and the kids love them!  Easy to make at home.  Just take a picture or use Google images to find them and make number cards.  Enjoy and happy counting!

Yoga Recommendation from a parent

One of our families has begun to introduce YOGA to their 3 year old with great success!  She uses the Cosmic Kids Yoga videos on Youtube.

Check it out! 

http://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga

We will be doing some yoga with our classes this spring, so it would be fun to try it at home as well.

Play!

Things That Go!!  Here's Carrie modeling our new cars. 

We are busy getting ready for next week!  Carrie created cars to race around the playground.  We will be talking about boats and do a sink the boat experiment.  Please send in extra pennies!  We will donate them to the food shelf when we finish.  We will explore cars, buses, boats and other vehicles.  We are recycling Girl Scout cookie boxes into blocks to create vehicles that we can "ride" in for dramatic play.  Books on our agenda include:  My Car and Who Sank the Boat?  Activities includes painting with vehicles and a car wash in the water table. 

For classroom use, we could use: 

• Small paper plate
• Clorox Wipes
• Paper towels
• Corn starch
• Salt
• Flour
• Cream of Tartar
• Shaving Cream
• Forks

If you have donated items often in the past, please take this month off.  We love donations but don't want to over tax anyone family!  Thank you for everything that has come in. 

The Doctor's office theme will be wrapping up this week.  The kids have really enjoyed giving the babies, each other and the teachers shots and exams.  We will send home borrowed items soon. 

COMMUNITY FORUM...

The School Board and Dr. Barone have scheduled a Community Forum
on the FY 14 Budget for April 2nd at 7:00pm in the Library at Milton High
School. This will be an opportunity for community members to give input
as to why the FY 14 Budget went down on March 5th and to give input/
recommendations on how to move forward with another budget vote.
We are encouraging all Milton voters to attend this meeting. The School
Board, the Superintendent and the Leadership Team will be in attendance.

When to say "No Thank You"...

No Thank You... It is a phrase that is entirely appropriate to encourage children to say when they are offered something that they do not want.

Recently many childcare providers, teachers and parents have been using the phrase "No Thank You" when a child is engaging in an undesirable behavior.  This sometimes works to stop the child from doing what you do not want them to do, however it provides no information or context for what behaviors you ARE looking for.

As an example, if a child is splashing water vigorously in the water table and you would like them to splash in a calmer way, it is far more effective and instructive to say "Make little splashes" or "Keep your hands calm" rather than "No Thank You".  By telling the child the behavior you WANT them to engage in you are giving them information they can take action on.

Another example is if a child is being aggressive and you would like the child to move away from the situation.  By saying "No Thank You", you are giving the child the message that an alternative would be "Yes Thank You" if you wanted to be hit.  Difficult for children to sort out what the true message is.  A better option would be "Put your hands down" or "Take a deep breath" or "Sit in the chair", then when the child is calm, addressing the issue.

It is a hard habit to break ,but one that is important for children to learn the behaviors we WANT to see!

And save the "No Thank You" for when someone offers you more cookies and you are full!