Manners Part 2

This lesson went hand in hand with the last Joy School lesson and went much better.

We started out with the Golden Rule flannel board story and changed the cranky little people pictures with bad traits with happy people. This made Hailey feel a lot better.

Then we talked about listening. Hailey has a great memory and was listing off her five senses to Nate and I earlier this morning. It has been a while since we mentioned those. So, when I put up the picture of a mouth and asked what it was for she mentioned tasting and talking. Then we talked about how we need to listen with our eyes and ears to understand what the person is trying to communicate.

We did a fun little exercise, where according to what sound I make a certain action is attached to it. For the oatmeal drum we are supposed to walk to the beat. For the clink of forks, we supposed to kneel down. For blocks tapping together, we are supposed to put hands in the air. And when I put a blanket (I don't have a hat) on my head, we are supposed to stand on one foot. Hailey did very well and enjoyed this game. She wanted a turn making the noises and having me listen.
Then I told a story about warm fuzzies and cold pricklies. A great book that I might add next time I do this lesson is "You are Special" by Max Lucado. Both stories are about nice things being handed out to people (warm fuzzies or stars) and mean things being handed out (cold pricklies and dots). So after the story, Hailey glued eyes and feet to make her warm fuzzy.

Chloe came home by this time and made one too. My warm fuzzy is the orange one, Hailey's is yellow, and Chloe's is white. The cold prickly is in bad with tooth picks.

This lesson is supposed to be done after Halloween, so they added a Thanksgiving activity. Since this went so well with the lesson, I kept it in. On each feather is a kind or unkind saying and the kids decide which one is it before adding it to the turkey.

This was a fun lesson. I liked teaching it.

Manners Part 1

This lesson was a little difficult because of how sensitive Hailey is. When I talk about anything negative, she picks up on the feeling of it very quickly and shuts down a little. So with that in mind, here's how our lesson went.

First, I had puppets act out several situations on playing with friends and using nice words. Each situation had two endings with the incorrect way mentioned first to give the child a chance to figure out how to approach it better. Hailey didn't give me any suggestions she just enjoys watching the puppets.

Then the children are supposed to dramatize a different set of situations that I had for them. I tried to explain that to Hailey that we were just pretending but she did not understand. The first scenario is to have one kid take away a toy the first kid had. Hailey had a tiny block with her, so I told her I was going to take it away and then did. She had a complete breakdown. I tried giving it back but she wouldn't have it so I picked her up and set her on my lap to comfort her, to find out a little too late that in the middle of this drama she peed her pants. I was wet, Hailey was wet and still crying. After almost 5 minutes, both situations were taking care of and I finished acting out the scenarios with the puppets.

After that we learned a song and talked about the golden rule which had a flannel board story with it. The story was about a village of 10 little people who were unhappy because no one knew the golden rule. Each person had a negative trait about them that we went over. Then they story ends with a "to be continued" to talk about how things change with the golden rule. Well, because Hailey is so sensitive, she didn't like the story and made her very sad (lucky no tears this time).

Then we talked about manners and had another puppet show. Hailey understands saying please, thank you, and excuse me. Then I was supposed to read "Mind your Manners" by Peggy Perrish but I had a hard time finding any books about manners. Then I found "Say Please" by Kate Tym which is about a bossy friend who never said please or thank you and his other friend always did what was asked of him. Then the tables get switched when the easy-going friend switched homes with his cousin for two weeks and bossed around the original bossy friend. This situation doesn't work in real life. When you get two strong head personalities together, you just get more fighting. The children don't look at the situation and say "oh! I don't like being bossed and maybe I shouldn't do it to others." But oh well.

We finished the lesson by making a kind words booklet.
After Hailey glued in the words she wanted to color. The interesting thing is that she's not coloring the shapes, she is tracing the words.

Then she wanted to write her name on the back. She's been able to make an H for a long time but hasn't done any other letters clearly. So, I wrote a letter at the top one at a time for her to copy.

She did a great job. I could tell what each of her letters were. The Y is at the beginning since she ran out of space but she did an excellent job. I'm so proud and amazed by Hailey.

Relationships Part 2

Today was a strange day since Chloe and Luc had no school and still needed to be watched. So, I had them from 8:30-5:30. However, neither wanted to do Joy School so today was the first day of just Hailey and I.

First we talked about the importance of having friends and how they make us happy. Then we did a figure play with elephants.

Then I had a flannel board story about how it would be if Hailey was the only person in the world. Following that, it talks about since she is not the only person that she needs to learn how to get along with others.

After that we were supposed to read "The Quarreling Book" by Charlotte Zolotow but my library doesn't carry it. I did find "The Rain Came Down" by David Shannon in book and tape form and am very glad I checked it out. The point that Joy School wanted to introduce is that feelings are contagious. In "The Quarreling Book" everything goes down hill because the husband forgets to kiss his wife goodbye and in "The Rain Came Down" it starts with the rain. It was a great, funny book with good illustrations.

To help illustrate what contagious means we talked about how a mirror copies everything that we do (we also learned a song about it). We also did an art project about reflection. We dipped yarn into a pile of paint then put it on one side of the piece of paper and smashed the paper together to get the reflected image on the other side.
Hailey thought it was very fun.

Hailey's finished project is the one on top, while mine is on bottom.

Then we finished with another book. The recommended book was "That's What a Friend Is" by P.K. Hallinan but since the library didn't have it we did "Rainbow Fish" by Leo Leonni.

This lesson had a lot of books which is what Hailey enjoys.

Communicate and Friends Part 1

Unit three is split up in two parts. The first part was about Realness, Honesty and Candor and the second part which we are starting now is about Communication and Relationships.

So, we started with how dogs communicate and compare it to how we communicate. Then we learned a song "Talk, Talk, Talk" which is about how we don't have to fight because we can talk instead.

Then we had a flannel board story about a boy who couldn't talk and we discussed how we would feel if we couldn't talk.

After that, we moved to the relationship portion of the lesson. I did a flannel board story about how boring Joy School would be with only the teacher and one kid and that we are so thankful for friends at Joy School. This was kind of interesting to do because there is only two kids anyhow. Then I learned that Luc is switching to an all day kindergarten, so I only babysit him on Thursdays after 3. Now it will be just Hailey and I for Joy School. I'm still excited about it. Hailey talks more when it's just the two of us.

We finished the lesson by having them color two paper dolls to represents friends.