Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Drum Day! and a Social and Emotional Development Home Run!

We are traveling the world this month with Mother Goose Time.  Yesterday we learned about drums and we had some great moments.

We reviewed the ABBC pattern which is the pattern on the calendar and on the pattern set that came in today's bag.

Then we got to work making our paper drum craft.  First I asked the boys, what can you pound on to make noise?  Both of them started drumming, Peter on the desk where he was sitting and Lachlan on the table where he was sitting. 

Peter wanted his drum to be a home for his "guinea pig". 
He is shoving him in there now. Not to worry, it's just a beanie baby guinea pig. 

After the drums were built we moved on to the lesson Play Your Emotions.  I thought this was great.  It asked, what sounds do you make when you are happy? Sad?
 Peter demonstrated.  Yay, wahoo! As he jumped up and down, drum over head.
Now sad, he sighed a big deep sigh and brought his drum low and his shoulders down.  Pretty good acting I thought!
 Next I asked them to play a happy rhythm on the drum and then a sad one.
Happy was a quick beat. 

Sad was a slow beat. 

Next was a beautiful moment that just happened.  Peter has really been trying to get his ABC song just perfect.  He knows most of it of course and has known it for some time.  But towards the tail end some of the letters get a bit jumbled.  He just recently discovered that the song correlates to our alphabet chart and he can follow along with the letters as he sings.  I have caught him singing the song to himself quite often. 

Peter started singing it on this morning and went over to the alphabet chart to follow along with his finger.  At one point he started losing track of where he was in the song and Lachlan took over singing for him.  He made sure to stay in time with Peter and his pointing. 
 I was able to grab my camera and catch the tail end of this moment. 
Here Lachlan watching Peter in order to sing in time to his pointing. 

I love this sort of cooperative learning.  It falls under the section 3.2 and 3.3 of the Developmental Continuum, Social Relationships, cooperates and cares for and responds to others. 

Benchmark E under 3.2 (Cooperates) states: seeks out opportunities to help others.  Tries to solve own social problems. 

3.3 (Cares for and responds to others) Benchmark F states: Identifies feelings of others and responds accordingly. 

The 3 Social and Emotional skills are the first three listed on the Continuum.  I don't think that is by accident.  I know the heart of Mother Goose Time and I know the value they put on children learning these skills.  I didn't even realize these skills were actually part of what they learn at this age, I thought it was just part of learning how to be a good human being.  But these are skills Mother Goose Time incorporates in their lessons. 

I first realized how important these life skills were when I got a copy of the Curriculum Framework Book.  I love this book for many reasons.  One reason is because it has great information but the second reason is because it is filled with pictures of my boys!
This page was the first time it really hit home that I was doing okay as a teacher if my children were excelling in the social and emotional development and maybe a bit behind in their ABCs.  That the social and emotional skills are just as important at this age if not more so.
Mother Goose Time included a series of photos of my boys sitting at the counter.  Lachlan was holding down the paper for Peter, helping him to write.  They highlighted the skills 3.2 and 3.3 that I mentioned above and placed my Lachlan at Benchmark E which is towards the pre-primary level of skills.  At the time he was in preschool, so this placed him a little ahead.  I was thrilled! 

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