Kindergarten:
The month of February is full of festivals and celebrations connected to loving friendship, family and community. This month we will focus on nurturing and appreciating our friendships, sharing and honouring our family and helping our school community with good and kind deeds.
In the Kindergarten, social-emotional awareness, interpersonal skills, communication skills and social behaviours are cultivated, developed and practiced through self-directed imaginative play, morning circle, daily practical activities and direct social modelling from the teachers.
Self-directed imaginative play supports and develops:
- receptive language skills (listening to a friend’s ideas)
- expressive language skills (sharing ideas and expressing emotional needs to your peer)
- problem-solving and cooperation skills
- self-regulation
- sense of self and identity
- opportunities to explore social role models, experience different ways of being and explore emotional range and expression
Morning circle provides social learning opportunities:
- to develop an awareness and sense for the whole group (morning greeting & listening to peers’ sharing their thoughts, feelings and needs in the circle)
- to experience social cohesion and social harmony (singing, reciting, marching, clapping and moving together as one group)
- to learn how to approach and navigate through various social circumstances, social conflict and dynamics (listening to stories that indirectly address social dynamics in the classroom and provide social skills and solutions)
Daily practical and social activities provide opportunities:
- to experience and practice nurturing and caregiving skills (helping a friend when they are injured with a tissue and hug)
- to develop a sense of service (serving peers at the snack table, volunteering to help hold the door for the class, helping a friend tidy)
- to work cooperatively with peers in small and large group activities (teaching a friend how to wind wool, taking turns sweeping the floor, sharing tools & resources)
Social characteristics (patience, honesty, generosity, empathy, forgiveness and kindness) and social behaviours (taking turns, serving others, table manners and respectful language) are consciously modelled and consistently reinforced by the kindergarten teachers for the children to imitate and practice with their peers in the classroom.
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