December 2012 newsletter - In Carmel Unified School

December 2012
The Joy of Learning…….
CARMELO VOICES
Newsletter of the Carmel Child Development Center
Dear Families,
Thank you all for a fabulous Fall Feast! The Food Bank Barrels have never
been such a success! As part of our Anti-bias curriculum and supporting
positive attitudes about diversity, these are perfect ways to begin
conversations and teach our children the joy of giving to others and
participating in a large group event. In our multicultural society, Christmas,
although important to many people, is still not everyone’s holiday. For
children and families from other groups—be they Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim,
pagan, atheist, or anything else—Christmas can be a difficult time. For
almost all families, the commercialization of the holiday, with its pressures to
buy, decorate, and entertain, adds tremendous complication to already
overloaded and busy lives. We hope that we can add to your family’s joy and
relieve some of the stresses of this busy time.
Some of the teachers’ articles in this newsletter will focus on mathematical
learning and the benefits of organized games. From infancy to school age,
there are appropriate games that foster mathematical learning and
social/emotional self regulation.
We use basic math language all the time, without realizing it. For example,
with our infants, we play games and sing songs that use numbers and
counting (such as “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe”). When we separate clothes
by color, or group the mommy animal with their baby, we’re using the math
concepts of sorting and classifying. For toddlers and very young three year
olds, simple games like a jack-in-the-box support a child’s ability to delay the
result while the tune is played. A matching card game is fun for young
children if you leave the cards face up and take turns finding matches.
There are also building/balancing block games that introduce quantity.
For children who are three or four, there are many choices for basic board
games, such as Candy Land, Pizza Mania (adding or subtracting tasty
toppings from your personal pizza), or even Chutes and Ladders. Older
preschool children have a wide range of organized games that are terrific for
building math skills and can be fun for all family members.
2012/2013, Issue 4
Calendar of Events for
December 2012
CPO Meeting
9:00 am
Wed
5th
Unannounced
Fire Drill
Thu
6th
January
Tuition due
Fri
14th
CCDC closed
for Winter
Break
Dec
th
24
thru
Jan
4th
Mon
Jan
7th
JANUARY
Welcome
Back to
School!
Music with
Mary Lee
Older Wing
9:30
Wed
Jan
9th
CCDC
closed
Mon
Jan
21st
Music with
Mary Lee
Younger
Wing 9:30
Wed
Jan
16th
I hope you enjoy this busy season with your children. These will be
cherished memories.
Sincerely,
Laura Dunn
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Playing Indoor Games on the Older Wing
By Danise McMahan
In the first week of November as daylight savings time ended and rain descended, the
teachers on the older wing brought out board games to expand our indoor activities. Our four
and five year old students love the opportunity to play organized games together. We hear
excited voices exclaiming “I want to play”, and we keep track of eager children waiting for their
turn. Sometimes the duration of the game surprises us as the children play amid much
conversation, exclamation and laughter. While it may look like “just a game”, we know that any
structured game with a set of rules provides a framework for children to practice skills in all of
the developmental domains.
When children make the choice to play a board game together they are agreeing to
abide by a set of pre-determined rules for playing the game. This allows them to build their
friendships through shared experiences where the rules act as the third party to help them
manage conflicts that arise. This practice leads to more successful conflict management in
different situations.
One of the rules of any of these games is to take turns. Children develop self- control
while they wait for their turn to play the game, and when they are playing, to wait for a turn to
spin a number or roll the dice. They learn to manage feelings of frustration, disappointment,
excitement and elation. It’s okay to feel disappointed sometimes if you don’t win a game
because you can always play again! If you win you learn to enjoy those feelings while being
sensitive to the other players.
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Language is important and specific when playing games. Children naturally guide and
correct each other with language that must be specific to the circumstance and rules of the
game. Children in the older wing can explain how to play a new game to a friend. They
monitor and verbally correct themselves and others according to the rules that have been
established. They use language to encourage and console each other as the game progresses.
Playing games with rules is good practice for the formal learning environment of
elementary school. It requires patience and effort to learn a new game. A young child must
delay the goal of playing to first learn how to play much like the process of instruction of a skill
in later years. Once the game is learned the child must monitor and compare her actions with a
standard shared by the rest of the players. This kind of cooperative, shared activity introduces
the child to working in small groups with a common purpose. After playing a game many times,
a child learns that practice and perseverance are rewarded as she begins to master the game.
Finally, children are practicing math skills in games from simple counting and adding to
classification and shapes depending on the game. Hi Ho Cherry O is a fun first counting game.
In Chutes and Ladders, the board is divided in squares numbered from 1 to 100, giving children
a context for that large number. There are many versions of Memory and Bingo that require
naming and matching categories of objects. All Around Town is a classifying/sorting game,
collecting cards from the game board and sorting them on your mat.
During long winter nights and over the holidays, consider teaching your child how to play
a new board game. Your child will gain precious memories AND valuable skills.
The Older Wing teachers would like to thank:
Our Mystery Readers for bringing and reading wonderful stories.
Our Classroom Volunteers for all the hours they spend assisting in our rooms.
All of the chaperons that attended the Mid-Valley Fire Station field trip and
the Earthbound Farm field trip.
The CPO and all of the parent volunteers for the wonderful Fall Feast!
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Indoor Games on the Younger Wing
By Susanne Libby
As fall parent conference season
closes the staff would like to remind you of
the “at home” ideas we talked about at the
end of our meeting with you. Many of you
committed to extending your child’s social
experiences, math skills, and letter
knowledge as well as building in a daily
routine for reading to your child. I would
like to suggest you incorporate playing
board games into your family time as an
enjoyable way you can meet your pledge to
support your child’s learning process.
Board games provide a great activity for children to practice social skills in a
relatively predictable format. Structured games have clear rules including a way
of starting and a way of ending. Many games challenge the mind but do not
require completely open-ended thinking—which is a higher skill for children (and
adults). The challenge for most children is to learn how to understand the game
in the first place and how to enjoy the game regardless of the outcome.
One pitfall that you will have to work your way around carefully, when
teaching your child to play games, is the problem of losing. No young child that I
have ever met is a good loser. Losing well is a hard skill to learn and it takes time
and lots of encouragement to learn how to do it. Remember to never shame a
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child about being upset when losing because it does not feel fair to shame a child
for not knowing how to do something that every single child in the world
struggles to learn. Parents themselves have often been shamed for losing badly
and so feel that it is shameful for a young child to have a meltdown when losing.
It will go much better if you just accept the difficulty as inevitable, like falling
down when learning to walk. No big deal, you should assure your child it will get
easier next time.
Try introducing games without mentioning winning and losing at all. Just
take turns and notice what happens. “Oh! Wow! I got six bunnies and you got ten
bunnies. Let’s try it again and see what happens,” could be stated factually at the
end of a game, which will also encourage staying with the game. Adapting the
rules to make a game more applicable to your family is reasonable but the rules
must remain the same for everyone playing. Try making funny disappointing
sounds or faces when a turn goes badly for you (most children love to see a
parent act silly). Remember if you have a very competitive personality you need
to hold your competitive nature or no one in the family will ever enjoy game
playing. As a parent, remember that you are teaching skills by example. The
purpose of highly structured games, just like other forms of play, is to have fun.
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Your challenge is to find the level of complexity that works for your child and then
model genuine enjoyment while playing.
It is not the competition itself that is bad, however challenging it is to learn,
having watched how competition can focus attention and hone mental skills more
effectively than almost any other system of social learning. Competitive games
exist because they are designed to enhance social interaction, mental focus,
learning, and enjoyment. The right competitive board game can provide a level
social playing field where the child and adult has all the skills necessary to enjoy
being with others and at the same time enjoy developing their own mental
capacities. I encourage you to introduce your child to board games and make
them so much fun that your child will willingly ask to play these games for social
entertainment.
Thank you’s from the Younger Wing
The children and staff of Room 1 would like
to thank everyone for their support of our
"Lemonade Stand" at this year’s Trike-a-Thon.
The children earned $200.00 from their sales
that day. The goal of buying a new "Two
Seater" bike became a reality when Hastings
Construction donated the remainder of the
purchase price and shipping charges. This
was such a wonderful experience from the
first class discussion right through to riding
the new "two seater."
The children and staff of Room 2 would like to thank our class room
parent, Deonna, for keeping our play dough fresh every week for us & the
help and supplies given by all our families for the creation of "Manny" the
scarecrow.
The children and staff of Room 3 would like to thank all our families and
our wonderful CPO for a delicious Fall Feast! We would also like to thank,
Carol Scherman, Tema’s mom, for the pumpkin pie treat we all enjoyed!
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Exploring math and science concepts in the Infant Room
by Sarah Maloney
Infants and toddlers are constantly observing and experimenting with their environments. The
simplest of objects can be an invitation for a child to expand existing concepts of gravity, quantity,
serializing, density, and velocity. When an infant or toddler is presented with a new object they will
often go through a series of techniques to understand the properties of that object; grasping, banging,
mouthing, rolling. Our role, as adults, in this process is to provide materials that encourage such
investigation, to give the children language about what they are observing, and to try and understand
what each child finds interesting.
One morning we wondered if the beautiful fall
leaves covering our campus would be an interesting
experience for the children inside the classroom. With
no real lesson in mind we left the leaves out on a shelf
for the children to discover. For a while, there wasn’t
much notice paid to the colorful leaves. Then Chrissy
grabbed a handful of the leaves and let them fall on the
children.
Several children stopped what they were doing to watch the leaves. As the leaves glided down, the
children insisted “more, more.” Some children picked up a leaf or a handful of leaves and watched how
they fell to the ground. Some fell “fast” others “floated” and moved “back and forth” as they
approached the ground. Others began their own investigations.
As we “played” with the leaves we kept hearing
the word “big.” Chrissy used their interest in size to help
the children compare and sort the leaves and build upon
what they know about “big.
BI
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In this picture a twenty-month-old is picking up the leaf that is “the biggest.” The children were
successful at identifying “big” and “small” and were enthusiastic about the classifying process. So
eventually we encouraged them to observe the colors of each leave. With two pieces of paper we
invited the children to sort the leaves by “green” or “brown.” Chrissy put one brown leaf and one green
leaf on the corresponding piece of paper. We used the words “same” and “different” as children placed
leaves on either pile. If a green leaf was placed onto the brown pile it was not “wrong.” It was
“different,” an opportunity to compare and contrast. If the children’s interest continues in the days to
come we (children and teachers), will come up with new ways to continue our work with leaves: as art,
dramatic play materials, a topic for nature walks. Part of the joy of working with such young children is
the simple places you can find wonder and rich learning.
Thank you’s from the Infant Room:
The children and staff of the infant/toddler room would like to thank Alison Becker and Natalie Kobza
for putting together the Trike-A-Thon basket.
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FROM THE CPO CORNER….
RECENT EVENTS:
Fall Feast – We shared a lovely meal with our great community at the Fall Feast on November
16th. Thank you all for the wonderful food contributions, with a special thanks to Kristy Mason
and Grove Market for the hams, pot pies and mashed potatoes, Anna Wainscoat from Pavel’s
Bakery for the rolls, and also thanks to Shon Whelan from Toast for cooking the turkeys
(donated by Safeway).
Food Drive – We collected just over 300 pounds of food for local needy families! Thank you so
much for your donations. Also thank you to the teachers for helping gather donations and for
incorporating this into their curriculum with lessons such as healthy foods to eat and the nature
of giving.
New Umbrellas! - CPO recently purchased many new umbrellas for the older wing to protect
everyone from the elements…birds and sun alike. Thank you to Hastings Construction for their
help installing!
UPCOMING EVENTS:
Journey to Africa – The month of December CPO focuses on Africa. To start us off Mory
Moussa Bangoura will perform African drumming on December 10th with two performances,
the first starting at 10:30. Please join us if you can!
Our next CPO meeting is December 5th @ 9AM in Laura’s office
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