Inside entertainment

There are about 13 inches of snow outside. It’s cold. Our school was closed last week for a few days for Parent/Teacher conferences. I have a feeling parents are feeling a little cooped in while their children are feeling a little restless and full of energy. Happen to have some painters tape on hand? Hopefully some of these ideas for fun indoor play will help:

* Grab some painters tape and old paper. Stretch lengths of tape at different angels across an open doorway. Wad up the paper. See how many you can throw and get stuck to the tape. (thanks Anna Bannister for posting this idea from PInterest on your Facebook page) http://pinterest.com/pin/130674826659983958/

* Make a painters tape roadway. http://pinterest.com/pin/111816003219360722/

* Make a painters tape jumping course. http://pinterest.com/pin/178103360233959722/

* Use painters tape in some art. http://pinterest.com/pin/178103360233959722/

* Use painters tape for some name art. http://pinterest.com/pin/38702878017338016/

* Throw bean bags into painters tape shapes. http://pinterest.com/pin/230246599671395353/

* Use ANY kind of tape and boxes to CREATE! Sorry, I don’t have a post or a picture of this but, seriously, this will fill your child’s afternoon. Gather old boxes, tape and markers and let them have at it!

If you haven’t found http://www.pinterest.com yet I encourage you to check it out. Type in a search such as “children’s fun” “indoor fun” or “killing time while the kids are inside” – well you get the idea. You will find a wealth of ideas for fun play with your children. By the way, if you click on the picture of a Pinterst post it should direct you to the original post. I send out a GREAT BIG thank you to all those websites where these posts originated!

Have fun, enjoy these unexpected days when you can’t go and do. Snuggle, read, and play!

I Think It’s Called Love

For God so LOVED the world that he gave his one and only Son,

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

God gave us the perfect example of what LOVE truly is.  How can we emmulate that example in our lives and for our children?  I love to tell you this, our kids already know a LOT about loving others – even at an early age!  I believe we are born with the capacity and the desire to show love.  Here are just a few of my favorite pictures from our Discovery Days classes with children demonstrating their love for others.

 

 

It’s incredible how much oure teachers love “their” kids.  It is that example and of course the love and care you have shown your children from the moment they were born that children base their understanding of what love means.  As with all aspects of children’s growth, they flourish when wonderful examples of love and care surrounds them!

We can of course offer activities that support the idea of loving others as well.  I hope these ideas might work with your kids.

•  Cut out three simple heart shapes from different colored papers.  Write the words “I”, “love”, “you” on each heart.  For younger children you could also draw a simple pictures: an eye, a heart, and the letter U.  Take turns hiding and finding the hearts to tell each other “I love you.”  (By the way, this game encourages emergent literacy skills.)
• Write family and friends names on paper or popsycle sticks.  Dependant on your child’s age and skills, you could ask them to draw a picture of the people or glue a picture of them onto the paper or stick.  Place the items in a special container (a child decorated jar would be great!) and plan to implement a “loving others” time in your day – perhaps at dinner time?  Draw out a person from the container each day.  At this time have everyone say, “I love ___________ because ___________.”  You could finish by saying a prayer for your special person of the day.
• Make an “I love” board.  On a large piece of paper make two, three or four sections.  Write in each section something like “People I love” “Food I love” “Toys I love” etc.  Have the children find ways to depict the things they love in each section.  Newspaper ads, magazines, child’s art, photos will all provide some ways for this to happen.
• Cut out two large hearts.  Prepare a special snack for your child.  Have him or her start some distance away from the kitchen.  They place a heart on the floor and stand on it.  The other heart goes on the floor in front of them and they can step to it.  Now they move the first heart from behind them to in front of them and step on it.  Continue with this until your child makes it all the way to the special snack.  You could add to this by saying something you love about them every time they step onto the next heart.

I send loving thoughts and wishes to each of you on this Valentine’s Day!  A.A. Milne through her lovable character, Winne the Pooh, shares some wonderful thoughts about loving others.  From one of my favorite quotes, I created a printable that you are welcome to download.  I hope this will find a spot in your home that will encourage thoughts and conversation about how we show our love for others.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

How Do You Spell Love?

The Kindness Campaign Has Begun

Last week, we posted about our “Random Acts of Kindness” campaign.  Cyndi created a sign and began our chain.  It’s fun to see children come to school with notes of extra special things they’ve been doing at home to be kind.  From baking muffins for neighbors, helping mom to clean without being asked, to working extra hard to get along with brothers and sisters.  We love to hear it all!  Acts of kindness at school don’t go unnoticed either!  We are trying to really recognize especially thoughtful acts that we observe from one another.

We add a link to our chain for each of those special acts of kindness!  Learning about being kind to others might take some special thought right now but it won’t be long before it becomes a habit!  Kindness brings us together and we have a very special “preschool family” here at Aldersgate.

We hope that you will continue sending the notes!

Kindness Connects Us

Earlier this year, we had a devotion worship centered around “Filling a Bucket.”  Everyone is born with an invisible bucket.  When our bucket is full, we feel happy.  When our bucket is empty, we feel sad or mad or scared.  What types of things fill our buckets?

Each day of Purple class, the teachers and children talk about who is absent that day and they put the pictures of those children inside the class heart.  Because, even though those children are absent, they are thought of because  they are an important part of our preschool family.  Today, as Ms. Leslie was getting ready to pray for those children who were gone, Warren raised his hand to remind her that someone else was absent…. Ms. Sara!  Ms. Sara is an important part of our preschool family too!  (Thinking of others fills their bucket!)

Bucket filling helps us to empathize for others, to think about feelings, and to think about others.  When we give hugs, when we pray for others, when we help each other, those types of things fill other’s buckets.  When we are kind and performing acts of kindness, we (in turn) fill our own buckets!  It feels good to make people happy!

Do you remember this post that Cyndi wrote about kindness? “Kindness for Kids”

What if (center-wide) we make it a goal to intentionally fill other people’s buckets?  As a family, I challenge you to come up with some “acts of kindness” that you can do for others.  Make a card for someone who might be feeling lonely.

Deliver cookies to a friend who isn’t feeling well.  Surprise mom with a clean house.

There are so many possibilities!  What will your family choose?  At Aldersgate, we’d like to to encourage you all to share your “bucket filling” activity with us. 

Drop a note in your child’s parent pouch about something that you all did and we will create a chain of all of the acts of kindness going on in our school!

And what better time to do this than around “Valentine’s Day?”

 

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