The Preschool "Bully" Prevention Ideas

I can remember the first time I witnessed my daughter, Leia, who was about a year and a half,  encounter someone using "mean hands." We were at the museum and as we walked into one of the exhibits, a boy came up to her and just hit her. Now the mama bear in me wanted to give the boy a piece of my mind but I held back and waited to see how she would respond. She looked at the boy and yelled, "Stop, I dont like that!" and simply walked away. I stood there, feeling proud of my daughter but also proud of myself as a parent for teaching my child to stick up for herself in a manner that wouldn't hurt others.

Now this little incident might not be considered "bullying" but the fact is, children in child care and preschool classrooms come across behavior like this all the time. For some children that exhibit this type of behavior, it is because of there current developmental level. Children at a younger age, do not have the ability to  feel emphatic, so when using "mean hands" or "mean words" etc, they may not understand what they are doing is indeed hurting others. For other children, they may not have the verbal communication skills and become physical when frustrated. Unfortunately, for other children, its the behavior they see in their home. Plus, there could be many other reasons a child acts out in such a way.

When it comes to dealing with the behavior, their are many paths you can take, but first I want to focus on how to work with the children that are the victims of "bullies" or the children that are the witnesses. We need to teach our children at a young age to be clear and confident when speaking up for themselves and for a friend. We also need to teach children that we are there for them and that it is always okay to seek the help of a familiar adult. For the children that are not as verbal in my program, we use sign language. I use sign language throughout the day, so that all the children can understand it. Here are some signs that may be a good start

"Stop"

  "Hurt/Pain"

It is also important to model for the children what a "clear and confident" voice really means. If, I simply just tell the children to look the child in the face and speak loudly, I can imagine the children screaming at each other, which could turn into a form of verbal bullying, which is not the goal. When modeling, I make sure I am at the child's level and I keep my voice calm. Throughout the day, we practice "I" statements. For example, "I don't like it when you hit me, next time use your words."  

Another way to deal with the behavior, is to be proactive. Know what will make the children upset, before it happens and have a plan. The biggest problem I have in my child care is play time. The children all seem to want the same toys at the same time. Of course an easy but expensive solution would be to buy more of the popular toys, but if I want to prepare the children for the real world, in my eyes, this would be a disservice to them. That is why we have the fair ways to play chart. If, I can see a child wants something another child has, I simply say, "lets go to the chart." 

"Share, Trade, Wait and Take Turns, Get a Timer, Play Together, and Ask Nicely."

 

 

 

 

When using the chart, the child will point to the solution they would like to try and we will walk over to the other child together to try the solution they came up with. For example, if Leia is playing with the shopping cart and Annabelle decides she wants to try to trade, she can offer Leia the vacuum. Leia doesn't have to accept the trade and if that happens, Annabelle and I will just try another solution.

Of course, every topic can be tied in with literacy. Once a week, I read a story that focuses on social emotional development. A great story is, "Llama Llama and the Bully Goat." This story, not only shows that bullying can be physical, verbal, and the act of making someone feel left out, but it also shows Llama standing up for himself, and perhaps most importantly, that when a "bully" is at a young age, even they deserve a second chance. :) 

Caps for Sale

One of my favorite parts of the day is story time and lately, it seems to be one of the children's favorite parts too. Every Saturday, I go to the library to seek out the story time book of the week. Some weeks, I have a clear idea in my head of what I want to read, and other weeks, I can browse around for an hour or so looking at my options. Two weeks ago, I chose the book, "Caps for Sale: A tale of a peddler, some monkeys, and their monkey business," by Esphyr Slobodkina.

Some important things to remember when reading to children include:

• Read slowly. Children need time to process what is being read to them.
• Allow time for the children to ask questions about the pictures and expect some interruptions.
• Make sure all the children can actually see the book.
• Have an objective in mind when reading the book. Sure its great to read the story to the children, but their is so much more you can do during story time if you plan it out.

What does a typical week of story time look like at my child development home?
Day One
Have the children look at the cover of the book and discuss the illustration. Tell the children the title of the story, the author, and the illustrator. After discussing the cover page, read the book for fun.
Day Two
Today, I asked questions about pictures in the book, in particular the page where the peddler is sleeping and he only has one hat on his head, to see if they were able to recall the events for the reading yesterday. I asked, "oh no, look at the peddler, something is missing." Annabelle (age 2) replied, "oh no, his hats!" This was followed by Leia saying, "his hats are gone momma, the monkeys took them."
Day Three
The children became the monkeys today by saying, "tsk, tsk, tsk" at me. This was a preview of what we would be doing the next day, retelling the story, without using the book.
Day Four
Today we acted out the story. I was the peddler and the children were the monkeys.
Day Five
Typically, we do a small group literacy project based on the story, however, this week we took a trip to the zoo to visit the monkeys.  

The "monkeys" are shaking their fist at me saying "tsk, tsk, tsk"

A bonus with this story, is that it invites children to get up and move when doing a retell.

The "monkeys" threw their hats on the ground, just like the peddler. 

 

Now the children are the peddler. Leia, "caps for sale, fifty cents a cap."

Marvelous Meal Time

I am going to switch things up a little today and post about meal time. Now, to be honest, meal time, especially lunch, is the one part of the day that stresses me out. I am not the best cook, but I try to stay healthy and try new things, and keeping the children occupied while I prep the meals is not an easy task. There are two things that I have implemented during meal times that have helped tremendously, a meal time routine and family style dining.

My daughter, Leia, like many other children crave a routine. If we skip something from the routine, she can go into a bit of a tail spin, so sticking to it is critical. The first thing the children do is, of course, wash their hands. The older children then find their seats and we sing the "open, shut them" song. We also go beyond the "open, shut them" and also do lyrics such as, "a part, together" "up and down" etc. Its a fun and easy way to add some movement and math (positional words/opposites) to meal time. The children will then sit with their hand in there laps and will wait for me to start passing around the food. This is where the family style dining comes into place.

Singing "open, shut them"

Having the 2 year old children pass food and serve themselves, including pouring milk, was a little scary at first. My carpet is a pretty light and since beginning this, I have spot cleaned the carpet many times. However, in the long run it has been worth it. After the children have all of the food, we sing another song. This is a song that I made up, anyone that has worked with me on a professional teaching basis knows I make up random songs all the time. To the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus," "the children a the table eat their food, eat their food, eat their food, the children at the table eat their food at (breakfast/lunch/snack) time." The infants and younger toddlers are not expected to wait to start to eat, but will often stop eating long enough to "dance" to the songs.

Scooping pears onto plate

Passing food

Pouring milk

What are some of the benefits of family style dining?

• Taking turns
• Children pass the plates and serve themselves=less work for you
• Children learn to use "good manner words" such as please and thank you
• Working on their fine motor skills. It takes a lot of hand and eye coordination to pass around those plates, scoop food, and pour milk. 
• It sets the stage for a relaxed environment, which can lead to great conversation with the children.

Points to Remember

• Be prepared-make sure all the food is at the table before seating the children. Also, remember to have paper towels handy because spills will happen. Allow the children to help clean their spills.
• Provide child sized cups, plates, and silverware for the children.
• Remember different children have different abilities. Some children may need a little more assistance than others.

Good luck, and happy dining :)

The Garden Gals

Over the past couple of weeks, we have been focusing on gardens. This topic lends itself to many activities in all areas of development. Plus, Leia seems to be interested in gardening, so choosing this topic was easy.

Sensory

I had searched all over pinterest for ideas on garden themed sensory boxes. I found so many suggestions and went to the store with a clear vision in my head of what I wanted. However, when I finally arrived at the store and was standing there in the garden center, I began to second guess myself and had the question, "what potting soil or dirt should I use and is it actually safe for children that may decide to eat it?" So instead of risking death by potting soil, I decided to go in a different direction, and used different types of dried beans. I also purchased some plastic gardening tools and Leia picked out different artificial flowers. I added a pair of gardening gloves and the sensory tub was ready to go.

Literacy
The library had a ton of books to choose from on this topic.

•  "Jack's Garden," by Henry Cole. This story is a take-off of the rhyme, "This is the House that Jack built."
• "The Tiny Seed," by Eric Carle. This was a favorite of Leia's. She enjoyed searching for the tiny seed on the different pages. 
• "My Garden," by Kevin Henkes. This story is about a little girls dream garden, which includes chocolate bunnies and growing seashells. 
• "Whose Garden is it?" by Mary Ann Hoberman. This book asks the question, to whom does a garden really belong. It suggest many different characters and parts of nature from the gardener all the way to the seed. It is a fantastic book to illustrate everything that is needed in a garden.
• "Planting a Rainbow," by Lois Elhert.

Art
The first art project touches both on art and science. The girls created their own flowers out of construction paper and a muffin liner. After doing this we discussed the different parts of a flower and labeled the flower parts.

For the second project, the girls re-created flowers from "Planting a Rainbow." I drew the stems on the piece of paper using just a plain marker. I then re-read the story to the girls and told them to paint flowers from the story. I let the girls choose the paint colors they wanted and they all chose purple and blue.

I also purchased "stone stampers" from Wal-Mart, but we used them on paper instead of stone.The stampers went well with the garden theme.

The final thing we did was painting with leaves.

This also connected with science because the girls investigated the leaves in many ways and math because the girls sorted the leaves into different piles.

Annabelle blowing on her leaf

Brenleigh tearing her leaf apart

Leia getting a closer look.

Math
Other than the leaf sorting, we also did a "carrot patch number match." To do this I wrote a number on a triangle "carrot" and the girls had to match the proper amount of green rectangles to put on top. With Annabelle, age 2, I talked her through each of the numbers to give her age appropriate support. With Leia, age 3.5, we first discussed the different numbers, I then told her to match the proper amount of green rectangles on her own. When doing this, she placed one too many green rectangles on a "carrot." This allowed her to do some problem solving. I simply said, "oh no, I think something is wrong here." We talked about the numbers again and she took it upon herself to recount the green rectangles and fix the problem.

Removing part of her "stem" from the number 2 carrot.

 Outside
Another bonus with the gardening theme, is that Leia was eager to help pull weeds and water the plants. This of course hits on different areas of development and learning from science, fine and gross motor, and teaching her responsibility. For more information on my gardening theme, please visit my contributing blog here.

Leia watering the garden

Annabelle giving Leia water

F is for....

My daughter, Leia, has seemed to be interested in learning her letters more and more lately. Being a former preschool teacher, one would think that I would know the perfect order in which to actually teach the letters, but I don't. So, I decided to go to the web to search different recommendations. Ultimately, I decided to go with the order suggested by Handwriting without Tears. The order makes the most sense to me and so far seems to be working with Leia. I will be teaching her a new letter each week, but also will continue to have her practice writing her own name on EVERYTHING she does.

The first letter that we tackled was the letter "F". To kick off the letter of the week, I decided to have everything that week have something to do with the letter "F," this is something I will not be continuing because I want to make sure I am also focusing on topics that the girls are interested in.


 Math
Leia practiced number recognition this week. We used a farm themed worksheet and I turned it into a file folder game, that way she could continue to to practice.

 Sensory

We made "hot chocolate" play dough this week. I figured "hot chocolate" is a food and went with the "F" themed week. I used this recipe but instead of adding food coloring, I added a packet of hot chocolate mix. It smelled yummy! What a great way to really include the sense of smell to sensory play.

Ripley exploring the play dough through a bag.

Leia using one of her play dough mats.

Annabelle feeling the play dough with her hands

Letter Practice
Here are a few of the different things that I do with Leia throughout the week to make learning her letters fun.

Walking the letter is great for kinesthetic learners

Tracing with water. She also wrote with chalk.

Built the letter "F" with paper.

Building "F" with homemade playdough

Swimmy....sort of....

I am going to be honest, this week has been sort of a bust. Between my little one having an unexplained fever and having to move everything from the basement to the first floor, things have been hectic. However, I still managed to squeeze a few activities in.

The book of the week was, "Swimmy," by Leo Lionni.



Toward the end of the book, I had Leia predict what she thought the fish would form with their bodies. At first she did not understand. So I rephrased, "they are going to use there bodies to make a puzzle, what puzzle do you think they will make to scare away the fish?' Leia replied, "a square." When we turned the page and saw that they created a big fish, she said, "like in Nemo!!"

Art

I found this idea on pinterest, in fact, I find a lot of my ideas there. I printed out the picture and had Leia use a q-tip to fill in each of the dots.

I also had one of the girls that I watch paint with q-tips. Instead of coloring in the dots, she used the q-tip and made different designs in her paint.













We also did a few art projects based on "Swimmy." The first was a simple handprint project. I don't know about you, but my parents LOVE getting hand print art work. For this project, I simply cut out a piece of paper in the shape of a fish bowl (yes, I know Swimmy lives in the ocean) had the girls color the bowls and then we add there hand print. For some reason, I can't seem to find a picture of there work, but it looks similar to this.

Leia rolling the bubble wrap over the fish. 

The girls also did another art project where they had to follow some basic steps. The first step was to paint the sheet of paper blue. The second step was to place the fish that I had pre-cut out on a dry piece of paper and use the bubble wrap roller to paint the fish.

Next the girls placed the fish onto the wet paint, doing this while the paint is still wet, eliminates the need for glue.












Math

Math this week really had nothing to do with the book of the week, but we did focus on numbers. The first thing Leia did was a number chart. She had to put the correct amount of stickers in each of the squares. Before she started this, I had her count each of the squares. Her friend, who isn't quite 2, listened as she counted.

Counting the squares.

After counting the squares, she placed one sticker in each of the squares. We then talked about the different numbers on the paper. The next day, I had Leia place jelly beans in each of the squares. She noticed that I didn't give her enough to fill in all of the squares and she said, "I need just one more." I had her reach in the bag and grab, "just one."







Late during the week, I created a number sheet for Leia. I wrote the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in random order on the page. I assigned a certain color to each number, and had Leia do a dot on the correct number.


 Science
 We did some baking this week. We made corn muffins and chocolate chip banana muffins. The girls watched as I put the ingredients into the measuring cups and listened as I talked about the different measurements. They also helped put the ingredients in the bowl, mashed the banana, and help stir.
 

Mashing bananas

Mixing

 

 

Adding the mix

"Little Blue and Little Yellow"

This week, I had planned to focus on a different Leo Lionni book each day, but it turned out my child care children LOVED the book "Little Blue and Little Yellow."  So we just stuck with that book for the week. We were pretty much stuck inside all week, and with our basement flooded, we have had pretty tight quarters and just a smidgen of cabin fever, so I wanted to come up with as many activities for the little ladies as possible.

First, let me say a thing or two about the actual book. This is the book that launched Leo Lionni's children's book career. It is the story of  best friends, little blue and little yellow, who one day can not find one another. When they finally do, they give each other such a huge hug that they turn green. The illustrations in the book are simple, yet engaging.



Art

What a week for art. Everything we did, just used the colors yellow and blue.

I am going to work backwards and go from Friday to Tuesday. Today we placed torn yellow and blue tissue paper on contact paper. Leia decided to put her tissue paper on by the handful, while one of the girls I watch placed her tissue paper on one piece at a time.

 

Here you can see the pile of tissue paper Leia put on her paper

We put the finished product on the window. Leia observed that in some spot she could see "little green."

On Thursday, I made yellow and blue sidewalk chalk paint. To make this, you use 1 part corn starch, 1 part water, and food coloring. This is something one would typically do outside on the sidewalk, but since it was storming out, we did it inside :)

Letting the paint drizzle on the paper

Getting ready to put yellow on top of the blue

On, Wednesday, the girls used pipe cleaners to create yellow and blue "fireworks." I found the idea for this project at http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2012/07/firework-painting.html

On Tuesday, the girls did ball painting. This is like marble painting, where you just place a small ball or two in a box and move the balls allowing them to glide through the paint.






Science
This is something that I found on pinterest, and I've wanted to try it out with the girls. The book, "Little Yellow and Little Blue" of course is the perfect set up for an experiment in the mixing of colors.

I just had three cups of water. In one cup I put yellow food coloring, the middle cup was just water, and the third cup was water and blue food coloring. I then place a paper napkin in the yellow and blue cup and place the other end of the paper towel in the clear water.

She had to climb on the table to get a closer look :)

Food Experience

I simply made the vanilla pudding yellow and blue.

Sensory

Using her eye-hand coordination to scoop the rice into the cup

What a fun week of sensory play. On Tuesday and Wednesday the girls played with the rainbow rice. This had colors other than yellow and blue in it, of course, but it was still a messy good time.

We also made yellow and blue spaghetti for the girls to play with. This is simple to make, you just prepare the noodles as directed on the box, drain, let cool, place noodles in bags or bowls for each color, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and drops of food coloring, and mix.

Ripley is using her sense of touch and taste!!

             

        Leia discovered that she had "little green" on her fingers when she was all done.