Recently, the children in Waterfall have been building stronger friendships. What started as play between just one or two children is now growing into bigger groups as they invite others to join in and say, “Let’s play together!” Their circle of friends and shared play experiences continues to expand.The children are beginning to discover the joy and excitement of accomplishing something together and creating something as a team. This week, we saw many wonderful moments of them expressing their feelings and putting their thoughts into words as different emotions naturally arose throughout their daily play.
Let’s start with a puzzle!As they worked together, we heard comments such as, “That’s not right!”, “I’ll do this one!”, and “Isn’t that piece you’re holding supposed to go here?” Although the children are still at an age when they naturally want to put their own ideas first, they are gradually learning to listen to one another, share their ideas, and work together to complete a task.And when they finally finished, everyone struck a pose and cheered, “I did it!!”When we asked, “How do you feel?”, they confidently expressed their feelings in their own words: “I’m happy!”, “I’m good!”, and even “I’m yeah!” Their faces lit up with the joy and satisfaction of accomplishing something together.
When it comes to outdoor play, every day is a party for the Waterfall children!They take turns hosting and being hosted, and work together to create all kinds of wonderful things. By sharing ideas and cooperating, their creations become even more imaginative and creative.Of course, even during these happy moments, disagreements sometimes arise. Someone might use the food another child was making without asking, or take over a space someone else was using.In these moments, we heard children expressing their feelings by saying, “No, thank you!! I’m sad!!” They were using words to communicate their frustration and sadness to their friends. Learning to express their own feelings and communicate their needs is an important part of developing positive relationships with others.
We also took the opportunity to connect the many different emotions the children experience in their daily lives to a creative activity: making monsters to decorate our upcoming Halloween Party!As the children created their own original monsters, we asked questions such as, “What does your face look like when you feel sad?” and “What shape would your mouth be?” The children carefully imagined different facial expressions and brought their ideas to life in their own unique ways.Happy faces, sad faces, angry faces… The children created a wonderful collection of unique monsters while thinking about their own feelings and imagining how others might feel, too!We can’t wait for you to see their creative monsters at the Halloween Party next weekend. We hope you’re looking forward to meeting them!
Finally, it was time to say goodbye to Mr. Jimmy.When Mr. Jimmy came to spend time with us, “We are so happy!” But when it was time to say goodbye, “We are super sad.”Feeling happy when someone is with us and feeling sad when we have to say goodbye are both important parts of our emotional experiences.To make the most of our final moments together, we sang, danced, played, and enjoyed lots of fun activities with Mr. Jimmy.Thank you for everything, Mr. Jimmy! We’ll miss you, but we hope you’ll come and visit us again soon!
Lastly, we’d like to introduce the exercise dance for our Halloween Party!
