For the past couples of weeks we have been looking at emotions and how we are feeling. As you may have all seen in our room we have a new display, showing faces with different emotions. We have been talking about the pictures on the wall, some of the babies are able to point to the faces and tell me what emotion the face is; expressing the common faces so that the children are able to understand sad, happy and crying. Some of the children are able to walk up to the wall and point to the picture to tell the practitioners how they are feeling, this encourages the children to start having some understanding of their own emotions.
Some of the children have been starting to pay attention to their friends emotions, one little girl noticed a friend crying and looked around the room to find their comforter before giving it to her. Another child saw one of their friends crying and went up to them and rubbed their back comforting them. Another child placed a pot onto his head and as it fell off, his friend laughed, this child repeated this as his friend laughed, he joined in laughing too.
At circle song time, we have been learning a new song, where we say hello and welcome all our friends, we ask how they are feeling? Some of the children are able to answer the question, relaying “happy” with a big smile on their face. Other children when asked act shy, a few of the children are able to recognise this emotion and say “shy” The children all take part in the song waving to our friends and some of the children are able to join in singing.
As you may know we have now introduced a story of the month, this month we have been reading “Baby loves” this is a story about things that a baby loves, it talks about family members, activities and routine throughout the story. The children have been asking practitioners to read the story and when we have finished the story the children have been asking for “more”.
All these activities have been linked to our learning intention of the month, “is aware of others feelings for example looks concerned if hears crying or looks excited if hears a familiar happy voice”. We are developing our Personal, Social and Emotional development, which is a next step of The Warren group average. I analyse the children’s learning wheel and look at the cells that are partial and these become the children’s next steps and areas of development.
If you have any questions regarding your child’s learning wheel, please do not hesitate asking a member of staff.
Lou