International Happiness Day

Last week we celebrated International Happiness Day at the ELC and chose to record the Happy Acts we would do for each other. This was put together by the children and teachers stating what makes them happy and sharing happy acts with others. Our wall was one of 600 walls created around the world.

International Happiness Day is a global celebration to mark the United Nations International Day of Happiness. It is coordinated by Action for Happiness, a non-profit movement of people from 160 countries, supported by a partnership of like-minded organisations.  

March 20 has been established as the annual International Day of Happiness and all 193 United Nations member states have adopted a resolution calling for happiness to be given greater priority.

The Ripple Foundation is part of the Live Happy organisation which is a continuing partner to support International Happy Day. The Ripple Foundation support many charities, one of which is Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Big brothers Big Sisters has for over 30yrs helped tens of thousands of young pple who have faced serious adversity - those who have little opportunity to develop supportive relationships with adults. Many who are hungry for friendship, guidance and acceptance. 

BBBS purpose is to help change the lives of disadvantaged young people across Australia. By connecting young people with positive adult role models they are breaking cycles of disadvantage and creating a ripple affect that can be seen across the community. 

Big Brothers Big Sisters is a part of the Ripple Foundation which is a part of Live Happy that support International Happy day. They support a number of organisation's that ultimately aim to create positive 'ripple effects' around the globe. 

Link www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.au

This term we will be donating the proceeds from our Cupcake donations to the BigBrothersBigSisters initiative. 

Regards 

ELC Team

Mattingley

Dear Mattingley Room families and friends,

This week in the Mattingley Room we have explored a myriad of inquiry topics!

We have continued our exploration of the concepts of safe and unsafe. Looking at children’s literature to support our inquiry we have been reading, ‘Rosie’s Walk’, by Pat Hutchins.  We discussed what Rosie could have done to perhaps practice some safety strategies!

Rupert – It’s dangerous to walk on your own. She could go with her Mummy. She should look behind her!

Bea – People could look after her

Isla – She could look around

‘Alexander’s Outing’, by Pamela Allen was equally helpful in illustrating the importance of listening and keeping your eyes open to dangers!

James – If he did listen he might not fall down the hole.

Bea – He might get squashed on the road.

We have introduced the Geoboards to support the development of spatial skills and practice fine motor skills, they are an amazing and simple resource that also set the foundation for learning about 2D shapes, edges, corners, sizes of shapes, and area. They have been well received and there have been many conversations and excited observations when a 2D shape is created and recognised!

Our Grandies Day preparations are in full swing as we have been practicing a few songs to sing for them on Wednesday April 4^th.  If your child does not ordinarily attend on a Wednesday, just let us know they are coming as your child, and Grandie, are more than welcome to join the festivities! If you have any free time on that morning we are still looking for parent helpers………

On March 20 we celebrated International Happy Day, a global celebration!  In the ELC we celebrated this day by thinking about how we share happiness. We shared our thoughts and ideas on the big, multi-coloured, exhibit in the cafe foyer :), come and have a look!

Winnie – Smile!

Annabelle – I will give someone a candy cane

Isla – Smile and play with them, with kind hands!

Liam – Going on an aeroplane to Africa

Owen – Nice things, like playing and sharing

Harry – Give them food!

Amelia – I will show a smile

Aiden – Cuddle them!

Scout – Smiling

Rupert – Sharing!

Thomas – Smile!

Ethan – I play with Mummy and Daddy

Makara – I am happy when I build a cubby house with Mummy and Daddy!

Matthew – Cuddle

Johnny – My Mummy, my Daddy

Henry – Smile and cuddle

Jordan – Mummy

Aeson – Playing with someone

James – Reading books

Have a wonderful weekend,

From Melissa and Georgia

Article : When A Child is ‘Out of Control’ - by Melissa Benaroya

Are you concerned that your child is “out of control” when they are: acting aggressively, talking over others, grabbing, have difficulty taking turns or simply doing things you have asked them not to? Many parents get frustrated by their child’s lack of self or impulse control, especially when their child knows the rules or the consequences of breaking them.

Often times it is just that children just don’t have the skills to manage strong impulses. Children begin to develop these skills between ages 2 and 5, but their impulses are not well managed because their “rational brain” that allows for planning, foresight and considering others is not fully developed. For most young children this age self-control is nonexistent, limited at best, and is a skill that will take years to master. Children’s ability to regulate for themselves will not become evident until they begin to approach the ripe old age of seven. 

A child’s temperament, or innate way of reacting to the world, can also make him or her more impulsive than others. Children who are easily distressed and become very agitated may need different treatment than children who are a little more “chill” in order to become capable of self-control. Research findings have shown that kids with higher levels of impulse control develop better academic skills over time, have bigger vocabularies and higher test scores in both math and literacy. Unfortunately on the other side of the spectrum, children with below average impulse control are more likely to suffer from anxiety & depression, become obese, smoke and dependent on alcohol or drugs. But self-control is not static, and like muscle strength can be developed over time.

So what can you do to help your child who is currently “out of control”?

1.  Acknowledge, empathize, or validate.

Simply acknowledge that in many cases their lack of impulse control is developmentally appropriate and empathize or validate their feelings. When your child is upset- perhaps they were having a fun time at the park and don’t want to leave when you need them to – start by letting them know that you understand by simply saying something like, “Its so hard to leave the park” or “Oh, it sounds like you really want to stay at the park!” It is important to connect and let your child know that you understand and accept their feelings first before you say or do anything else. 

2.  Use Emotion Coaching.

Use an “Emotion Coaching” or problem solving approach with your child when there is a big emotion or behaviour. Research has shown that children with emotion coaching parents recover from stressful situations faster, have fewer negative emotions, and develop the skills needed to manage challenges on their own. In order to be an emotion coaching parent you must empathize, help your child to get clear about what they actually wanted or needed, acknowledge their feelings/needs while setting limits on behaviour and guide them through a brainstorming and problem solving process. 

3.  Give your child a break.

Give your child a break! All humans have limited amounts of self-control. And we use up the energy we have for self-control throughout the day. If we continue to ask children to repeatedly perform tasks or follow our requests they will become less and less successful. If there is homework and housework that needs to get done be mindful that small breaks for play or relaxing will help your child re-charge to keep going. When breaks are part of the routine children will be more successful in accomplishing what you need them to. 

4. Play games.

Play games with your children that practice self- control. Games such as Simon Says, Red Light Green Light, or Follow the Leader require impulse control. Another option is to play Freeze. With Freeze, children dance to music and when the music stops they should hold their position until the music starts again. There is also research from Stanford University that shows that playing memory games can improve impulse control as well. 

5.  Do as you want them to do.

Model and practice self-control, self-calming and restraint! Your children aren’t going to do what you say; they are going to do what you do. One area that adults tend to have limited self-control is around the use of media or devices. One way to model self- control or restraint is to create and enforce limits on your own use of devices. There are apps that can do this for you or you can simply remove email or Facebook from your mobile to limit the impulse to check them unnecessarily. The goal is ultimately to check your devices intentionally and not impulsively. (This becomes especially important as your child grows older and has access to their own devices.) 

Being mindful of how you respond to anger, frustration and disappointment will also highly influence how your child responds to these strong emotions. Self-calming is an important skill that can easily be modeled by saying things like: “Oh man, I just dropped the dinner salad on the floor! How frustrating! I’m going to take a deep breath and then I will need to clean up this mess and start over.” Modeling self talk, expressing frustration verbally, and self soothing skills will all help your child to do the same when they have their own strong emotions or reactions. 

Increased self control will develop as your child continues to mature. But there are many things that we can do as parents and teachers to help them develop and nurture these skills and traits. We encourage you to first acknowledge what is and is not developmentally appropriate for your child and then pick one or two ideas from the list above to try out and see how things unfold in your home.

Chapple

This week we have continued to work on our balance in PE with a wonderful obstacle course.

Our investigation into those tricky teens in Numeracy has progressed. The teens are the most difficult numbers to master with language not matching the symbol. Twelve would be much easier if it was ten and two. Thankfully these issues disappear when we get into the twenties. 

To assist in this, for Show and Tell in Week 9 we will look at the number 12. If possible can the children bring in twelve of something. We have looked at counting into an egg box. If you have any empty dozen egg boxes that would help, so please bring in something small - it is more about the counting than the object.

The Pizza restaurant has continued to be a success and led us into some problem solving. A plastic mushroom got stuck in a jar and it was suggested that a lever was needed. The children were unsure what that was. So we had fun demonstrating simple levers. This turned into a story which was beautifully created by the Chapple Room called the 'Grumpy Old King'. The villager's problem was solved by a wise man using a catapult!

Parent/teacher interviews will take place Tuesday and Wednesday 9th and 10th April 4-5.45pm. Ms Wegener will contact her focus children (Friday Show and Tell children) for her interview times.

Chapple Room

Cooper

Hi Cooper Families, 

Wow, what a week we have had in the classroom this week. The children have been busy engaging in a range of new experiences in the classroom. The clay table has been very popular this week with many children engaging in this sensory and fine motor experience. As the children pinch and push the clay with their fingers, they are building their fine motors skills, which is very important for developing their early literacy skills. Over the week we have collected a range of natural materials to add to the children’s creations.

We have been using crayons and water colours at the small painting easels this week. The children have created amazing beautiful and colourful pictures this week. I hope that you have enjoyed all of the wonderful paintings coming home each day. The children have been very proud of their pictures and are very keen to show them to their families. 

As many of you know, the Cooper room have been keen builders over the past few weeks. To extend their small and large block constructions we have added other loose parts such as bottle caps, unifix cubes and natural materials. Since we have added these materials, the children’s buildings have been even more elaborate and detailed.

Through our building experiences we have been discussing the shapes that we are using in our constructions. We found that we have mostly used squares, rectangles and triangles in our buildings. From this, we have added a range of 2D shapes to our light table, which the children have been keenly constructing various buildings while confidently identifying the shapes that they have used.

We hope that you have a wonderful weekend.

Love Miss Gilbert and Miss C