Erev Yom Kippur Glimpse

Transcription

1 Shomrai Nursery Erev Yom Kippur Glimpse September 29, 2017 Should Young Children Be Taught to Say Sorry? by Ruthie Cohen We teach the children that Yom Kippur cleanses our mistakes and wipes the slate clean with Hashem. This is done through Teshuva, and for wrongs against our fellow person, we apologize and seek forgiveness directly from them. Should young children be taught to say they are sorry? Preschool-aged children have a hard time with perspective-taking, understanding the viewpoint of others. They often struggle to understand what they themselves are feeling, no less learning to have empathy (understanding the feelings of others), especially when empathy is appropriate even when others feel differently than you. Perspective taking is one of the last social skills milestones that young children develop. As children mature, they learn to take on other perspectives, and then to understand why it is important to express regret (saying I am sorry ) when hurting someone. In the preschool years, we work with the children's emotional skills, specifically understanding and identifying feelings and the feelings of others. We work on helping children to resolve conflict through a variety of strategies. We help children learn perspective taking but we cannot make children feel empathy or feel sorry. A healthy child who has a loving and secure attachment to others will mature and develop empathy for others. For a child to say sorry and mean it, they need to to empathize. An apology implies they understand what they ve done and feel bad for making another person feel that way. What do we teach a child if we ask a twoyear-old to say sorry for hitting a classmate? The child isn t genuinely sorry and often doesn t understand how the other child feels. Forcing an apology will not teach empathy. In fact, it can do the opposite. Children will learn they just have to say they re sorry and that they can resume playing, and are off the hook. If a two- year-old wants a toy, they give no thought to how the other child will feel when they take it, and while it may not be polite or even pleasant, it is developmentally appropriate. So how do we handle the situations at home, on the playground or at the park when a child grabs or hurts another child? The adult can model proper conduct by apologizing to the hurt child and the child s parent. If the age and situation is right, you can bring attention to the unhappy child and say, Your brother is crying. Do you think his leg hurts? Let s get him an ice pack. Let the offender do something tangible to make their sibling/friend feel better. They can get a tissue or an ice pack. Or later in the day, in a quiet area, you can explain why the other child was crying - Next time (use your voice, find the solution kit, etc). Chances are, two-and-three year-old s will continue to shove or grab as appropriate for their age, but the message and process is the same. The poor choices in behavior will lessen, and the chances of your child developing true empathy increase. So when they do say they are sorry, they mean it! Daily thoughts, expressions, interests, communications, explorations, collaborations, adventures, research and discoveries, as experienced by students at Shomrai Nursery 2017 YISE SHOMRAI NURSERY

2 In Kitat Rimon we learned about what we can and cannot do on Yom Kippur. We know this is a holy day and we daven to Hashem so that our aveiros are wiped cleaned. We also know that our parents cannot eat, so it is especially important to make good choices! Today Morah Yvette shared the story of Yonah and the big fish. We even had a mini puppet show to depict the story! The children continue to blow the shofars we have in our classroom. We know that we only blow the shofar once, at the end of the day on Yom Kippur. The children are busy preparing beautiful Sukkah decorations. Yesterday, we made decorations for the shul's sukkah and today we began to prepare decorations for our own sukkahs! We look forward to sending them home next week. G mar Chasima Tova, Morah Miriam and Miriam Yvette

3 Kitat Tamar Builds a Sukkah! When Shalom and Yaakov entered the block area in Kitat Tamar on Tuesday, they noticed a selection of materials: a cardboard box, tape, photographs, scissors and other assorted materials. What are we making here? the children inquired. Seth lifted the box up and started to assemble the box. We can do it like this, Seth explained to the children as he worked to configure the box into a Sukkah. How can you enter the Sukkah? the morah asked Seth. Seth contemplated this for a minute and exclaimed, We need a door! The children worked together to figure out how to make a door. They decided that they would draw a door on the cardboard and then cut an opening. Seth drew a shape of the door with a crayon. When he finished the door he started to cut along the line. This is hard, I am tired, he said. The children took turns to cut a part of the door. Zevy joined the group. While he was cutting, the door finally opened. Stay tuned as the children continue to work on the Sukkak! G mar Chatima Tova, Morot Lisa & Devorah Sarah

4 Peel & Parah Teach About Teshuva In Kitat Gefen, we have been using Peel and Parah (literally "elephant" and "cow" in Hebrew) hand puppets in our classroom to teach social skills, such as sharing and turn taking. In preparation for Yom Kippur, Peel and Parah taught us that everybody makes mistakes and modeled how to say "I'm sorry" and how to make amends when we hurt someone. When Peel accidentally knocked over the sukkah, Parah was building out of Magna-tiles, he felt badly about his mistake, said "I'm sorry," decided to be more careful with his large trunk in the future, and more importantly made amends by helping his friend rebuild. With Yom Kippur approaching we also retold the story of Yonah in the water table and sang the song "I'm Sorry for What I Did Wrong and focused on each of us being the best that we can be. I'm sorry for what I did wrong x2 I'll try to do better forever and ever I'm sorry for what I did wrong I'll try, I'll try to be the best that I can be x2 Wishing you and your family a meaningful Yom Kippur, Morah Aviva and Morah Chaya Sara

5 Underwater Explorations in Kitat Simcha This week, Kitat Simcha has been discussing the story of Yonah, and the importance of doing teshuva. They were especially interested in Yonah's plights on the sea. On Thursday morning the children found two different oceans on the tables. One ocean was filled with water, and the other with water accessories: Boats, shells, fish and play people. Shira picked up one of the toys, and correctly identified it as a "fishy." "What is this?" Shai wondered aloud. "A shell, the morah replied. Shai lifted the tiny shell up to his ear to see if he could hear any sounds. The other ocean was filled with blue gravel, or "pretend water" according to Shayna. Shayna picked up the gravel in her hand and dropped it back in the bucket. "It sounds like rain! she said. Dalia followed Shayna's lead, and together they made it sound like a rainstorm was happening right in our classroom. Atara and Tamar were both intrigued by the sound of rain at the gravel water table. Atara immediately scooped up a handful of blue gravel. Now it's raining. Now it stopped, she said to Tamar. Tamar also showed Atara how she could use the gravel as a hiding place for the play fishes. "Fishy is stuck in here, a rock...no a shell, she said. "I'm covering him, I found him" Tamar said with a giggle. "I'm putting it on the [play] children" replied Atara. Yosef shared that he could use the blue gravel as a substitute for water, as he used a shell to scoop the "water" and dumped it out into the container. One of the morahs began to act out the story of Yonah using one of the play people. Shayna recalled that "he was sleeping in the boat" instead of listening to Hashem. Avigail added that "they threw him in the water." We used a scale at our meeting to demonstrate mitzvos and aveiros. The Morah explained that we want the side that represents mitzvos to be heavier than our aveiros. Kitat Simcha does many mitzvos everyday, and we are very proud of them! Wishing all our Kitat Simcha families a meaningful Yom Kipper and G mar Chasima Tova! Morah Chana and Morah Jessica

6 In Gan Prachim, the children are continuing to identify the circles in their environment. The intention this week was for the children to transition from their learning of circles into studying the emotions on their circular faces. First, the children sorted circles by size: small and large. Next they found circles in the story Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. After identifying various sized circles, the children used Wiki Stix to stick them to circular objects. They will use these as decorations for Sukkot! The children also have been experimenting with shaping play dough to form concentric circles. The children were each given a placement of their art work of circles they made the prior week with crayons. The children followed the twists and turns with their play dough. Today, the children explored feelings of happy, angry, and sad by rolling a ball with each of their faces expressions. In preparation of Sukkot, we are gathering raw materials to create contact paper creations! Happy Birthday Mirele! G mar Chatima Tova, Morah Siena, Morah Tara, and Morah Sigla