Hi everyone, hope you’re all keeping safe & well! This week we’ve got activities that your child can do using another wonderful pack from Sue which you’ll get delivered later in the week; we will be making worry dolls, a traditional Guatemalan peg doll that the children can confide their worries in and the dolls are meant to take the worries away. According to folklore, if your child places the doll under their pillow before going to sleep, the doll is thought to worry in the child’s place, thereby letting them sleep peacefully & waking without their worries as the doll has taken them away during the night! We always reiterate to the children that they should always tell their parents/guardians/teachers about their worries, but if for instance they are awake in the middle of the night and need a bit of comfort, the worry dolls are a lovely support. We make these towards the end of every school year; there was one child who was in our Montessori for 3 years, & his mother told me he put all 3 of his worry dolls under his pillow the night before starting primary school…
All you need is traditional wooden pegs, markers to draw a face, & scraps of wool/material to glue on! Of course you can bring geography into this activity by looking to see where Guatemala is on a map/ globe, & talking about the continent of North America (Guatemala is in Central America which is the southernmost part of North America!!), then pointing out the other 6 continents, talking about family you might have living in other continents, where do the child’s favourite animals come from etc.
Something we do in school from the beginning of the year, which can really help if your child is visibly worried or anxious about something, is to practice deep breathing – this is the first step of doing yoga with them, & listening to your body. We just simply ask the children to put their hands on their tummies & take some long deep breaths, & model this for them, exaggerating as much as possible how slowly you can breathe in & out. This in itself is a great exercise for when you might need to try & calm a child down about something – it focuses them by giving them something to do with their hands – & it is also a lovely relaxation activity; you can add to it by getting them to do it lying down, & putting a teddy on their tummy & they can see it rising & falling with their breathing. Any techniques for self soothing are just wonderful to encourage in children from the early years, which is 1 of the reasons we incorporate yoga & mindfulness into our classes. I’ve attached some exercise cards with more breathing exercise ideas.
Back to our pack!! – this Father’s day page of facts can be done for dads or granddads; it’s great to ask your child these questions & see what their answers are – usually more hilarious than accurate! The pack will also contain materials to make a hot air balloon sun catcher, using hot air balloon cut outs & bits of coloured cellophane paper. Also the children will be getting bubble wrap, to use for painting & printing – definitely not for bursting!!!!
The song this week about colours can be done using Lámh signing – it’s the colours song!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The Colours Song
Are you wearing red today, red today, red today? Are you wearing red today, yes or no? Yes I’m wearing red today, red today, red today! Yes I’m wearing red today, yes, yes, yes!
Are you wearing blue today, blue today, blue today? Are you wearing blue today, yes or no? No I’m not wearing blue today, blue today, blue today! No I’m not wearing blue today, no, no, no!
Are you wearing green today…
Are you wearing yellow today…
Are you wearing white today…
Hope you all have a great week, love from us all at The Children’s House xx