In celebration of Martin Luther King Day we spent a lot of time this month talking about diversity; our differences, uniqueness and how we all come together to make the world a brighter and better place. The children investigated their hands at circle time and compared them to the hands of their friends. We talked about how they looked different, each one of them a different color and size, some of them had longer nails, some of them had cuts and scrapes. Then we talked about how they worked and what was on the inside. They discovered that no matter what the hands looked like they all bent the same way, they all could pick up their sippy cups the same and they all had the same bones inside. We used this discussion to teach the children that it is the same way with other people. They may look different or sound different but everyone is same on the inside and not one person is better than another. We followed up our discussion with one of my favorite books "Big Al." Big Al is the nicest fish you could ever meet but because he looks big and scary he can't make any friends. Not one fish will give him time to show them how caring he can be until one day when they get caught in a fisherman's net and Big Al comes to their rescue. We also worked on a few activities that celebrated diversity and differences. We thought you might enjoy this list of children's books that will help reinforce these themes all times of the year.
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We hope the holidays treated you and your's well. We are getting back into the swing of things here at The Giving Tree. The children have been sharing their stories of Christmas Break and all the special things they did and received. They were super excited to come back and see their friends and we were super excited to see them! The children have been busy exploring our new dramatic play area. They love our salon setup and are so funny doing each other's hair and their own. They even have their own wash sink and salon hair dryers. If their friends don't want to have their hair done, they can always practice on our "mop wig." We rang in the New Year last week by learning all about what happens on New Year's Eve. We watched a recording of the ball drop and counted down from 10 to a big "HAPPY NEW YEAR'S" cheer. The kids made shakers and we had a big dance party to celebrate. We've been talking a lot at circle about the new month and date to reinforce the concepts.
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