One of our year-long curricular threads in the Yellow Room is building community and kindness. In the threes and fours age group, children are emerging from more individualist thinking to a growing awareness of community and the larger group. This fits so well with the Barrow-wide theme of me to we and we are finding many opportunities to reinforce these concepts.
Our new job system is a part of this effort. We came up with a list of tasks that need to be done to keep our classroom running smoothly: a schedule reader, a line leader, a caboose, someone to push in the chairs, a snack helper, door holders, and someone to get ice packs when people get hurt.
Rather than creating a traditional job chart, we have decided that these will be “community jobs,” to emphasize that we all take care of the room. Each child has their name on a popsicle stick so when it comes time to pick someone for a job, we pick a name from the “waiting” jar. After, the name goes into the “picked” jar and we reset after everyone has had a chance to do a job. The children have responded well to this system and they all take pride in caring for the room and for their peers.
We have also made an ongoing “Yellow Room Kindness” list, so we can highlight and celebrate all the ways we are kind to each other. When teachers notice kind acts, we add it to the list with the group watching. We have already noticed that when we refer back to this list, it has served as a powerful reminder of how to make good choices at school.
We are particularly attentive to “we have kind hands.” At this stage of development, it is very common for children to seek out gross motor stimulation, aka big body play and wrestling. Our job as teachers is to make sure they are developing body control, empathy, and problem-solving skills as we help them learn how to manage excitement and frustration as well as read social cues and practice cooperation.
We would love to hear how your child is growing as a member of your family community! Do they have special jobs at home that they are in charge of? Have you noticed shifting dynamics with older or younger siblings?
