Pre-KG 2022 / 23 Blog 33
Face to Face
The face is such an important part of the body, because it is the place where we can best convey and read emotions.
A laughing face usually means the person is happy, tears mean sadness and a frown means someone might not be very content about what is happening around them.
The face is the part of the body a baby sees and recognizes first and it comforts him / her very much to see familiar faces.
One of the things that was taken away from us during the Coronavirus pandemic was to see other people’s faces to understand their emotions. Especially for children it was very hard to read feelings in a masked face from just the eyes and they got anxious and confused.
That is why I sometimes pulled down my mask in the early days and showed the children in Pre-Kindergarten a smile from a distance. It worked wonders and the children’s happy reactions warmed my heart each time.
So this week the Pre-Kindergarten focus was on the face and the children had such a fun time learning about it in different ways and different languages.
As the children have been role playing a lot pretending to be families with babies, it was natural for them to get the dolls dressed, combed and then have a good look at their faces.
They proudly stated all the features in English and in German and hopefully will teach their parents their new knowledge.
We also learnt a new song in German which has a lot of face / body vocabulary in it !
Please enjoy !
Some children practiced their new words on our animal figurines.
The nice and sunny, not too hot weather made for outdoor learning again. Lots of play dough and some play dough mats were provided and the children could visit this offer / station according to their interest. Some children spent a lot of time on making different faces and included details like hair and eyebrows etc.
Others had a look, admired their friends' work and went back to the sandbox.
Play dough always provides a great opportunity for creative expression and free style is the best, so we introduce tools at a later stage. Kneading, rolling, pinching, forming and using all their fingers really improves the children’s fine motor skills and grip.
Well, the activity proved so popular that the children wanted to do it again and a rainy day and Maya's encouragement was perfect to make more faces this time in the classroom.
Talking about making faces ! Who doesn’t like to look at the mirror and make silly faces ? Everyone ! So out came the mirrors and the children used the natural light to do some in depth study of their facial features including sad, happy and funny faces with lots of laughter.
Again, we had a chance to do this activity in the classroom as well and it was so much fun for the children.
Some of our older children challenged themselves to a “position the facial features” worksheet activity and it was not an easy one. They had to glue the right parts onto a blank face and they did a brilliant job. All the learning really had paid off !
On the last day of the week we finally got to wash the baby dolls. Every year during this unit, I promise the children that we get to bathe the baby dolls, preferably in the little pools, but the weather needs to be right, because usually the children bath themselves as well.
So this time we took some purple wash clothes and two of our much beloved baby dolls and let the children wash them.
They were especially careful with the faces and took turns very nicely, also with K1 ! Some great mommies and daddies in the making.
This week additionally was a week full of new faces in the classroom!
Two German families visited us on different days and the Pre-Kindergarten children were very friendly with them.
We also had a visit from our former sports teacher, Mr. Philipp Seifert and his group of high schoolers. Welcome back, Mr.Seifert !
His student Paulina spent the morning with us and the children were very happy to talk to her about roly polys and such things.
Anabel came by the classroom, too, as her last day of school with us was washed out by the typhoon. We were grateful to be able to say a proper goodbye. Thank you und vielen Dank for all your help, dear Anabel, everyone at school will miss you so much.
Let’s face it - it is wonderful to make friends, but it is also sad to see them go. And we always miss the ones who have gone on holidays or are sick at home.
Please come back soon, so we can play together together!
The Pre-Kindergarten children have become such good friends and they are so happy to see each other!
Lovely to see your smiles every day, dear Pre-Kindergarten children !
Yours,
Anita Ursula Mönch
Pre-Kindergarten homeroom teacher
Playgroup / EY GFL
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