September Newsletter
Kiddie Academy of Royersford
We Are Friends
Infants
The focus this month is to help the children become aware of others in the classroom. Infants may be in a stage of play where they mainly observe others, or they may demonstrate solitary play, where they are generally unaware of others as they play on their own. Infants show awareness of others when they make eye contact, smile, wave, and point or reach toward others. Older infants will babble to teachers and peers and begin to interact in a back-and-forth exchange of taking turns in simple tasks such as stacking and nesting.
Toddlers
The focus this month is to help children establish relationships with peers. Developmentally, toddlers are moving from a stage of solitary play to parallel play, where children play near each other and imitate each other’s actions, but they are not necessarily playing with other children. These children may hand objects to others, but that action is not considered sharing. Rather, children at this stage are distributing items as part of their play and may become upset if another child takes something that they have given them.
While older toddlers are increasing their vocabulary and becoming verbal, they have difficulty communicating wants and needs with peers. Children often respond by slapping, pushing, or biting instead of using words to express frustration at this stage.
Twos
At this stage, it is important to create an environment where friendships can develop and grow. Play is how young children learn and build relationships. When children can interact, explore, and play with others they are learning valuable skills such as how to be a friend. Early preschoolers vary in how social they are; some are naturally more social than others. As children begin to increase their language skills, they will be able to communicate their needs and desires in social situations. Children at this stage participate in parallel play but are showing an increased interest in cooperative play. Teachers should provide opportunities for children to play and provide guidance about sharing and respecting others.
Preschool
The goal this month is to help preschoolers navigate friendships and understand what it means to be a friend. Learning how to be a friend is a vital part of a child’s social-emotional development. Children will learn the values of cooperation, sharing, respect, and being attentive to one another.
- Cooperation: the act of combining energies to work toward a common goal
- Respect: recognizing and appreciating the rights, beliefs, practices, and differences of other people; the way you feel about someone and how you treat that person
- Sharing: willingly giving or letting someone else use your portion of something
- Attentiveness: caring for or seeing to the needs of someone or something; being mindful of other’s needs and wants
The goal this month is to learn how to be a good friend. We will focus on the following character traits and how they are essential to friendships.
- Cooperation: combining energies to work toward a common goal
- Respect: recognizing and appreciating the rights, beliefs, practices, and differences of other people; the way you feel about someone and how you treat that person
- Sharing: willingly giving or letting someone else use your portion of something
- Attentiveness: caring for or seeing to the needs of someone or something; being mindful of others’ needs and wants