More Nursery updates cuz it's my life right now

Hey folks..

Decided to blog more about the nursery.. but this could potentially be very boring.. just sort of describing how it's structured...

so basically the day is split up between 20 minute segments.. each segment having a direct purpose.. even "free toy play" promotes preference and autonomy... Also each week has a letter, number, color and shape of the week. I had attempted to ahve a theme of the week as well. but it was way too complicated for me to try and incorporate that heh...

So we start the day with organizing the classroom, putting the alphabet mat out, chairs/tables, etc... and then they have free toy play (which all the toys also have some sort of educational purpose)...
then we start the morning gathering.. with these three songs "si estas feliz" (if you're happy and you know it), buenos dias (good morning) and dias de la semana (days of the week).. then we review the behavioral board (this 3 light system, everyone is on green, there are 4 simple rules.. no fighting, listen while the teacher is talking, walk in a line together (when going outside), and ask to go to the bathroom one at a time)... if you break one of the rules you move to yellow and this involves a discussion, then if it happens again, you move to red and this involves timeout)... on the flip side, there is the "star" chart, where if they have good behavior for first half or second half of the morning, they have opportunities to get a star, and after 5 stars they get to choose something from the prize box (sticker/card/other)..... then we go into talking about "what day/date/climate/season is it", who my helper of the day is, and review again the #/letter/shape/color of the week... then we read a story and do a language activity (for example reviewing the letters and writing 'Dd' like 8 times), then it's sport (there are two outdoor sections of the day) this is a directed sport/game that i teach them.. then we come back wash hands for snacktime and they brush their teeth after eating, then it's storytime.. relaxation/quiet time (to start learning to calm self, stress/emotional management, etc).. then we do a maths activity (using numbers, shapes, or other concept), then english (songs, alphabet, face/body, emotions, etc.), then art and personal development (personal development is sort of just learning the role of things in the world; self awareness and awareness of others)... then 'recess' for free outdoor play.. then back inside for music before putting all the classroom stuff away again for the end of the day.

Quite a full day, activities seem to work out pretty nicely to fill out the 4 hours.

So.. originally we had called "time out" "the corner"... but unbeknownst to me, one of our boys has "the corner" in house being a dark scary corner where there are rats that he is terrified of... so in addition to already not be used to our discipline techniques, he was terrified that we were sending him to "the corner"... which was when we changed it to "time out"... alot of times our kids are used to just being spanked when they do something bad.. so that's been predictable for them.. since we dont do that at the nursery, it seems they have gotten a bit afraid of the unpreditability of that and a few of them have sort of regressed into crying when their mothers leave (when previously they were fine)... hopefully that will improve as they see it's just time outside of participating when they do something wrong..

It's been really fun to see what works and doesn't work for games and activities. Something as easy as follow the leader and having them copy me as various animals is one of their favorite games.. they also love the "london bridge" game (este puente va a caer, va a caer, va a caer.....)