SMILE GROUP

OUR JOURNEY & ENDEAVOUR TILL NOW Working with 2-year oldsSmile group, LavenirApril to September 2015

Glimpses of the First Day in April

April 1st & 2nd weekAim for children: Help the children to settle down in the new environment and feel at homeAims for ourselves: To be more receptive and spontaneous while interacting with the childrenUnderstanding each childs needs physical, emotional, mental and inner needs.Linking ourselves with childrens emotions and developing a bond with them

Making model of JungleActivities such as

Playing with play dough

Inserting beads

Sorting grainsSolving Math-mat

Playing basket ballPainting tree bark

Our Observations & ReflectionInteracting with children for about two weeks we came up with the following observations: Lack of clarity in speech and vocabularyHabit of throwing, chewing and spoiling play materialsLack of Body co-ordination and balanceHitting and snatching things from othersNot toilet trainedEating tiffin by moving around the place, etc.

Action takenSeeing the needs of the group we concentrated on the following as we felt these were essential: Providing spaces where each childs interests could be taken care ofHelping children to learn to share things with their peers (not to snatch or hit) Inculcating the habit of respecting materials and their belongings

Inculcating the habit of respecting food and eating their food by sitting at one placeProviding more physical activities to channelize their energy positively

We also had Individual meetings with the parents with whom we felt a need to discuss about their child

Our Observations & ReflectionAfter the long summer break we noticed a lot of change in the group. Whatever we had achieved in the month of April we now saw washed away - the group had fallen back to the same emotional anxiety and trauma as before the break.Secondly, some new kids had joined the group so the group size had enlarged. We observed

After the Summer break

The children who were fully settled in the month of April appeared very unsettled and the kids who were unsettled appeared partially settled now. The weather was also one of the factors which made children a bit unsettled.

Besides providing emotional support, we were also occupied with how to understand each child in a better way so that we could provide more to them as per their needsWhat is the childs need inner, emotional, physical, mental? Which activities are giving emotional support to the child?What is the strength of the child?What kind of conversation is the child having with his/her peer group?What kind of activities does the child want to explore?

July 1st and 2nd weekAims for children:Bringing children back to school routineProviding emotional support to the new ones to settle down in the new atmosphere

Aims for ourselves:Reconnecting with the childrens needsBringing the group together

Organised unstructured and unsupervised activities to know more about the childs behaviour and interests.Maintained daily dairy to record each childs gradual growth.Provided easy to complex activities to know childrens grasping power.

Action Taken

Playing with pebblesActivities such as

Opening the seed pods

Putting seeds in the bottle

Sharing time

Parents Dilemma & Anxiety - during settling down phaseOther children are settled very well, why not mineWhy has my child been ignoredMy child was moving outdoors alone without any teacher.Everyday children were provided with the same activitiesHow long is he/she going to take to settle down

My child was alone swinging on the swings and the teacher was standing at a distance My child does not share what he/she has done in the schoolWhy does my child play only in the sand-pit or outdoors and not indoors or with other children or toys

Teachers Dilemma Seeing the fluctuating emotions of the children, as facilitators we also faced the dilemma whether to let the parents be with the children or to ask them to leave the children with usHow to make parents understand that their own state of being, their own anxiety and impatience are impacting the childHow to make parents understand the fact that our repetition of the same kind of activities is helping the children by giving them emotional support and a sense of security

ReflectionAfter experiencing a very strong bout of anxiety in the parents, we as teachers felt uncomfortable and unfocused, hence, we decided to settle their anxiety first before settling their childrenWe did relate with parents emotions but we had to take action

Action takenWe had individual meetings and addressed the parents anxiety one-to-one, explaining our approach and the reason for our actions.Seeing that their being in the school was not helping them as they were getting influenced by other parents anxiety - nor was it helping the child as the child was getting influenced by the parents anxiety, we asked the parents to move away from the school campus, even if the child cried.And this action of ours helped us to gather our energy and take the group forward

July 3rd and 4th WeekWhen we observed that the children had partially settled in the group we took our first topic I Love Animals to explore with the children. Aims:To develop the faculty of observationTo help children to identify animals through their soundsAims for ourselves:Without pressurising and curbing the interests of the children helping them to come together as a group

Scribbling with sticksActivities such as

Getting ready to visit the stables

Going for Nature walk

Water play in the Sand-pit

Story telling in the sand-pit

Playing basket ball

Learning to crawl on the ladder

General conversation with peers

Our Observations & ReflectionChildren loved exploring every activity with us outdoors. Children loved singing and dancing and playing with animal toys.Children loved listening to the stories but did not like sitting indoors the story telling would happen spontaneously either in the sand-pit area or in the play ground Even though children enjoyed exploring this theme, they were not ready to mingle with their peer group.

August 2nd and 3rd week Observing the groups need we focused on the theme Me and My friends with the following aims:Aims:Helping children to mingle with their peer group and enjoy working togetherHelping children to develop the quality of sharing and helping each other

Helping a friend to solve puzzlesActivities such as

Scribbling on the chalk board together

Sorting Rajma and Chana

Painting together

Sharing try-cycle

Sharing tri-cycle

Cheering for friends to complete the round

We provided a lot of group activities so that children could mingle with each other and start interacting within themselves. By the end of the theme we could see that most of the children had learnt each others names and had started taking initiative to exchange their thoughts, sharing and helping

Our Observations & Reflection

At Present SeptemberChildren have developed a good bonding with Didis and have started expressing their feelings with themThe group is now ready to follow short instructionsIs enjoying more group gamesReady to explore new challengesThe children are learning and developing their fine and gross motor skillsNow children also show better concentration while exploring different activities

Following instructions of the gameGlimpses from the present

Picture reading for their friends

Learning to hold paint brush correctly

Learning to hold scissors

Crawling on the Monkey-bar

Playing group games

Celebrating Janmashtami

Now the group representsHappy Explorers