How Do We Increase Empathy? This was the title of an Op-ed piece by Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times today, and it made us think of all the opportunities your children have in an unhurried, nurturing preschool classroom to practice (and model) this essential quality. Empathy, according to Dr. Brené Brown, researcher and writer, fuels connections with others. She adds that it is “feeling with people.” In our preschool classroom we develop this by reading uplifting stories of others’ courage, and stories that help children see themselves in others’ shoes. Kristof adds that service projects (such as when we made bird feeders) and going out in nature also appear to encourage greater compassion. These create both a climate of nurturing and an enhanced feeling of inspiration through awe and wonder.
making new friends
Each time your child waits his/her turn, shares or soothes an upset classmate, s/he is developing this essential character trait. This is one of the reasons we do not compete at the preschool level, for that would be helping children to base their worth on another’s failure. We are so fortunate to have the time to allow the development of empathy to unfold, because we know that opportunity and patience are essential to its growth.
playing with “Connecticut” sand
This week we welcomed Christopher, our new student. We are very pleased to have him in our classroom, and also very pleased with the welcoming and empathetic gestures of the class to him. Morning circle greetings were friendly and inclusive. Your young 3 and 4-year olds were helpful and encouraging – showing him where things are, inviting him to play, sharing toys and materials, listening when he spoke – all the while allowing him to be independent and make his own choices when he wanted.
ice skating on the pond!
How exciting it was to go to the pond on Monday for ice skating!!! Your children are hearty New Englanders, and they took to the ice with ease. We had so much fun! The bitter cold kept us indoors the rest of this week, so we brought some of the outdoors in and filled our sand table with snow! This added a whole new dimension to our sensory table explorations. Did you know that snow is very cold on bare hands!? That it gets more easy to mold after it has been inside!? That it melts quickly and turns to water!?
graphing
Our snow day on Tuesday gave us more graphing opportunities on Wednesday, as we graphed numbers of children who went outside and who stayed inside; who drank hot chocolate and who didn’t; and who watched TV and/or a movie and who didn’t. Our community discussions are opportunities for us to reflect on and to reframe our experiences using listening, speaking and math skills.
Christopher chose a hawk as his bird, and we all added to the “What we want to know” section of our bird chart.
What do we want to “Know” about birds?
Our other very special person was Sonya, our Star of the Week. She brought in and shared her doll, some books, a photo of herself, a pillow pet, and much more. As with all our stars it is wonderful to see confidence grow as they share special parts of their lives. It is equally nice to see their classmates’ interest and pleasure at learning more about one another. What an important way to create a climate of empathy.
our “Star”
For those of you viewing this blog on your iphone or ipad, you can view the pictures here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcdtech/sets/72157647254977052/
Welcome Christopher!
CJ told us that, even though he likes all the girls, how happy he and Aidan are to have another boy in the class to help even things up. He didn’t use those words exactly of course 🙂