Social Skills and 'All About Me'

[5 Little Monkeys]

We have a book called "I like myself"...not sure on the author atm but it's a scholastic book. We also read "we share everything" by Robert Munch. There's probably quite a few RM books that would fit into this theme.

When we get a new toy there is sometimes fighting over whose turn it is. I turned this into a game (sort of). We set a timer and the children know when the timer goes off they need to pass it to a friend. Depending on what the toy is, they either crowd around while they are waiting for their turn or I make a list of the order they need to go in. It's really helped with turn taking. One of the little boys (he's 2 in march) has become such a great turn taker that when he gets the toy he plays with it for like 20 seconds and than passes it on lol. He much prefers the "game" over the toy haha.

Emotions...happy and you know it, is a great song for this. I also do hungry..rub your tummy, sleepy..give a big yawn, mad...stomp your feet, sad..cry boo hoo. I also tell the kids it is okay to cry but if we are crying for no reason than we need to sit in the library and maybe a read a book so we don't disturb the other children (this is more so for older children who tend to cry when they don't get their way). An art project for emotions could be that you or they cut out different mouths (smiles, frowns, angry etc) and they can glue them onto paper plates or construction paper with eyes and noses etc.

I also model behaviour constantly. For example I will say, "We don't whine. Tell xxx with your words what is wrong" or "Use gentle hands. Tell xxx that you were not finished with that toy yet" etc.