 Happy 100th Day!!
What is love? What are the things that you love the most? If we could see inside your heart, what would we find there? These are the questions we asked during the Map of My Heart activity. We began with an amazing book called My Map Book by Sara Finelli. In My Map Book, Finelli inspires us to think about maps in a whole new way with wonderful images of maps including: “A Map of My Dog,” “A Map of My Day,” “A Map of My Stomach,” and yes, “A Map of My Heart.” With Valentine’s Day approaching, we wanted to discuss the theme of love and friendship with the children. To get them thinking about love, we focused on Finelli’s heart map and talked about what we might find in our own hearts. The finished pieces so charmingly represented all of the things the children hold dear – and we learned even more about what kinds of things/ experiences are really important to them.
The time to begin preparing children for the challenges and demands of the future is when they are young. Children are curious and excited learners and it is our responsibility as parents and educators to create learning experiences that tap into that natural curiosity and excitement. This includes not only supporting emerging skills in reading, math, science and social studies, but also the 21st century skills of critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, technology literacy, and social-emotional development. Children need to begin to develop the early foundational skills that will help them reason, think creatively, analyze data, and work collaboratively in the future. And Global Schools Play Day does just that.
Every year we have such a great time on Global Schools Play Day and so do the children. Play is at the heart of how children learn. We see so many of the 21st century learning skills being practiced although the Team is unaware that they are doing more than play. All day long they negotiate, collaborate, problem solve, create, think and use so many more skills that help build foundations for learning and thriving in the real world. What a privilege it is to witness Team Awesome strengthening their skills to become our future leaders and citizens of our society! |
