Every Friday is Chapel Day at The Appleseed. All the classes gather together to sing, dance and learn more about the bible and Jesus.
Conscious Discipline is a whole-school solution for social-emotional learning, discipline, self-regulation and classroom management. The strategies and structures transform school culture into a safe haven of cooperation, constructive problem solving and academic success. www.consciousdiscipline.com
Each of our classrooms are set up with learning centers to include, housekeeping, block play, science, math, art, and manipulative play. These learning centers allow free choice of activity during the daily schedule.
Transitioning from home to school to teacher and child to student is a very important part of beginning a school day. Kids and teachers all come into the classroom in different brain states. It is necessary to spend a few minutes getting everyone on the same page, connected, and ready to learn. This can be short and sweet, but must contain all of the below components to be effective:
Brain Smart Start
Children and teachers come into the classroom in different brain states in the morning. To get everyone on the same page, connected and ready to learn, we begin our mornings with the Brain Smart Start.
This is a very important component of the Conscious Discipline program and involves four activities; an activity to unite, and activity to connect, and activity to commit, and an activity to disengage stress. .
Small Group Time
Small group usually takes place during free choice or center time. The teacher will set up an activity for a small group of 3 or 4 children where she is able to work on skills such as, counting, number and letter recognition, sequencing, sorting, and writing. This also allows teachers time to get to know their students better and evaluate their skills for individual planning.
Brain Development and the young child
We know how important the early years are to brain development. A child's brain undergoes an amazing period of development from birth to three, producing more than a million neural connections every second. The experiences a child has during this period will shape the architecture of their brain and build the connections that allow the child to develop lifelong skills like problem-solving, communication, self-control, and relationship building.