Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Lessons on Love

Valentine's Day is a great time to talk about love and how we show love for one another. To discuss love as a concept in a lesson, our class of preschool children will talk about people and things we love. I'll often bring pictures of popular kinds of foods, of diverse families, animals, beautiful scenery, etc. The children can take turns talking about who/what they love. (Sometimes the answers get silly, as was the case last week with a 4-year-old naming "purple polka dots" as something she loved, and it brings a smile to everyone's face.)
If time allows, the children can draw a picture of something they love. Then we will move on to things we can do to show love for others. For younger children I'll typically give some ideas and have them stand up/sit down if an action is something that shows love or not. The young children in my class usually also enjoy acting out scenarios, so when we talk about showing love, we will do a dramatic play activity with puppets or dolls to illustrate helping a family member with something, forgiving a younger sibling for breaking a toy, remembering to take special care of a pet, etc.

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