Character Building

Each day offers opportunities to encounter and learning with processes of character building. Working with politeness, honesty, diversity, and sharing are only a few among many we, as we strive to promote pro-social values of citizenship.

We can help us understand these attributes and their importance by forging meaningful connections in our lives, setting fair and clear guidelines, accepting own and others' feelings, showing respect for ideas and developing competence, and modeling respect in our interactions with friends.

We also move the play to a higher level by helping us find ways to resolve our active movement - moving the play and thinking to a prosocial level.

​​We need a safe space in which to express and regulate our emotions and an early childhood classroom provides ongoing opportunity for learning. Cooperation, kindness, consideration, responsibility and trustworthiness are all part of us having fun and building relationships with friends.

We love to help! We like to know that we are contributing, that we are needed, and that our actions are having a positive impact on others in our environment. Beyond just saying “thanks for your help,” we give ourselves more learning experiences on how we are being helpful, what that means to us and others, and how we can continue to be helpful in the future.

Our thinking is often "magical". Sometimes our emotions can overtake our reasoning, And many times we too see more positive qualities in our pretend characters. 

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​We learn so much through observation. We are always watching us, picking up on our habits and mannerisms.  In our classrooms we emphasize gentleness by modeling control of our hands, bodies, and voices.

​We draw attention to small movements and name gentleness when we see it in action, need it to be present, or notice it’s absence.

​We must practice what we learn before it comes naturally to us. ​

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This applies in learning character, too. We can learn vicariously when we see character-building in action and learn directly when we hear learning experiences in values. But we need hands-on experience to know the true meaning of character.

Kindest,
​Children & Friends.