Unthinkable: Energy Hare-y

Hello Parents,
I hope you had an opportunity to point out some times over the past week when your kiddo was using their Superflex Brain instead of their Rock Brain.  The more we use the language the more they will begin to understand what it means!

This week we introduced Energy Hare-y.  Energy Hare-y has too much energy.  We talked about times when it is ok to have alot of energy such as during recess, when dancing, and in a Jumpy House!  But we also talked about times when it is not ok to have alot of energy, such as during circle time, bedtime, and meal times.  We read the story 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed ( good example of a time when we do not want to be an Energy Hare-y) I am including a link for a video about Tigger- another good visual example of being an Energy Hare-y.  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/128845239316402732/
After watching the video, ask you child who was the Energy-Hare-y?  What happened in the end when he had too much energy?  What could help him to calm down?

Unthinkables: Rock Brain

Hello Parents,
Rock Brain is our first "Unthinkable".  He does not use flexible thinking and he does not think about others.  Rock Brain only cares about what he wants.  As you can imagine this is a hard concept for 4 and 5 year olds because developmentally they do only care about what they want.  But it is important for us to help guide them to understand that we can not always have what we want. For example if they want  a toy but another child is playing with it, they cannot just grab it from that child.  We are spending alot of time talking about how you would feel if that happened to you- most kids have had this experience so they can relate and identify how it feels.  We then are taking it another step further and asking them how could you be flexible and handle that situation another way.  You would be impressed with all the wonderful ideas the kids come up with.   Check out what Rock Brain looks like below!

Superflex

Hello Parents,
We are officially beginning our Superflex unit in social skills group.  The Superflex curriculum is written by Michelle Garcia Winner socialthinking.com. Her site has a wealth of information on it that might interest you.  I have included the link above so you can check it out.

We have already discussed many key vocabulary words such as Big Problem, Little Problem; Expected, Unexpected;  Flexible, Unflexible. Your child should be able to tell you about those terms, feel free to contact me with any questions related to these terms.

With those terms under our belt we are ready to learn about Superflex.  Superflex uses flexible thinking, meaning he can change his thoughts and ideas to consider how others might feel.  We want to kids to be using their Superflex brains when making choices.