Hello....

This week we are learning about making friends! Making friends is an essential skill to practice early in life. Building friendships helps children feel a sense of belonging and self-confidence. Children develop these social skills by engaging with peers and learning from their experiences. Through this process, they learn how to accept others' ideas, solve conflicts, join group activities and appropriately communicate. Friendships help children develop their own identity as they learn how to express themselves and show curiosity. These foundational  social skills will mature through their lives. 
There are many ways to greet someone—whether it’s saying hello, waving, or shaking hands. We practiced saying "hello" in different languages.
The children made "friend puppets" and were encouraged to create one puppet that looks like a friend and another that resembles themselves. They used yarn, googly eyes, and patterned paper to bring their puppets to life. If they needed help cutting out a dress or shirt, I assisted, and they practiced cutting paper while I helped. I will always help with cutting, while I am cutting for them they are encouraged to tear or cut while waiting so they can get some practice!
Once their puppets were complete, the children used them to practice saying "hello" and "goodbye" to one another, sparking many other conversations as well. They used magnets to build homes for their puppets.
For fine motor activities, they worked on tearing paper and tracing lines.