#fldcf

Emotional Intelligence: How well, a person copes with his or her feelings and whether the person has empathy for and gets along with others

Emotions: Feelings or affective states; they are divided into two groups; basic and complex emotions

Perceiving Emotions: Noticing feelings in oneself and others; the least complex emotional competency

Self-Awareness: Being mindful of all feeling as they occur

Awareness of Others: Noticing feeling in other people ; implies ability to read emotional clues

Anger: A basic emotion present soon after birth; elicited when a person is prevented from attaining a goal

Expressing Emotions: Communicating a feeling after noticing it

Regulating Emotions: The most complex of the emotional competencies; refers to understanding and managing moods and feelings responsibly 

Stress: A child’s reaction to psychological or physical threats to safety and security.

Physical Stressor: Excessive stimulation with potential to damage parts of a child’s body.

Psychological Stressor: Excessive stimulation with potential to thwart or damage a child’s sense of security.

Acute Stress: Intense strain that occurs rapidly; usually transitory.

Chronic Stress: Unrelenting, persistent and ongoing stress.

Internal Source of Stress: Stress originating within a child. 

External Source of Stress: Stress originating outside a child.

“A study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and published in the Journal of Pediatrics in June, 2005, finds that children need an hour of exercise every day to maintain good health, and that it is best when this occurs in short periods throughout the course of the day.

“The following ideas will help you ease chaos during transition times:

Encourage children to clean up after play so you can supervise rather than clean

Plan your daily schedule so there are as few transitions as possible

Have materials ready so one activity can end and another can begin without having the children wait

Use methods like music or a movement activity to hold children's attention during the transition

Offer choices to the children. For example, "You can sit at the table until we finish or you can listen to the story.”

Help children become familiar with the routine, so they know what to expect

Dramatic Play/Home Living: kitchen furniture, mirrors, dress-up clothes, baby dolls, tables/chairs

Library: books, cozy area/ listening center, rugs, puppets, soft pillows/furniture, natural lighting

Discovery/Sensory/Science: items found in nature (pine cones, shells, rocks), water/sand table, sensory items (shakers, smelling jars)

Blocks/Construction: wooden/plastic/cardboard blocks, trucks/cars, doll house

Art/Creative Expression: paper, paints, pencils, markers, pens, collage materials, brushes, easels

Music/Movement: records, tapes, CDs, musical instruments

Manipulatives: pop beads, stack/nesting toys, puzzles

Wood Working: tools, Styrofoam, glue, toy hammer/nails

Feeding Area: tables/chairs, utensils, garbage can, sinks

Sleeping Area: individual cots, blankets, transitional objects, sheets, soothing music, dim lights

Solitary play - playing alone

Parallel play - playing beside other children, but not interacting with them

Associative play - children play together with materials and some talking (3-5 years old)

"Children will typically progress from drawing free radicals into drawing basic shapes, such as circles, squares, rectangles, and triangles, then eventually drawing representations of people, places and ideas." 

FLDCF definition of a 'free radical': "When referring to children’s art, a free radical is a jumble of straight or curved lines that is freely floating on the paper." 

3 years old: "children should begin to draw their first representations of the human form using basic shapes." 

4 years old: "the objects in their drawings will become more recognizable. New symbols and concepts will be added as the complexity of combinations of shapes develops."

VPK: "children will begin to draw easily recognizable representations of objects in two-dimensional spaces. These drawings typically have a baseline at the bottom and may also have a skyline at the top. Houses and people will be represented on the baseline, with clouds or the sun near the skyline, representing that some objects are above or below each other."