Kindergarten: Skills for Learning Unit

For the past three weeks, we have been focusing on Skills for Learning. In our first lesson, we talked about what it means to listen. We also learned The Listening Rules and the motions that go with them:

• Eyes watching - point to eye
• Ears Listening - cup ear
• Voices Quiet - finger over your mouth
• Body Still - hug your torso

For our second lesson, we learned about focusing attention. We listened to the Be a Learner song, and we practiced our Listening Rules. We also learned about a tool we can use to pay attention called an attent-o-scope. When we use our attent-o-scope, we put our hands around our eyes to help make what we want to see big and block out other things that try to take away our attention. We practiced different ways to turn on our attent-o-scope, such as telling ourselves to "focus," "pay attention," or "activate attent-o-scope."

For our final lesson, we talked about our last two Skills for Learning: using self-talk and being assertive. Puppy and Snail came to visit, and Snail repeated directions to himself to help himself remember. He also talked to Puppy about a problem where he needed help. We talked about what self-talk is: talking yourself in a quiet voice or inside your head to help you focus. 

We also talked about being assertive, and why it is important to ask for help in a respectful way. Puppy showed us three different ways to ask for help (passive, aggressive, and assertive), and we talked about what was right or wrong about each way. 

How to Ask for Help Assertively

1. Say excuse me
2. Say the problem
3. Ask for help