"Friendship Time"

As we prepare for the upcoming holiday of Yom Kippur, how appropriate is it to introduce the Yeladim and their families to "Friendship Time." Just as in a regular routine day there is Meeting time, snack time, exploration time.... At Preschool of the Arts we dedicate a time for Friendship- an interactive way to actively working on and learn social skills.

Dena and David puppets visit our classroom weekly to help us explore various social skills. We use puppet shows as a venue to explore social situations that unfold in our classroom. Puppet shows give children the opportunity to be ‘objective observers’, allowing the child to take in the whole picture - ‘both sides of the story’ - and honestly assess right from wrong. 

The following Dina and David story describes a fairly typical scenario: Dena created something, David was careless, Dena was sad.

Have your child use thier puppet that they made today in school to 'retell' the story and then have a discussion about How can David rectify his mistake and try to learn from it? What does forgiveness look like (This question is a little bit advanced and we have not yet touched on the outcome of forgiveness but I would just like to put it out there for Yeladim with older siblings who could understand)? Our children are so imaginative and intelligent. Encourage your child to expand on the story by asking for more details, or more interpretations. You can ask your child to help describe the scene and get into the hearts of Dena and David. Ask questions that will allow your child to think about the puppet’s behaviors and guide the puppets in showing caring and friendship for each other.