I have gone down a rabbit hole today. I wondered what special thing August was the month for, like July was national Picnic month. It seemed like a simple thing, but it was like falling into a well.
August is the national month for more than 20 things. It is bananas. Crayons, goat cheese, and peaches. Then I noticed that the site nationaldaycalendar.com had days as well.
It had just been national ice cream sandwich day, so I thought it might be interesting to see. Today is National Prosecco Day, National Filet Mingnon Day, Left-Handers Day and National Spirit of ’45 Day. Interesting, but not what sucked away half the day. It was seeing all the other days and thinking about how many of them could be used to inspire classroom lesson plans & activities.
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017 is National Relaxation Day. It seems odd that relaxation only gets one day. On the other hand I thought it would be a great opportunity to have staff training on really relaxing, on how relaxation is key to their health. Doing soothing message with the infants also occurred to me. But what about toddlers? Is there any way to get them to relax? How about creative visualization? That could work. They love being bears and trains, perhaps could have them be something calmer, more relaxing. Meditation in the preschool class? Easy. What about something more challenging? A message circle? Yoga. Aromatherapy. Calm water play.
One of the things children struggle to learn is self-regulation. We don’t remember to put this item in out weekly plan often enough. If this silly calendar could bring this into a classroom, what else could it do?
Click below to get the plans for increasing relaxation at your center.
