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Daily At Home Project: Wine Cork Friends and Feelings

by | Apr 16, 2020 | At-Home Enrichment | 0 comments

Please find below our daily SolBe Family update letter containing helpful resources and exciting projects to explore while we all do our part to stay home during this pandemic. Subscribe here to receive daily updates.

April 16, 2020

SolBe Families,

In our post yesterday, we encouraged tending to our children’s anxiety and/or stress levels surrounding the COVID-19 crisis. We will be offering additional resources in the days to come to provide various tools for helping our children cope. Today, however, we want you to focus on YOU. Release yourself from any pressure or guilt building up during this unprecedented time. Everyone is doing the absolute best that they can. If you normally do not allow screen time but are offering it to give yourself a few moments of peace or to get something done…forgive yourself! It is COMPLETELY FINE. In my opinion, you are all rockstars and when life is back to a new version of normal, all the parents out there doing it all deserve a medal or a hug or at least a very enthusiastic “WELL DONE!”

“There is no such thing as a perfect parent. So just be a real one.” -Sue Atkins

Project of the Day for All Ages: Wine Cork Friends and Feelings 

Materials

  • Dried Wine Corks
  • Pipecleaners
  • Googly Eyes
  • Markers/paint
  • String
  • Glue

Any or all of these materials can be substituted depending on what you have at home. It can be fun to simply paint the corks or draw on them with markers. The corks are also an interesting texture and can be squeezed and poked by younger friends. Just be certain they are completely dried out :).

Step One

This step can be directly linked to the above blurb. Collect wine corks for the project. In keeping with our blended educational philosophy from Reggio Emilia and Montessori, we highly recommend Italian wines for the cork collecting…particularly Chianti, Barolo, and Montipulciano (wink, wink!).

Step Two

Lay out all of the materials that the kiddos can explore for their project.

Step Three

With our older friends, encourage your child to explore and express any feelings they may be having. Emotional schematic faces have long been used to gauge how children are feeling (famously, the Wong-Baker Faces used for Pain scale). Are the cork friends happy? Sad? Frustrated? Excited? What a wonderful opportunity to let children know that it is okay to NOT be ok—being sad at times is normal!

Step Four

Encourage imaginative play with all of the various cork friends. What would they say to one another? How might they interact? Could their emotions change? Imaginative and role play can be a wonderful way to develop social-emotional learning. How are the friends interacting with one another?

Most important direction, as always: HAVE FUN!  

More resources to follow in the coming days. Feedback and more ideas welcome, as always! 

Be well and stay healthy!

The SolBe Team


Be Supported

We’ve felt the uncertainty that occurs when our children are in the care of someone else. At SolBe, we know you will always be your child’s first teacher; we’re here as a knowledgeable partner in your child’s education.

From our experience, children rise to the intellectual life of those around them, so we are committed to growing as individuals and as a team. You can count on us to provide a warm and engaging learning experience for your little one.

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We’ve spent thousands of hours in classrooms that either overstimulate, underwhelm, or actively prevent educators from delivering the highest-quality education and care. At SolBe, you’ll go beyond the traditional four-walled classroom.

Our award-winning, inventive and uplifting learning spaces stimulate the senses and instill feelings of home-like safety and comfort. They allow for your child’s, and our educators’, changing needs and emotions. They create room for wonder—for learning, and living, outside the lines.

Be Immersed

We’ve seen what’s lost when things are done the way they’ve always been done before. SolBe is an adaptive Spanish exposure program that refuses to accept the status quo.

Our inventive practices grow from the shoulders of giants, with roots in the Reggio Emilia approach, the Montessori method, and well-researched cognitive disciplines that attend to the whole child. We create opportunities to develop character attributes that your child will benefit from for a lifetime. Collaboration. Communication. Independence. Healthy risk-taking. Critical thinking. Emotional awareness. Resilience. Intellectual curiosity. Creative innovation. An authentic love of life and learning.

Be Well

We know what it’s like to forget to feed ourselves—physically, mentally, and emotionally. At SolBe, we understand it’s impossible for you to pour from an empty cup. And we do what we can to keep your cup full.

Our learning ecosystem is designed with children and educators—and you—in mind. Seed-to-table nutrition program. Yoga and mindfulness. An all-inclusive experience so you don’t need to worry about finding time to provide meals, diapers, or wipes (unless you want to). Evening and weekend family programs.