Each day during our Brain Smart Start we count all the children and discover who is missing. We pass this little heart-shaped box around the circle and each child has a turn to fill it with kisses for our missing friends. We tell them to hurry up and put the lid back on so the kisses don't fall out!
When our friends return to school our Wish Well Helper takes the lid off the box and shakes all the kisses out on our special friend's head! The room is filled with smiles, hugs, and lots of giggles as we experience the warmth of a connected School Family.
The Wish Well Ritual is part of the Conscious Discipline program. When I discovered Conscious Discipline over five years ago this was one of the first rituals I added to our daily routine. It made a huge impact on my attitude toward the children as I began to really focus on my relationship with them. The class as a whole began to really notice when others were hurting or missing from class. We all began to care so much more deeply for one another. I found that parents began telling stories of their children showing concern for their classmates that carried over into their prayer time at home. Now, instead of running home to tell their parents who got in trouble at school that day, children were demonstrating how much they care for their preschool friends.
