On this Valentine’s Day, we thought we’d share the love.  Specifically, the “Circle of Love.”

The Circle of Love is a pre-school activity we do at the Children’s Academy. The Circle of Love takes place each morning for 30 minutes or more. Though it serves simply as a way to start the day and energize students for the activities ahead, there’s a more subtle pedagogy taking place as well.

For example:

• Students take responsibility for making the circle themselves
• Practicing greetings through “How are you?” song
• Learning English through fun songs
• Teachers model compassion by checking in with each student individually to ask: “How are you?; How did you sleep?”, etc.
• Each student selects an animal to talk about, shares whatever they wish on that topic with the group, and at the end gets to make the group imitate a gesture of their choice

Through this activity students practice collaborating toward shared objectives, civil expression, learning with joy, expressing their own ideas individually and to a group, listening to the ideas of others, following the rules of an activity, and being caring and compassionate toward others. A key element in this is that the students aren’t simply being told these things. They are learning them through practice. This both keeps them engaged and active, and means they are more likely to internalize these skills and behaviors.

Haiti Partners couldn’t be more grateful to AMURT, who trained the Children’s Academy teachers and introduced us to the Circle of Love, and the many supporters, large and small, who have helped make this wonderful education a reality!