Screen Free Week!

Last week, the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood Centers participated in a very special project: Screen Free Week!  The CCFC (Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood) encourages families every year to turn off as many screens as they can, for as long as they can for 7 days. In doing so, we learn to “turn on life” and practice healthy habits such as playing outdoors, reading, and spending quality time with family.

All of our children were very busy all week long learning and playing in many different ways; none of which involved a screen!

At our Merrick/Bellmore site, Spring is the big topic. Some of our classes have butterfly kits and are busy observing the daily changes in their caterpillars as they start to turn into butterflies! We are watching them eat and grow as they get ready for this exciting transformation!

Also at Merrick/Bellmore, we are learning about April Showers and May Flowers (although it seems lately that the showers have come in May as well)! Not only are we making umbrellas and beautiful flowers to decorate, but we are also learning about how flowers and plants need the rain in order to grow. 

Finally, each of our Merrick/Bellmore families were fully encouraged to participate in Screen Free Week by filling out a daily log of screen free activities. We found out that our families played dress up, went to the playground, drew pictures, and even baked their own pizzas! We are so proud of everyone for truly recognizing this great holiday.

In Oceanside, our children celebrated another holiday as well as Screen Free Week: Cinco de Mayo!!  While we could log onto the internet or watch something on TV to find out about Mexico’s heritage, we chose to lean about it in a more hands on way. We wore Mexican costumes and marched around with cool instruments like Maracas to showcase what we learned!

Happy Cinco de Mayo from Oceanside!

At our Long Beach branch, everyone is a flutter about butterflies! Just like our friends in Merrick/Bellmore, we are witnessing firsthand the incredible transformation process of a caterpillar into a butterfly. This week we were excited to see our caterpillars begin their chrysalis phase of metamorphosis. Everyone was so fascinated; it was hard not to touch them!

In keeping with Screen Free Week, everyone read books about butterflies to enhance our learning. Our two’s read Dawn Bentley’s “Goodnight Sweet Butterfly,” and the classes “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. They also made paper butterflies that we decorated with beautiful colored tissue paper. Our three’s took a slightly different approach and made their butterflies out of plastic bags filled with sequins and glitter! They then also read “The Butterfly Garden” by Sue Harris.

Last but not least, our Long Beach Pre-K enjoyed reading “Angelina and the Butterfly” by Katherine Holibird.  Afterward,, everyone was so excited to watch their teachers carefully transfer this week’s newly formed cocoons into their new butterfly pavilions! We are all hoping that the butterflies will emerge from their cocoons in time for this week’s trip to the Henry Kaufmann Campgrounds!

See how much fun and learning can happen when we turn our screens off? Even though Screen Free Week is over, we would like to encourage everyone to continue every day to spend as little time as possible in front of their television and computer screens.  If you’re ever looking for a great activity to fill in the time usually spent with video games or the internet, check out the Friedberg JCC Early Childhood on Pinterest! We promise to post great activities on a regular basis in order to help provide your family with the best ideas for learning, growing, and having fun together!

Want to see more great pictures of our week? Head to our Facebook page for some great smiling faces!