Learning and Teaching with Preschoolers Blog

Child Created ABC Letter Line

8/17/2015

I am in need of a ABC Letter Line in my group meeting area.

But...

There are no walls to place it on. I have tried putting one up on the back side of the shelves, but it never lasted long and was a huge pain in the @%&*. So I gave up.

Until I had a teacher dream. I know I'm not the only one who has those dreams admit it, it's ok to have teacher dreams it means that we are passionate about our jobs.

Supplies

Pipe Floor Flange Fittings
90degree angle PVC elbow
PVC Pipe
Black Spray Paint
4x5 Canvas Panels
Curtain Rod Rings with Clips
Coloration Liquid Water Colors

Children used the liquid water colors to paint the canvases.

Children glued on collage material to form the letters with.
We used

Yellow Popcorn
Red Popcorn
Small Buttons
Sticks
Small Sea Shells
White Beans
Black Beans
Brocken Sea Glass
Small Acorn Tops

The finished product BEAUTIFUL!

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First Week of School

8/16/2015

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Peer into my Week

We started the morning off with a classroom favorite Pete the Cat Rocking in my School Shoes.

Followed with a group discussion about what we would like to do in our school shoes. We sang as each child came up with what they wanted to do.

The children loved it.

We had a successful first 3 days of school. We started our first three days off with PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES. I truly believe to have a successful school year you need to teach the children all of the procedures that you feel your students need to know to have a happy, health preschool experience.

We learned how we could Follow the Rules with Heidi Songs

Introduced Learning Centers

We introduced the children to 4 different learning centers each day. We placed the children into groups (yellow, green, red and blue) and rotated the children into each learning center for 15 minutes. At the end of every 15 minutes we rang the clean up bell and had the children clean up each area before we rotated to the next center.

We are using the procedure checklist to make sure that all procedure are being taught the first few weeks of school.

Outdoor Learning Centers

First Week of School

Learning to follow classroom routines and rules
Read: Pete the Cat Rocking in My School Shoes
Sing: ABC Song
Recognizing Our Names
Macarena Math (counting to 1 to 12)

My Plans
Wednesday

Download Plans

week_1_peer_into_my_week.pdf
File Size:	464 kb
File Type:	pdf

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Main Resources

To help with teaching children classroom procedures.
Checklist
Procedure Posters
Mini Books

Grab your FREE copy of Classroom Procedures.

procedure_check_list.pdf
File Size:	2231 kb
File Type:	pdf

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A Positive Classroom Begins with Procedures

8/13/2015

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For a smooth running classroom we need to begin the school year with some key ingredients to bake up that positive classroom mojo.

The first and most important ingredient is to teach children procedures so that the cake does not flop. No one enjoys a flopped cake... RIGHT.
so let's begin by closing our eyes and visualizing what we want the children to do from the moment they walk through the doors. Do you have that picture in your mind?

Make a list of all the procedures that you visualized so that you don't forget.

Write it down step for step what you want to see the children do. Remember that these are 4 and 5 year olds and they need to have simple clear steps to follow. (make procedure posters to help your English Language Learners)

Make sure that you let the children know why. Why the procedures is important.

Model, Model, Model. Children need to be given the opportunity to observe the teacher modeling the procedure so that they can form a picture in their mind of what that procedure should look like.

Have children take turns modeling the procedure as the others notice and describe what is happening during the procedure. This will allow all of your children ample time to process and come up with that visual that they will need to successfully practice the process of the procedure.

Last but by all means not least PRACTICE, PRACTICE and always give them lots of positive feed back.

For the children that need extra support try using mini book that show the procedure step by step with visual aide.

Send the books home so that you can get the support of the families.