Egocentric

At the beginning of the year we took a photo of each student and put them into a book. We have a little song that we sing when we look at the book. The children get SO TICKLED when we turn to the page with their picture on it. In addition to "reading" the book and singing our song (we do sign language to it also), we also use it for transitions. For example, when it is time to wash hands, I might flip through the pages singing "Anna Mei, Anna Mei, go wash your hands.  Preschoolers are egocentric. They LOVE seeing themselves!

Note: The little boy who walks up as she is singing is the boy whose picture she is looking at.

You Know You are a Young Teacher When...

You know you're a young teacher when you and a student show up in "matching" monogram pocket tee shirts (perk of being a preschool teacher).

This little lady was so excited to tell everyone that she and Miss Lacie were matching. 

Technology in Our Classroom

Technology, if used appropriately, is a wonderful learning tool. Many educational experiences can be accessed with the click of a few buttons. So how do we incorporate technology in a classroom with two and three year olds? We have an abundance of phones and several fake tablets that the children have loved since the beginning of the school year. We have “old school” phones with actual numbers that can be pressed on them and touch screen phones. The children love to take pictures (pretend, of course) on phones and old cameras. 

Phone, guinea pig, and mirror all in one-could it get any better?

We also have keyboards that the students enjoy “typing” on. They press the keys, say numbers and letters they recognize, and pretend that they are on a computer. They are also very popular since most keyboards are off limits to small children at home.

(Excuse my hair. We danced to The Freeze on repeat this morning.)

 In this day and age, children can easily work iPads, iTouches, and similar devices. While they can provide many educational experiences, I feel that children get enough of those technology experiences at home. Right now we are going to respect their developmental levels and PRETEND to use our technology. 

Indoor Trike

We all know the feeling of rainy days. They are already dreary but then trap us inside all day and YIKES.  It makes for a LONG day.  One of my favorite things that we have in several of our classrooms is a trike mounted on wood so the students can ride it indoors. It comes in very handy on rainy days. I’m waiting to get twelve in our room so I can teach a preschool spin classJ

Large Motor Development

Running, skipping, jumping, hopping, throwing, climbing, and balancing come naturally to children, but they need ample opportunities to practice them. Large motor activities are an important part of a preschoolers day. Large motor experiences help children to practice fundamental movement skills that help them develop self-esteem and physical competence.

Movement curriculum that is developmentally appropriate facilitates basic movement skills and physical fitness, such as those named above. As with all skills, motor skills must be practiced to improve. You might even get lucky enough to see us moving like bears, snakes, or cats.

Get Moving!

Policy Update: NAEYC Children's Champions Update

A step in the right direction for all children. 

Source: http://www.naeyc.org/policy/federal/4_10_1

Playground

We spend a lot of time on the playground so we like to change it up every now and then. We have three sensory tables outside as you have seen in earlier posts. Some of the things we are interested in right now are:

Reading small board books. They ABSOLUTELY LOVE reading these tiny books on the playground. We change the books every few days. 

We flip the reading table over for more fun!

The children love to walk on and jump off our tree stumps. A big storm knocked a tree down on campus several months ago and after the tree company cut it up we saved it for different uses around campus. The kindergarten rooms have them inside for their science centers! 

Sometimes we just sit and talk. Recently, we have enjoyed drawing with chalk all over the tree stumps. 

Playing in the house is always popular. (Note: The door was quickly removed for the sake of the children's fingers. It was dangerous:) )

Riding our horse is fun. We like to pretend to feed him, too. You may notice the two dry erase boards hanging in the background. On the reverse side of them is a chalkboard. These came off of our Learning Towers. They are fantastic to have on the playground. 

Swinging! At the beginning of the year, we teach them to swing on their tummies because not all of them have the strength to hold themselves up for long. At this point in the year, they also swing on their bottoms. 

Miss Nelson is Missing YouTube Video

Miss Nelson is Missing is one of my favorite children's books so I was excited to find this video when I was exploring http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com. 

Watch these TALENTED kindergarteners from Ms. Avina's class at Olympic Primary Center in Los Angeles as they act out their hilarious adaptation of Miss Nelson is Missing. ENJOY!

 

Favorite Websites

There is an abundance of wonderful blogs and websites available that have great ideas for teaching young children. All of these resources have fantastic ideas for themes, activities, management, sensory experiences, games, songs, finger plays, and much more. Some of my favorites are: 

http://www.growingajeweledrose.com

http://larremoreteachertips.blogspot.com

http://pinterest.com

http://trainupachildlearnaswego.blogspot.com

http://theimaginationtree.com

http://www.playcreateexplore.com

http://www.brainpop.com

Take some time to explore these websites and see what ideas you can use at home with your own little ones or at school with your students.

Baby/Toddler/Child Proof iPads

I've heard many stories from frustrated parents and teachers about how they open an app for their child, the child plays it for 30 seconds, then presses the home button and opens up a world of inappropriate possibilities. Not to mention, they don't know how to get back to the app that they are supposed to be in. So, how do you baby/toddler/child proof iPads, iPhones, and iTouches?

http://www.zagg.com/community/blog/how-to-baby-proof-your-iphone-using-io6/

Hopefully this will help you to keep your little ones, at home or in the classroom, in the correct app. 

How to Wash Your Hands

 It is of upmost importance for people to keep their hands clean, seeing as almost everything we do is done with our hands, making it easy to spread germs and bacteria. Every germ that a person comes in contact with stays on the surface of their skin and then transfers to every object that the person touches.  Hand washing is only effective at killing germs if done properly. This vodcast uses pictures and audio to explain the steps that need to be taken to wash your properly wash your hands. Both young and old people need to execute the steps in this vodcast to keep their hands germ and bacteria free! Here's to no more germs!

Pasta PrimaPreschool

We wanted to do something fun and playful this week since it was a short week and the children would be adjusting to getting back into the routine of things after Spring Break. Pasta PrimaPreschool it was! The children really enjoyed the activities we did this week. Some of the things we did were...

Fill, dump, and pretend cook dry macaroni

Cook mac n' cheese (finger licking good!)

Glue noodles

Paint with spaghetti (So much fun for the children!)

Snack on more noodles

Squish cooked noodles

Break dry spaghetti

We had a great week! Many of the activities this week tickled the little ones. They were interested in all of the activities but they loved painting with spaghetti, squishing noodles, and breaking the noodles.  Enjoy your weekend!

Go With The Flow

Remember that post I wrote last week about sensory play? I showed you one of our outdoor sensory tables that was full of gravel, trucks, and various sensory tables toys.

Well, I walked outside today and opened the table and thanks to mother nature I discovered muddy water, wet gravel, and dirty toys. I automatically started to put the lid down before announcing that it would be closed today. Then I asked myself why? It's just like the water we play with in other sensory tables, plus dirt and mud. It's preschool, we get dirty everyday, and everyone has a change of clothes. The wet and muddy gravel table was open! The children loved it! They even had splashes of mud all over their clothes and face for evidence. 

I've realized that going with the flow (which is totally not like my "I have a routine and schedule for everything" self) is often more fun than original plans. I hope everyone got to enjoy the beautiful weather today. We spent the majority of our day outside and it was wonderful!

"Hoppy" Easter!

We had our spring egg hunt before we got out for spring break. The children all had a fun time hunting eggs. We do holiday and birthday celebrations a little differently in our class. Whatever the celebration, parents are always asked to send something healthy and age appropriate. What did that mean for our egg hunt? NO CANDY! We suggested that parents fill eggs with raisins, fruit snacks, animal crackers, or stickers.  For our "special snack" we ate bunny grahams and grapes. Who really wants twelve two and three year olds eating candy or covered in icing? Not us!

All of our friends had a grand time hunting eggs!

"Hoppy" Easter! I hope all of you have had a relaxing day!

Sensory Play

Playing with sensory materials such as play dough, water, and sand is often comforting to preschoolers, especially those with higher levels of bodily kinesthetic intelligence. Sensory play encourages the development of eye-hand coordination and small muscles. Children enhance their language skills by discussing their work and the ways the sensory materials feel and behave. Sensory play is also a great way for children to learn concepts related to size, measurement, floating and sinking, and other scientific principles. Children practice sharing and further the development of self-regulation while exploring sensory materials. Sensory materials and experiences can be changed with the thematic unit. You will always find an area in the classroom, on the playground, or in both places designated for sensory exploration.

Bean Table

My youngsters LOVE all of the sensory materials. We have a play dough table that is always open. Soft dough is wonderful for pounding out frustrations, so it provides a soothing activity for upset children. I make a new batch of play dough each week in attempt to minimize the spread of germs. The cookie cutters and play dough tools are changed out by season, topic, etc.  I just introduced them to gak a few weeks ago and it was a huge success. We will now alternate between play dough and gak at our play dough table. The children love using the play dough scissors to cut the gak! We also have at least two other sensory tables available in the classroom. There is one large sensory table on the playground. We change the materials by season or when students become uninterested. There are also two smaller sand tables on the playground. In the common room in our building, we have a large sand table that is available to the children. Below are some pictures of sensory experiences we have had this year. You may feel like I put an excessive amount of pictures in this post but we have so many sensory experiences that I had a difficult time choosing which ones to include. Sensory play is messy, fun, soothing, comforting, and wonderful for all children!

Right now, we have gravel, trucks, and various containers in our outdoor sensory table. The boys and girls both love it. They really enjoyed when we had corn in it during the fall. 

When it is hot outside, I freeze objects into a variety of containers and the children use plastic hammers to get the objects out. This picture was taken during "yellow week" so I froze all yellow objects. This is lots of fun!

Some of out friends didn't know what to think about pulling pumpkin seeds out of a pumpkin. 

This is our indoor water table. We have fun adding soap to make bubbles.

One of the most popular sensory tables this year was our gingerbread mix table. Everyone loved it! Messy is good in preschool! It smelled delicious, too. 

We had various sensory table toys and arctic animals in our snow table. 

THE BEAN BOX. Children take their socks and shoes off and get in the box! The funnels, containers, and other toys are not in this picture but we do have toys that they play with in the box.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this area. The lentils are in a sturdy wooden box that easily slides underneath a table when we are done with it. 

Making gingerbread men at the play dough table. 

The "polka dot"(pom pom) table is very entertaining. They love to fill up the containers and then they have to work hard to get the polka dots out.  

Spring Break is finally here!

HAPPY SPRING BREAK!!!

Margaret Wise Brown

Ready, Set, Play!

Believe it or not, children learn through play. Children must explore, experiment, and make discoveries for themselves through playful interactions with the environment, peers, and adults in order to make sense of their world. The main goal of a developmentally appropriate early childhood classroom is to expose children to magnificent things to explore and discover through self-directed play. While it may be an accomplishment for preschoolers to recite the alphabet or count to a high number, it is much more important to support their curiosity and desire to explore by providing them with meaningful learning opportunities that are relevant to them- their families, their lives, their cultures, their languages, and their needs.

 Why is play the main event in early childhood settings? Children communicate with language, gestures, writing, and drawing through play and social interactions. Engaging in play also helps children with their social emotional development. They learn about their emotions during play by discovering what they feel, like, and dislike. They learn empathy and self-regulation. They work with others during play.  Play encourages cognitive development because children think during play. They create mental pictures in their minds, use one object to represent another, and use language and gestures to imitate things they have observed. They expand concepts based on their experiences, like caring for babies, cooking, and shopping. Children move while playing, which stimulates physical development. They run, twist, hop, jump, and skip. They develop fine-motor skills by drawing, writing, cutting, and doing centers that encourage the use of fine motor skills. Children develop self-regulation while organizing themselves during play. They organize their behavior to go along with the group. They learn to modify their emotional reactions and regulate themselves.

(Sisters coloring bunnies. Big sister on the right is in Preschool 4. The friends in our class can't sit down for that long to get that much color on their picture!)

 All the domains are developed through play: language, social emotional, physical, and cognitive. Play introduces children to the skills that will form a foundation for learning and social interaction in the future. They learn how to regulate their bodies and feelings. Children learn all of these things through observation and modeling. They do not learn these things alone. They learn within the context of relationships. Model how everyday tasks are completed. Tell them each of the ingredients you are putting into the recipe. Write and illustrate a book together. Go on an outdoor adventure. Paint, glue, draw, and cut to make a masterpiece. Listen. Talk. Explain. Support their natural curiosity and let them explore and you’ll be surprised at what they will discover.