Skip to main content

A day with no chairs, why working on the floor helps children to be successful!

Today we had a surprise day with no chairs. Our tables and chairs were moved out of the way from our flower project the day before so I just left them there. I had floor toys out when the children first came to school and had taped bulletin board paper to the floor. After circle time we all gathered around the board paper and created a garden which I will hang on my bulletin board for the rest of the year with the addition of their picture and some embelishments. I will post pictures of that when I am finished with it. It happened to be a rain day so we spent our playtime completing our garden and completing a plant parts worksheet on the carpet. We used our clipboards and yes this involved glue and scissors. I am lucky enough to have a class that can handle those tools properly on the carpet. After lunch we had or Math groups so while I was working with one group the other children completed a read the room activity quietly and once they were finished worked on their seat work while playing on the floor. The children were so well behaved and I know why! They moved all day! Without sitting in chairs the children were free to move and sit in positions that were comfortable for them. This day encompassed the entie brain with movement, visuals and auditory aspects. Chilren who have the chance to move often in the classroom are more successful and have less behavior issues. This is whyso many elementay school teachers are ading stretch breaks and brain breaks to their daily routines. They gve 2-3 mintes but get much more teaching done. So while there is time that we musthave children sit in chairs I would encourage you to try a day without chairs and see the reslts for yourself. I know I will be doing this much more often! Til next time, Christine

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Sight word freebie, ideas and more Dyslexia Worksheets!

Hello All, Today we had so much fun with our sight word from my freebie Snowflake Slap . First I laid out all of the snowflakes on the carpet. If the child could read me the word they could keep the card and crumple it into a snowball. Once all of the words were read and squished I told the class we could have a snowball fight! It was such great fun that we took our "snowballs" into another kinder classroom and attacked them. As the kids threw the sight word snowballs we made more snowballs and threw them into the crowd from leftover paper. It was great fun! Once we settled back into our classroom we placed all of the snowballs into a bucket and each child pulled a word. If they could read it they recorded it on the left side of the worksheet below, if they couldn't read the word they recorded it on the right. The ones most did not know were pretty consistent so I know which ones we need the most work on. So hop on over the TpT to grab your free copy of Snowflake Slap an...

Animal and habitat teaching ideas for pre-k and a freebie!

O.K. so we all remember those famous dioramas that we made in elementary school were meant to teach us about animals and where they live. While these are cute projects with a purpose they are best suited for elementary students not pre-k. But with curious minds and a natural love for animals it only makes sense to introduce our kiddos to facts about animals and where they live around the world. For pre-k there are so many great easy ways to incorporate animals into our classrooms. I like to make animal masks for each habitat we are working on as well as read the room cards and recording sheets. The kiddos can record the name of the animal by reading it on the other childs mask. My class also enjoys making animals out of construction paper and gluing some facts that I have typed and printed about the animals. I like to try to decorate my room to mimic the habitat we are working on, I have to say I am a huge stuffed animal collector so I have many of the animals needed in beany baby size...

The Story of Creation Flip Book Freebie!

As many of you already know I am a Christian school teacher in a small private school. I have decided to start making my Bible craftivities into files for others to access for their own Christian classrooms or homeschools. I have just finished putting together my first file for a Creation Flip Book and it is listed for free on TpT. The file includes full picture instructions as well as an option for color or black and white. Throughout this year I plan to list each Bible story craftrivity I do in my classroom and then bundle them at the end of the year. I am also working on a God's Journal, similar to the poetry and math journals you see so often in classrooms theses days but this one will celebrate our faith. I would appreciate your feedback after downloading the file and sharing this with other believers. Please take a minute to follow me here on my blog and hop on over to TpT to get your free flip book file. While you are there please check out my other items and follow my store...