The Crazy Pre-K Classroom

It used to be that schools catered to the way typical girls learned, sitting quietly, listening and "still" learning. Well, we know these days that this type of learning sets boys up for failure. While some girls can still handle the old school way of learning I am seeing more and more girls that are unable to learn this way, now setting them up to fail as well. So what do we do? We as teachers have all had training on the three musts of learning: auditory, visual and kinesthetic. We are supposed to put each of these into every lesson, but how easy is it to make sure every lesson has all three? And how often are our kinesthetic aspects just moving around manipulatives on the table? We need to realize that children, even up into the higher elementary and middle school ages need to move to learn. We are so used to sitting children at desks for long periods of time and then wonder why we have such behavior problems? This year my 4th grader was part of a rotation system like thos...

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 whil...

So I need to address a hot topic at the Pre-k level. We all know what bullying looks like in Upper Elementary, Middle and High School but did you ever stop to consider it can begin much sooner? I am fully convinced that the roots and beginnings of bullying starts much sooner than Elementary School. Up until 4 years old children are mimicing appropriate and inappropriate behaviors borrowed from those they see the most; parents, grandparents, other family and family freinds. The child sees a behavior and believes it is appropriate and copies it to gain approval. Kinda like the first time you hear your three year old repeat the curse word you just said because you cut your finger cooking dinner right? Now add the fierce need for independence that comes with becoming a Pre-K aged child. Not only is the child going to be copying behaviors at home but now adding their own personality into their behavior. Anything can contribute to the bullying mentality in a young child, we already mentioned...

Have you ever looked through your curriculum and thought an activity would be great for learning but really boring? Sometimes I wonder who is thinking some of this stuff up? For instance I had an activity to do today to teach positional words where the children were supposed to use a plastic cup and a bottle cap to show me they understood my directions. I just couldn't do it! How boring to sit on the carpet and move around a bottle cap so........I changed it! I happen to have a class set of small bug jars and plastic spiders. Well, my kiddos know I am totally afraid of spiders so I told them that at the end of the activity they could "attack" me with the spiders. This made the boys especially happy! The class loved using their bug jars and spiders to complete the same objective. Here are some other ideas to help engage 4 year old minds with fun in mind: (1)Add a song: the best songs for learning involve movement and are ideally written on large chart paper for tracking wh...

Here is a picture of my little 5 year old, Collin, he is definatly a wiggler and a kinesthetic learner. This is how he likes to stand when we go over flash cards and when he watches TV! OK so I know that there is a difference between being a kinesthetic learner and a wiggler but if you take a minute to think about it the activities you plan for your kinesthetic learners will also help the wigglers get their wiggles out. WIN! WIN! I have had great success in my classroom using the following techniques, most not costing me anything! 1. Take a shake break (you tube has several great 1-2 minute videos for the kiddos to shake to!) 2. Use clipboards to write instead of sitting at the table, this way the kiddos can spread out on the floor and get comfy. I find their work is much better when they get comfy. 3. Use songs with motions to teach, there are many songs out there for everything under the sun like days of the week, months of the year, ABC's and numbers. 4.Seek and finds: hide ...

Hello All, I have finally finished putting together my Jungle Theme Behavior Chart. I am so excited to use this in my classroom this year. Since I cannot get into my classroom for another 2 weeks I decided to hang it from my curtain rod for the pictures. The system works like this: Each child starts everyday on Happy Hippopotamus, this is acceptable behavior for the classroom. The child can then move up or down from there depending on their behavior choices. I have included the list of acceptable/unacceptable behaviors that I intend to give to my families as well as a full explaination of how I intend to use this chart. I give several ways to assemble this chart in the packet using magnets, ribbon and/or laminating. I chose to use page protectors and binder clips for my classroom. I chose the page protectors so that I could store the small reinforcer graphics for rewards inside the chart. I punched both sides of each card inside the page protector with ...

I had a breakthrough today, an answer to prayer truly in my classroom. I have been struggling with how to help a child get through the Reading Group rotations that have been going so well for the rest of my class. This little one could not stay in his area or stay quiet enough for others to stay focused. At times I have had to have him removed. I thought I had tried everything, giving him books, papers, drawing binder, and all sorts of other activities. Today I asked him to sit next to me, which he has to do everytime, but this time I held his hand, just that simple thing made a world of difference. I held his hand while instructing my reading group and he sat quiet and was engaged in the process. Tomorrow I am going to try this during his own reading group as well to see if he focus' a little better. Just a little sensory trick that maybe you could use for one of your little ones, so simple yet so effective! Till Next Time, Christine