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Gifts for Preschoolers 2024
Preschoolers really start to have opinions about what they want for Christmas, which can make the holidays feel a little more expensive. They’re also still at an age when they can surprise you with how much they love a completely random gift. My favorite tip when shopping for preschoolers is to gift them things that they can DO. They really like to be busy, but they still have pretty short attention spans, so a variety of quick and easy activities will be appreciated by kids and parents. Here are my picks for 2024 (all links are affiliates). STEM Board Game – This game requires some thought and attention (both very…
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2024 Toddler Gift Guide
There’s no such thing as a perfect gift for a toddler – in most cases they’ll prefer to play with the box it comes in – but that also makes it easy because they love pretty much anything. When it comes to choosing the perfect gift for a toddler my number one rule is to pick something that won’t drive their parents crazy. Tons of tiny pieces are an automatic no because toddlers would much rather dump them all over the floor than pick them up. Any obnoxious lights or noises are ruled out because a toddler will repeat them endlessly and then lose their mind when the batteries die.…
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2024 Gifts for Babies
It’s my favorite week of the year! I’ve got the Christmas music playing, I’m sipping my gingerbread latte, and I’m bringing you my holiday gift guides! this marks the 10th year (can you believe it?!) of these guides from Preschool Ponderings and I’ve got an excellent line up for you this year. My goal has always been to highlight products that are recommended by early childhood professionals to support development, while also being gifts that children will love and parents won’t hate you for giving. Let’s start with all of the babies on your shopping list. It can be so hard to shop for little ones who are truly only…
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Thanksgiving Dramatic Play
Thanksgiving can be a bit of a minefield to explore in the classroom. It’s really hard for preschoolers to understand the historical significance of the holiday – they can’t comprehend just how long ago the first Thanksgiving took place. It’s also a challenge to represent the holiday in a way that is culturally competent while also remaining developmentally appropriate. This is why I try to stick with two common themes related to Thanksgiving; Food and Family. Food is ideal for Thanksgiving-themed dramatic play. Here are three different ideas for this holiday: Family table – give children all of the materials that they might need to create beautiful Thanksgiving table scapes.…
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Classroom Materials for Thanksgiving
My favorite part of any holiday or season is making sure that it is reflected in my classroom materials. These are the kinds of things that children are seeing in their homes and in local stores and businesses, so it makes sense that they would also be able to to interact with them in the classroom. Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart for a couple of reasons. First, it’s so easily forgotten in the rush to get to Christmas, and that makes me want to dig in my heels and make sure that it’s recognized. Second because I love to cook and bake, so it seems just made…
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Teaching Thankfulness in Preschool
Thanksgiving is a two-part holiday – first, you’ve got the historical references, and then there are the social emotional lessons. Thanksgiving is the perfect time to help children practice being thankful, and for very young preschoolers, this may be the first time they’ve ever considered the fact they they are lucky to have certain people and things in their lives. There are a number of ways to help children focus on what they are thankful for this holiday season, here are a few ideas; Host a food drive. This doesn’t have to be just for Thanksgiving, make it last until your winter break. Families need help all winter long! Some…
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Starting Classroom Interventions
After conferences, the next step is implementing any interventions that you’ve discussed with families. Some interventions are simple and make an immediate difference, others can be a bit more complicated. So how do you go about all of this? One small step at a time! The most important thing to know about classroom interventions is that you can tweak them any time. No intervention is set in stone, and if something isn’t working it’s always ok to make a change. This mindset can make interventions helpful and supportive instead of one more classroom task. Give yourself and the children grace. Some days these will work really well, and other days…
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Preparing for Conference Conversations
Some people have a real skill for making challenging conversations feel comfortable and productive – I am not one of those people. I will worry about these kinds of conversations for weeks and avoid them at all costs, but I have found a few tricks for making them feel more natural and truly helpful. Here’s what works for me: Shifting mindset. I really work to look at these types of conversations as an opportunity to HELP. It’s my job to support children’s development. If I don’t share what I’m observing and offer resources, interventions, and support then I’m not doing my job. I’m not trying to make families lives more…
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Preschool Conference Resources
It’s conference time – can you believe it?! I’ve been a part of parent/teacher conferences as both a teacher and a parent, and I can confidently say that I don’t particularly enjoy it from either role. Conferences can be so tricky, the conversations themselves can be intimidating – especially if you don’t know the families well at this point in the school year. There are also opportunities for really positive conversations! The number one tip that I have when having heading into conference season is to take the time to be prepared. Here are all of the resources that I use to help make sure that I’m prepared before sitting…
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Hello November!
We’ve made it to November! There seems to be a tendency to forget about this particular month and jump straight to all of the December Christmas content, but I find so much value in all of the great November themes and topics, especially for the youngest children. Here’s what we’ll be exploring on the blog this month: Those are the main themes that are on my mind this month, and we’ll deep dive into them. I’m especially excited about sharing my favorite gift ideas for infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and teachers. These are always my favorite posts of the year! I also have some thoughts to share on supporting parents through…
