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Infant Gift Guide 2016
I know that we haven’t even celebrated Thanksgiving yet, but since the official start of the holiday shopping season is next Friday that means it’s time for my annual gift guides. The following items would be perfect for the infants in your life – these would also be great gifts for any infant classroom! All links are Amazon affiliates. I always include these Sassy Ring’O Links in my infant gifts for a couple of reasons; They are simple toys that are safe for the smallest infants to grasp and chew, they don’t take up a ton of space making them easily portable and perfect for the diaper bag, they are…
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Friday Freebie – Family Trees
Happy Friday! Can you believe we are over a week into November?! This year is flying by! I wanted to do something a little different today – don’t worry, you’ll still get a freebie! I actually shared this brand new freebie in my post on Monday but I wanted to share it again just in case you missed it. This Family Tree Freebie is a fun way to help your students explore their families. Use this set to help children explore their families. Send each child home with a tree background and a sheet (or half sheet) of leaves. Families can write names and relationships on the leaves. This family…
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Books about Families
I’m always full of great book recommendations, here are my favorites for starting discussions about families (Amazon affiliate links): The Family Book by Todd Parr All Families are Special by Norma Simon A Family is a Family is a Family by Sara O’Leary Families by Shelley Rotner and Sheila Kelly My Family, Your Family by Lisa Bullard What are your favorite books about families? Share them in the comments!
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Using family photos in the classroom
I have always been a huge advocate of incorporating family photos in the classroom, for a number of reasons; It helps children to see their classroom as a place that they belong. It shows that you value all of your students’ families and helps parents feel welcome. Photos can be a great tool for helping children transition into the classroom, especially if they have a hard time separating from their parents. Children can learn a lot about each other from viewing family photos. It isn’t always easy to get parents to remember to bring in those photos, so I created this easy little paper bag album that you can send…
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Family Vocabulary
One topic that I always make sure to cover near Thanksgiving is family. I like to start by introducing some basic vocabulary so that children have a foundation and are able to use the correct words as they describe their own families. Making sure that children understand basic terms can help you navigate conversations about whether a child’s pet dog can also be his brother. It can also help you explain that one child might call her grandmother Nana, and another might call his grandmother Mimi, but they are both still grandmothers. As you introduce these terms it is also important to be a little flexible with your definitions. You…
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Exploring Families with Preschoolers.
My favorite topic to explore during the month of November is always families. This is the perfect time to help children understand concepts related to relationships because they will probably get to see their families over the holiday season. This is also a wonderful time to explore diversity within family structures and traditions because children will undoubtedly have different family experiences to share with each other. This can be a sensitive subject for parents because they are acutely aware that not all families look the same, but children find this fascinating and can learn a lot about acceptance from each other. It’s always a good idea to send a note…
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Friday Freebie – Thankful Jar
Happy Friday! I hope that you all survived Halloween, and now that it’s over I’m sure you’ve started hearing Christmas carols, but before we think Christmas let’s squeeze some Thanksgiving in there! This Thankful Jar activity from the Camping Teacher is a great way to share a little love with a special member of your staff. Ask your students to share why they are most thankful for this person, write all of their thoughts down and create a perfect little gift. Go download your copy now and have a great weekend!
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Engaging families in community service projects
This week I’ve been sharing ideas for starting a community service project in the preschool classroom. For any school community service project to be successful you have to engage families and get them excited about the project. This is not always an easy feat, so here are some of the ways that I’ve encouraged parent participation – and actually gotten it! Get the children excited about the project – when you’re working with preschoolers you can use their enthusiasm to your advantage. If the children are excited about your project then they will not stop talking about it, they will let their parents in on every single detail, and they’ll…
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Community Service Projects for Preschoolers
Preschoolers love to help, so I try to use their desire to be helpful to help teach empathy, and November is the perfect time of year for that. As you begin to think about Thanksgiving and the holiday season, consider tackling a community service project with your class. The key is choosing a subject that the children will get excited about. It is also helpful to do something concrete – something that the children can participate in first-hand and see the results for themselves. Finally, make sure that you communicate the details about the project openly with your parents and families, because you’ll need their help too! Here are some…
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November Challenge!
One of my favorite project topics for the month of November is community service. It’s the perfect time of year to help children understand empathy and encourage families to take part in the project too. So today I’m challenging you to work with your students to come up with a community service project that you can take on together. Do your students love animals? Think about collecting supplies for a local shelter. Do your students love to be outside? Work with families to clean up a local park. One year my class collected food for our local food pantry, and then we were able to take a field trip to…
