Social skills
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Discussing Opinions with Preschoolers
One of my favorite things about working with preschoolers is that they are just starting to form their own opinions about everything – from what they want to wear to school to how they feel about vegetables. While this makes for interesting conversations, it can also create some friction between classmates as they learn that others don’t necessarily share their opinions. I love to use a question of the day, and I strive for questions that require an extended response because I want my students to think about their answer as they practice the language required for this type of answer. Often, the children get very passionate about their answers.…
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Building Friendships in the Preschool Classroom
For a preschooler, the scariest thing about starting school can be not knowing who you’re going to play with. It’s a very real fear that can cause a lot of anxiety for little ones. This is why I spend so much time throughout the year encouraging children to continue getting to know each other and making sure that they work with people that they may not have chosen to work with on their own. I like to start by helping the children find common interests. We talk about the kinds of toys they enjoy playing with, sports or activities that they participate in, television shows that they like to watch,…
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Week of the Young Child – Work Together Wednesday
Happy Week of the Young Child! I thought I’d celebrate by sharing some fun ideas to help you follow along with NAEYC’s themed days. For more info about the Week of the Young Child celebration you can visit NAEYC’s website, but I’m going to jump right into the fun! Work together Wednesday – I love it! What a great theme day! There are about a million things that you could do to celebrate work together Wednesday, but the activity that I thought of immediately encourages more than just working together. This activity takes some serious problem solving skills, along with a little bit of simple engineering. The best part is that…
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Making Leprechaun Traps
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Fort Building!
I mentioned earlier this week that the weather around here has been crummy – that’s kind of how spring goes in Ohio. It’s either still cold or raining – either way, we don’t get as much time outside as I would like. This makes everyone a little cranky, and some afternoons are just difficult. When those days happen I throw the plans out the window and we build forts. The children love, love, love this, and I know that they are still using problem solving and social skills, so it’s a great team building activity. Since these afternoons are somewhat spontaneous, there are a few things that I try to…
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Friday Freebie – Phone Number and Address Practice
Happy Friday! As we slowly get closer to Easter (and my spring break, yay!) I can’t help but be amazed that it is already that time of year – you know, spring, the time of year when we really focus in on those academic skills and making sure that our oldest preschoolers are going to be ready for kindergarten. They’ll make it, and they’ll be successful, whether we stress about it or not. This freebie makes one of those pre-kindergarten skills just a little more fun (therefore making your job just a little easier). This phone number and address freebie includes three simple printables, all of which are editable so…
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Making Valentine’s Day Meaningful to Preschoolers
Valentine’s Day is more than just a day for a party, it’s a holiday that’s perfect for exploring social emotional concepts. Focusing on some of these specific skills, such as relationships with adults and peers, empathy, and emotion recognition and expression, is a perfect way to give meaning to a holiday that otherwise might just be a day for a party. Using holidays to teach specific content is how we make that content relevant and meaningful for preschoolers. I always try to focus on special relationships during the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day. We talk about love, and what that means. In a preschooler’s world love usually means having…
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Community art projects
I love to do community art projects! When children work on the same project they learn to value others’ ideas and perspectives, they have to share materials and work space, and they practice communicating with each other. On top of all of these wonderful lessons, community art projects are also better for the classroom logistically. You don’t have to worry about having the same amount of materials for everyone, you can hang one large piece of finished art work instead of 20 little ones, and cubbies don’t fill up with excessive amount of artwork to send home. Plus they require far less drying space! Here are some amazing ideas for…
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Activities for practicing social communication
It’s Wednesday, and here at Preschool Ponderings, that means time to focus on the standards. Every Wednesday I choose an Early Learning Standard and share a number of activities that can be aligned with that particular standard. Remember, the Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly. I’ve rounded up some great ideas today! Domain: Language and LiteracyStrand: Listening and SpeakingTopic: Social CommunicationSocial Communication plays a huge role in the life of a preschooler. They love to…
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Preschool Activities that Meet Social Emotional Standards
It’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for some activities aligned to a specific standard. This is the seventh week of this feature, and we’re still on social emotional standards. (The Standards that I use every day, and am most comfortable with are Ohio’s Early Learning Development Standards – you can review them here, however I’ve found that even if your State’s standards differ, many of these activities can still be aligned similarly). I’ve rounded up some great ideas today!Domain: Social Emotional DevelopmentStrand: RelationshipsTopic: Peer Interactions and RelationshipsPeer interactions involve so much more than just playing together. Children learn cooperative behaviors, negotiation skills, teamwork, and conflict resolution through repeated interaction and by watching…
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Fort-building 101
This week our dramatic play area has been turned into a fort-building paradise. The children were building forts with our tablecloths anyway, so we decided to specify an area for this. We included a large number of different sized pieces of fabric, some large blocks and tall sticks, and random pieces of furniture that they could cover. I love building forts, I remember doing this wen I was little, and I think that every child needs to have this opportunity. I also love to watch the children in my class build forts because I can see their gears turning as they use their problem solving skills to figure oh what…
