social studies
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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…
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Friday Freebie – Fall Certificates
Happy Friday! Now that it’s officially autumn I feel much better about posting all of these great fall products! This freebie is a great way to recognize positive behaviors and encourage children to be helpers. Go download these Autumn Certificates from Teacher’s Big Helper, and have a great weekend!
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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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Teaching responsibility with a class pet
A class pet is a perfect way to help teach responsibility – the children not only have to remember to do all of the tasks associated with taking care of the pet, but they also have to be cautious when handling the pet. Unfortunately, it’s not exactly easy to have a class pet these days, there are health and safety regulations, allergies, and insurance issues to worry about. Even if you can’t have a class pet, there are other ways to encourage responsibility in the classroom, here are some ideas: Have a stuffed animal pet like Julie from A First for Everything Grow plant people like the Red Headed Hostess…
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Using chores to build responsibility
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Classroom jobs that preschoolers can do independently
I love the idea behind classroom jobs – children are responsible for taking care of the classroom, therefore taking ownership for their room while learning responsibility. In theory it’s wonderful, in practice it tends to be chaos that takes more time than it’s worth. I would start classroom jobs every year, and after a couple of weeks they would slowly fade away. This was usually because the children weren’t able to actually do their jobs on their own, and I didn’t have the time to follow each student around and make sure that they completed their responsibilities. Now I work with teachers, and I have a really hard time recommending…
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Using chores to build responsibility
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Friday Freebie – Random Acts of Kindness
Happy almost Christmas Friday! Yesterday I shared a list of 10 ideas for community service activities that kids can be a part of before Christmas. Today’s freebie is a great companion. This Random Acts of Kindness set from Kreative in Kinder has 20 additional ideas for showing that you care. Do these with your kiddos, or let them pick their own and surprise you!
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Sharing the spirit of the season with young children
The holiday season is a time for celebrating our blessings, but it is also important to spend some time giving to others. As teachers and parents, it is also our job to help children learn the joy of giving. Here are a few easy ways that you can serve the community with your children before Christmas; Clean out the closet – donate toys and clothes to Goodwill, or see if a local charity is collecting coats for the winter. Pick out a toy to donate to Toys for Tots. Volunteer at a shelter or soup kitchen. Do something nice for your neighbors – bake cookies to leave on their doorstep…
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Friday Freebie – Christmas Kindness
Happy Friday! Every Friday brings us just a little closer to Christmas, just two more weeks, can you believe it?! This freebie is perfect for getting your class into the holiday spirit! This freebie from Whimsy Workshop Teaching includes an adorable santa that has twelve acts of kindness written on his beard. Each day trim off an act of kindness to complete as you count down to Christmas. There is also a blank version included so that you can write your own acts of kindness if you want. What a great way to teach your students what the season is really about! You still have time to start this, you…
