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REALLY Changing Challenging Behaviors
A couple of weeks ago I shared a free sample of a behavior tracking system that can be used to identify patterns related to challenging behaviors. Now, I want to dig into what happens after you’ve identified those patterns. Let’s reflect so that you can really starting changing challenging behaviors in the classroom. Part of this system is a reflection sheet: This reflection starts by exploring what is working WELL for this child already – what parts of the day are they successfully able to manage their behavior? For some children, this will be easily evident, and for others you might have to continue observing to get an even better…
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President’s Day with Preschoolers
President’s day can pose a challenge for preschool teachers because so many of the concepts that we connect with commemorating this day are extremely abstract for young children. They don’t understand history, what it means to live in a certain country, or the job of a president. In many cases, not only are these concepts difficult for children to grasp, they also aren’t relevant to their day to day experiences. There are still some great ways to acknowledge President’s day and help children make connections that increase their understanding – here are my favorite President’s day lessons. I’ve created a couple of vocabulary sets that help children have the words…
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Easy way to share favorite preschool songs
I distinctly remember having a conferences with a parent who’s only request was the words to all of the songs that we sang in the classroom – she wanted to sing them with her son, but she couldn’t understand the words he was singing well enough to figure out what the songs were! I finally had a chance to put together a quick an easy resource that I could have shared with her, and I’m sharing it with you too. There are so many ways that this collection of common preschool songs can be used! There are two different pieces to this set. The ribbons all have a name of…
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Processing a holiday before moving on to the next one
The month of February might have the fewest days, but it packs in all of the holidays – Groundhog day, Valentine’s day, President’s day, and Mardi Gras. If you look at March and April you’re often adding St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, and Earth day too. It’s a lot to explore over a fairly short amount of time. We usually think of the time between Halloween and Christmas as the “holiday season,” but October, November, and December don’t have nearly as many holidays squeezed into them as the spring months do! This can make late winter and early spring pass pretty quickly, but it can also be really overwhelming, especially for…
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Conversations with Preschoolers about Current Events
We know that kids are sponges – they’re ALWAYS listening! Because of this, they catch onto things that we don’t always realize they’re hearing, and without context and all of the information their minds make the most interesting connections. It’s fascinating to get their take on the things that are happening in their world because they look at them with such a unique filter! When it comes to discussing current events, it can be a bit of a minefield, we never know what might come up, and we definitely can’t predict what a child will say. There are some ways to navigate these conversations without prompting those comments. Here are…
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Teacher and Mom Approved Lunch Packing Tips!
Before I dive into all things lunches, I have to take a minute to say THANK YOU! You’re all loving my Month of Preschool sets and I’m so excited that I’m able to make your life easier with these – I know how precious your time is and I hope that these are saving you time and energy that you’re able to re-focus on your students. If I could put a great big heart emoji here I totally would! I’m working on April as we speak, so it’s coming I promise! Let’s talk lunch packing… As a teacher, lunchtime was the bane of my existence. Here’s the thing, having families…
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Managing Challenging Behaviors
I promised you some real solutions to the tough stuff that you have to deal with everyday, and the number one thing on that list is challenging behaviors. These are the kinds of things that can derail the entire class and make you feel like nothing you do will make a difference – I’ve been there. I’ve put together a resource that will help you understand, manage, and change these difficult preschool behaviors step by step. I’m also giving you a FREEBIE so you can try it out right away! Behaviors are so tough because we aren’t always able to understand exactly where there coming from, and even if we…
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Loose Parts for Valentine’s Day
There’s something about tiny little pieces of pretty much anything that little ones just can’t resist – and I’m here for it because it keeps their attention forever! When it comes to Valentine’s day, I dive all the way into the red, pink, and glittery. Here are some of the loose parts that I love for a Valentine provocation: I put them all on a heart tray, and that helped make them even more enticing – don’t you want to play with all of this?! Here are some of the beautiful images that we created with these pieces – After I made a heart with a necklace that became the…
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A Blog Post about Blog Posts
I know that’s quite the title for a post, but it’s the best way I can think to describe what I want to share here! I’ve been thinking a lot about how I can use this space to support those of you are serving so many different roles in the early care and education field – especially those of you who are childcare professionals. I love sharing fun posts about activities, projects, and printables – but these are the easy things. There are so many great ideas already available, and to be honest I know that coming up with things to do with children isn’t the hardest part of the…
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Seasonal Numbers for Math Activities
When I pulled out my valentine materials I remembered how much I love using the large number sets! I also realized that I only have a set for Valentine’s day and St. Patrick’s day – it was definitely time to change that. One of the things that makes these so valuable is that they can be used so many different ways by children learning a variety of different skills. Take a look at the valentine set: Each number has a corresponding number of hearts on it. These can be counted and covered by small objects or clothespins to build one to one correspondence and cardinality. Each number also has a…
