After awhile of teaching preschool and you are feeling comfortable you can start to add in some more advanced things that really improve preschool for you and your kids.
Aromatherapy
I really love DoTerra Oils. I use their diffuser in the preschool room for a variety of reasons.
For more info visit Doterra.com
Hand Sanitizer- I know it goes without saying this is essential in preschool, but just a few thoughts.
Buy in Bulk!
Use before snack time.
Use when first arrive and before they leave during cold and flu season. This keeps home germs at home and school germs at school.
Preschoolers are not good handwashers. I do a lesson on 'The Invisible Germs!" There is also a song I teach the kids to sing while washing hands. Sung to Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Germs
Wash, wash, wash, your hands
Get them nice and clean!
Gotta get the Germies off
Cause they are so mean!
They repeat this song 2 or 3 times while scrubbing with soap to help them scrub long enough.
Plant a pumpkin patch in your yard.
Wherever you have room, front, back side, they grow anywhere! They also will grow in a straight line on the vine. So find a spot that isn't your traditional square shape, but instead along a fence line out of the way of the lawnmower, but next to a sprinkler as the more water they get the bigger they grow. I buy the giant pumpkins and they turn out just big enough because really the preschooler can carry only the medium size. I like to get giant so I have room for error, not enough water or sun and they still will be great!
After you have taught a few years you will know better how to plan ahead for the next year.
The lessons that come from the pumpkin alone is worth all the effort.
-Choosing a pumpkin for their own in September and watch it grow and measure it.
-Pumpkin life cycle
-Caring for plants
-Uses of pumpkins
Always we only paint our pumpkins. There are a few simple ways to paint pumpkins.
Ghost-We use white and paint most of the pumpkin, then use black for eyes and mouth.
Traditional-sharpie markers to draw the triangle eyes, nose and mouth then paint them in with black or other paint colors.
Frankenstien-Green paint on most of pumpkin and let dry, then paint eyes and stitches.
My Face- Paint the pumpkin like themselves, also sometimes they just want to paint it all over just for fun and make a work of art!
Preschoolers love to do things by themselves. This pumpkin project is all their own. They take them home and put them on their porches with pride!
Calendars and Circle Time
There are entire books you can buy on circle time. It is a big part of Preschool instruction. Preschoolers need to move a lot. We don't stay in one place for very long, there is a lot of variety even in where they are in the room. We move from table work, to floor work, a break to run around outside, or dancing time, then back to table time. This helps them stay focused and not so wiggly. Circle time is a great time to talk about what they want to, what is happening in their lives, and review what we have already learned. Calendar is very flexible, I teach the basics at first and get more in depth as the year goes on. There are so many things you can teach during calendar time. I have seen entire kits for sale at Lakeshore Learning or Educational stores, but if you are short the $100 at first you can put together your own. I got this calendar at a Dollar Store and printed off the days in space theme from a website. This set up is around $3. Other calendar teaching tools you need will be for weather, counting, opposites, colors, time, manners, etc. It can be pieced together and added to over time.
Number lines have to be put up somewhere in the room, again these are easy to make yourself.
The Circle Time Center is awesome but pricey, find it on the Lakeshorelearning.com site
but there are cheaper starter ones on Amazon.
Also dollar store, Dollartree.com is their website you can order from even if you don't have one nearby.Preschool storage takes lots of space. You need a good sized closet with lots of shelves and plastic baskets to hold stickers, markers, art supplies, etc. But even then it all doesn't seem to fit. I started this system of monthly storage bins. One per month is filled up with sample art projects for the kids to see, decorations for the room, books for the monthly theme, and even a folder of your curriculum needing copied. I also have a small filing cabinet that holds one large folder per month with all the copies. You can do this all at once for the entire year, or just pull out the folder at the beginning of the month and do the copies you need. These are stored in my crawl space and pulled out one at a time so that they dont take any precious space I have in the preschool room.
The Sensory Table!!
This is a huge addition to preschool. It is a lot of work but it's worth it. I found my table at a yard sale for $20, of course Amazon has them click here! But you can also just get a big tupperware bin that sits on the ground.
This is my favorite website with ideas: funathomewithkids.comAnd Asia Citro also put it in a book: Activities for kids book.
This article puts the best in one spot.
What Teachers are doing while the kids play at preschool...
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