First Week! Practice Makes Perfect

We had such a fun first week back at school. I am really excited for this year because these kids are not only adorable, but they are so much fun to work with. I have already been impressed with their ability to listen and apply what we are talking about to what they are doing. They are amazing at receiving feedback in a constructive way. And I must say that these 3 year olds seem to be naturals at using scissors! I had some of them cutting on lines today and they could actually do it! Hubba wha? (Can you name the Mo Willems books that came from? Hint: it involves a duck and a chick. ;) ) For those of you who have worked with kids learning how to use scissors, you know that this is not a normal second time using scissors experience! Pretty dang awesome. Here are some fun pictures of the kids working together using a puzzle and a parachute.  In our first week of school we spent the first day getting into a routine and discussing what it means to have good manners at preschool. The second day we talked about what it means to work together. We each got a few pieces of an extra big puzzle that we worked on together to complete. We also played some parachute games together which takes listening and team work to make the game work. 

Three year olds are notoriously self centered. When they start school it is a big shift for them that there are other students and the teacher who they have to consider. Sometimes we don't want to share, but it is something that we do at preschool. Sometimes someone takes something that we were using and we have to learn to use our words to ask for it back without hitting or yelling. Sometimes the teacher asks us to come work at the table when we really want to keep playing blocks. All these situations and many more make preschool a pretty complex place to be. My job is to help them learn how to navigate those complex situations so they can learn good manners and team work while they are at school. 

My favorite skill for teaching this is practice. "Try again" are the two most important words you can use to help your children learn good manners. You will often hear these words in our house and in my classroom. Forget to say please? "Try again." If a child whines or back talks, "try again." If a kid does a chore or an assignment lazily, "try again." If they talk meanly to others, we "try again." If we make a mistake we practice doing it differently through role play or sometimes redoing an assignment. My amazing husband has helped me understand that the classroom and the home are the best places to make mistakes because mistakes are how we learn and grow. He has a sign in his classroom that says. "Whoever does the work, does the learning." So my goal is that we will work hard on having good manners, understanding how to follow directions, and learning skills that will help us be our most awesome selves so we can do all the learning!

First Weeks of School

We started preschool in September and have had so much fun for the first few weeks of school. I am so, so excited for this school year. This year's class is pretty amazing and I think we are going to learn a lot while having a lot of fun. The first couple of weeks we have been learning about class rules, working together, helping each other and classroom manners. Then we moved on to learning about colors. The neat thing is that these kids have already gotten their basic colors down so we were able to learn about colors like grey and tan and turquoise. Here are some pics of what we have been up to. 

We learned about having good "piggy" manners. We read the book,  This Little Piggy's Book of Manners and discussed what polite piggies do at school. The kids had fun practicing being polite piggies and then they had fun playing with the other animal noses. 

 We had a day of working together. After reading The Crayon Box that Talked, we talked about working together and how we each are good at different things. We worked on doing a puzzle together and had some fun playing with the parachute together. We were learning about listening and working as a team as we made the balls bounce, sang songs, and made a tent with the parachute. 

Top Ten Back to School Books

 A great way to help your kids get ready for back to school is to talk about what they can expect before they go. Books are a great way to help them see what school might be like. It helps them see that other people get nervous about starting school too. It helps them see that it will be a safe place where they will have fun and learn. 

Here is a count down to our top ten favorite back to school books for young kids. 

10. School Bus by Donald Crews
The vivid pictures and simple phrases in this book give it an irresistible charm. It shows school buses big and little as they pick up their passengers. Many young kids don't ride the bus to school, but the school bus is an iconic symbol of starting school.

9. Little Piggy's Book of Manners by Kathryn Madeline Allen
It is always good to help remind our kids how to have good manners at home and at school. This book is a fun way to look at what to do and what not to do. It compares good little piggies with bad little piggies to help kids learn what to do. If you want a great lesson plan to go with it, check out our post from a while back. p-is-for-polite-pig.

8. Curious George's First Day of School by Margret and H.A. Rey's
Curious George is up to his old tricks, making mischief as he tries to figure out how to manage the interesting temptations at school.

7. Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes
Chrysanthemum is so excited for school until she gets there and starts to feel different from the other kids. She starts to "wilt" until a charismatic teacher helps her "bloom." This is a great read to discuss how sometimes we feel different, but we are still beautiful in our own unique way.

6. The Night Before Preschool by Natasha Wing
Following the traditional rhyme, this book outlines what it will be like getting ready for school and what the school day will look like.

 5. Franklin Goes to School by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
Franklin has flies in his tummy as he gets ready for his first day of school. All the other kids seem to know so much and he feels like he doesn't know anything. When he gets there he realizes he knows more than he thought.

4. The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn
Mom knows how hard it can be to leave and go to school so she gives raccoon a special gift to help him through his first day. A sweet story that can create a first day tradition for any family.

3. Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes
This book is amazing for helping kids who are feeling really worried about school. Wemberly worries about a lot of things and especially starting a new school, but in the end she realizes that there is nothing to worry about.

2. How Do Dinosaurs Go to School? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague

What kid doesn't love reading dinosaur books? The fun rhythmic words take kids through a comparison of what bad and good dinosaurs do at school. 

1. First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg

Kids aren't the only ones who can be nervous about the first day. The surprise ending makes it my all time favorite first day book.  

Team Work

Team work can be a challenging concept for preschoolers. They want to be independent. They want to do things their way. They don't want to share. 

We actively work on being a team in class. We clean up as a group and talk about how we are being a team and working together. If someone spills something, I will ask other kids to help them pick it up to encourage caring for each other. If one of the kids is having a hard time with something, I might ask one of the other kids to help them when it's appropriate. 

At the beginning of the year, I like to do a lesson about working together. In the past we have made a picture together or talked about how we all have things we are good at. Each year we use the book, The Crayon Box That Talked because it is great book about working together. 

This year, we did some activities together as a group. The kids did a giant puzzle together.

Then we went outside and did some parachute games where the kids worked together to make the parachute move in certain ways or make the balls bounce in certain ways. We talked about the importance of listening and doing things as a group. 

Color Scavenger Hunt

 Here is a fun activity we did last month to practice our colors. 

Color Scavenger Hunt

We made binoculars and went on a scavenger hunt for colors. 

I gave each student a paper with a color on it and a blank square next to each color. As they find each color, you can have them draw what they found in the square or you can write what they found. 

Click here for a free printable. When you click on the link, there are a lot of ads on the page. You want to click the small grey download button right beneath the box that says view document. You will need to sign in to download the paper. You can sign up for a free 4shared account or use your social media outlet to download. Please leave a message below if you have any problems or questions. 

For detailed instructions on how to make the binoculars, click here. 

Scissors Practice

 I remember my first day as a preschool teacher. I planned the cooperative crayons activity. We were going to color and cut out the crayons and it was going to be great. The kids colored their crayons so I gave them some scissors and said, "Okay, cut it out" . . . The results weren't very pretty. 

I didn't realize that as a preschool teacher, it was my job to teach them how to use scissors and cut. I guess I thought they would just naturally know how to do it. 

Well, I've come a long way from that naive first day teacher and I know that we need to practice using scissors a lot before we move on to cutting things out. Here's a few ways we practice using scissors

Mosaics

Provide your students with scissors, white paper, glue, and strips of colorful paper of varying widths. (I do 1 inch, 1 1/2 inch and 1/2 inch)

Let them practice holding and using the scissors by cutting up the colored strips and gluing them to the white paper.

Then, the teacher can cut out their papers into a bigger shape to make a mosaic. We did butterflies, but you could do any shape that fits with what you are learning that day. 

Scissors Practice Pages

These pages are designed to help students practice cutting straight, curved and zigzag lines. The - open, move forward, close, open, move forward, close - pattern takes some practice to master. You can find a bunch of good pages at dltk-kids.com. The link is here. 

Cooperative Crayons

I can't believe how much fun we had this week for our first week of school! We read another one of my favorite books, The Crayon Box that Talked by Shane DeRolf.

Can you imagine what it would be like confined in a small area, surrounded by people you don't like? That's what happened to the crayons in this story. Stuck in a crayon box and detesting the person next to them. One little girl decided that there was a better way for them to live so she took that box home and drew a beautiful picture with it. When they finally saw eachother's strengths they were able to become better friends. "We are a box of crayons each one of us unique, but when we get together, the picture is complete." 

After reading the story we talked about how we can work together and help each other in class. Each child colored and cut out a crayon. Then we wrote on it what our strengths were.

Esteban "I'm good at writing."

Owen "I'm good a designing."

Lexi "I'm good at cleaning messes."

Kaitlin "I'm good at singing."

P is for Polite Pig

Classroom manners are an important thing kids learn in preschool. For our first week of school, we learned about classroom manners and rules. 

We read the book This Little Piggy's Book of Manners by Kathryn Madeline Allen. It is an awesome book that compares good little piggies with rude little piggies. The rhythmic words and fun pictures make this one of our favorites!

After we read the book, we made little piggy puppets and practiced being polite with our puppets. We used the pattern found at DLTK's Crafts, here.

Preparing for the First Day of School

Can you believe that the summer is almost over?! I know that some of you out there still have a month to go until the kids get back into the swing of things. But here in Arizona, we start school early. It might have something to do with the fact that by now our kids are getting a little restless because it's so hot that they can't go play outside. Whatever the reason, we are sharpening new pencils, loading up backpacks and stocking up on lunch foods.

Whether your child is starting preschool or elementary school, the first day can be a little scary for moms and kids alike. Here are some simple things that you can do to help ease the transition for your little one. 

Helping Prepare for the First Day

Some or all of these ideas might work for you and your family. Always remember to talk about starting school in a positive and calm way.

A few weeks before school starts:

      Start talking about school starting and how much fun it will be.

      Be positive and share with your child what they will do there.

      Read books about children going to school.

      If possible, meet the teacher and visit the class ahead of time.

That morning:

      Leave plenty of time to get ready so you’re not rushed or stressed.

      Reassure them that you will come and get them when it’s over.

      Please do not bring toys.

      If they need a security object, have them bring a book to share when it is reading time.

At school:

      Engage your child in toys that interest them and talk about all the fun they will have.

     Leave with a smile and a hug. 

If you show your confidence in their new experience by leaving with a smile, they will pick up on it and start to feel more confident as well.

      When it is time for you to go, keep your goodbye short and simple.

This can be hard, especially if there are tears, but this can be really important for your child to learn that this is a normal thing. In time, they will learn that school is a safe place, but right they need to see from you that you know they will be happy there.

      It can help to have a goodbye ritual like a special handshake, song, hug, or special words that you always say.

      Allow the teacher to help your child or go to the teacher if they need help with a project or have questions. 

Helping them learn to get help from the teacher will show them that their teacher is someone they can trust.

      Always keep open communication with the teacher about your concerns.

 

After School:

      Talk about what they did at school that day. 

Sometimes it can be hard to get them to remember what they did. You can ask what they did during certain times of the day. i.e. Math, reading, P.E. carpet time, etc. Or you can just ask them to share 3 things about their day and take whatever they give you. I still do this with my 3rd grader. Some days I get who she played with at recess, what she ate for lunch and where they went for specials. Some days she shares with me more details about her thoughts or what she is learning. Whatever she shares, I take it and know that some days I'll get more information than others.

      Ask them to tell you about the stories they read or the songs they sung.