Unconventional Painting Method for Preschool

If you feel that your classroom painting process is getting old and uninspired, try this wonderful craft idea from Deborah J. Stewart at Teach Preschool. Your students will love it!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Recycled cardboard box
- Tempera paint in assorted colors
- Craft paper
- Golf ball, ping pong ball, or other round object
- Tape

Begin by lining the bottom of the cardboard box with a sheet of white craft or drawing paper. Choose several complimentary paint colors, placing a small drop of each in the center of the paper. Add a golf ball to the box, close the flaps (and tape the to make sure the “mess” stays inside the box), and hand it off to your students to push, kick, and move around the classroom. Not only will your students have fun with this unconventional painting method, they’ll be sure to burn off their extra energies so they can focus the rest of the day! And, of course, the results will be display-worthy!

For pictures and other great information be sure to check out the rest of Stewart’s blog!

Kick box painting with toddlers

Tools for Your Morning Routine in the Early Childhood Classroom

Kids thrive with routine and, in truth, most teachers enjoy the sense of normalcy and order that schedules provide. If you’re wondering how to set up a great morning routine for your preschoolers and early childhood students, here are some great tips from various early education teachers!

Calendar

It’s great to review the day, date, and year at the beginning of the day. Provide a large, interactive classroom calendar where:

• Students can strengthen letter recognition and spelling as they review the relevant month of the year.
• Students will sharpen numeracy and counting skills as they review the date (e.g. if it’s the 10th of the month students count to ten).
• Students can learn the days of the week and the month of the year through fun songs repeated each day.

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Improving Literacy & Writing With Name Practice

Imagine if you sat down with your morning cup of coffee, opened the newspaper to your favorite section, and realized that the courier had mistakenly delivered the paper in a foreign language. For preschoolers, trying to decipher written text is the same as a literate adult trying to decrypt a foreign language. A great way to reinforce letter recognition and show your preschoolers how letters work together to build words, is to practice with words they may (or may not) recognize – their names!

Anne, creator of the blog Teaching Two, suggests creating individual “name pages” where students can familiarize themselves with the letters that belong in their name, learn how these letters sound when strung together, and practice writing by tracing or copying their names.
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Literature As Lesson Planning Inspiration

Even seasoned teachers need lesson planning inspiration every now and then. If you want to add some spice to the day’s activities and exercises, Deborah J. Steward recommends looking first to your bookshelf! Your stash of children’s literature can actually provide great math, art, science, and other connections!

Math

Choose a prevalent character or object from the book and create colorful cutouts for:

• Counting
• Sorting (by color or size)
• Patterning

Science

Look for sensory connections. If the setting of your students’ favorite book is a farm, make a recording of farm animal sounds and have your students identify them. Talk about how the hide of a cow feels compared to the fur of a dog or the down feathers of a goose. If possible, bring in texture samples for the children to feel. If you have a sensory table, consider filling it with “wood chips” or sawdust to introduce students to the materials farmers use to bed the stalls of horses, etc.
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Thinking Outside The Box for Classroom Paint Projects

Ever get tired of stocking your art stations with plain old paint brushes and plain old paint? (Ever wonder if your students are getting bored too?) Here are some great ways to “think outside the box” when it comes to painting in your classroom!

Unique Painting Tools

• Plastic straw
• Foam brush
• Paint pipette
• Paint roller
• Sponge
• Stamp made from fresh fruits & veggies (e.g. apples, potatoes, etc.)
• Paint scraper
• Wire brush
• Feather
• Spray bottle/small water gun
• Small toy cars
• Cake decorator bag (with very thick paint!)
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The Importance of Art in Early Childhood

In the early childhood classroom (and beyond!), it is essential to encourage student creativity through arts and crafts. Whether self- or teacher-directed, children learn about themselves, others, and their surroundings as they engage in creative processes. Many studies have shown that art also helps students develop awareness, explore different forms of media, broaden language skills, strengthen fine motor control, learn to express themselves, relax, develop a sense or design and color, and much more!

Art professor and the Lee Jacks Professor of Education at Standford University, Dr. Elliot Eisner agrees, and lists ten key lessons children can learn from art:

1. Good judgment. Art is not governed by rules, but rather an individual’s judgments based on what can be seen and what they can envision.
2. Comprehensive problem solving. Problems can have more than one solution or answer. Students learn to think through each alternative and select the best solution.
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Types of Bulletin Boards Used in the Classroom

Bulletin boards can be used not only for classroom decoration, but as an essential tool for classroom communication; between teachers and students as well as teachers and parents, staff, visitors, or volunteers. There are four main types or categories of bulletin boards that can (and should) be utilized in the classroom including child-created, decorative, conceptual, and interactive.

1. Child-created bulletin boards are an effective tool used in the display of student’s work—art projects, writing prompts, science projects, etc. The children feel a sense of pride, seeing their work displayed and knowing they helped to create the bulletin board, while parents and visitors can enjoy seeing the childrens’ work and learning what has been going on in the classroom.
2. Decorative bulletin boards are used to add color and aesthetics to the classroom. In many cases, these are themed boards, following the seasons, holidays, or other areas of interest. Many supply sites, such as MPM School Supplies, offer themed bulletin board sets that can be recycled from year to year.
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Lovely Dragonfly Craft

Bring the magic of nature into your classroom with these lovely dragonflies made from twigs and maple keys! Shanti, co-creator of the blog Twig and Toadstool, provides a great tutorial, but here are the basics!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Twigs
- Maple keys (four per dragonfly)
- Beads
- Glitter
- Low-temp glue gun
- Craft glue

Begin by going on a “treasure hunt” for twigs. It may be helpful to show your students pictures of these insects to refresh their memories on what they look like and give them an idea of what qualities they should be searching for in their twig (e.g. slender, could have slight bend, etc.). (Note: At this time of year you may have difficulty finding maple keys. Shanti recommends collecting them during the fall and storing them for use in projects year round.)
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Back-To-School Bee Activity & Welcome Board

Here’s a fun bee-themed activity and back-to-school welcome board idea from Sandy at Moments of Mommyhood!

Welcome Bulletin Board

• Background: Light blue bulletin board paper.
• Title: “Look Who’s Buzzing To _______________ (e.g. Kindergarten, Third Grade, etc.)! Welcome To The Hive!” or “________________ (e.g. Mrs. Hartman’s, etc.) Busy Bees!”
• Border: Brightly colored honeycomb garland or summer-themed bulletin board border.
• Decorations: 1) The Tree. Use brown and green bulletin board paper to create a fun summer tree on one side of your bulletin board. 2) The Hive. Draw and cut out a bee hive from light brown bulletin board paper or recycled card board. This should be “hung” from one of the tree branches. 3) The Extras. Add in touches of summer with fringed green bulletin board paper for grass, bird/butterfly cut outs, flowers, etc. 4) The Bees. Use your students first day creations.

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Ice Cube Trays in Fine Motor Skill Building

Preschool offers your kids and students a great opportunity to hone their fine motor skills. While most activities and exercises they complete in the typical school day have components that test these skills, Deborah J. Stewart recommends being intentional about encouraging your child or student’s fine motor skill development.

A great way to do this is with a simple activity or play station. At a small preschool table provide interested students with a plastic ice cube tray and a community bucket of small, plastic objects. In her example, Stewart used small plastic fruit counters (e.g. bananas, apples, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, etc.). While they may look to you for instruction, assure your students that the rules are theirs to make. They key is that, while they play, their focus will be on getting the small pieces of fruit into the tray compartments and back out. This is a great test of coordination, control, and focus – hallmarks of fine motor skill mastery.
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Texture Exploration + Sea Stars = Lots of Preschool Fun!

Playing with different textures can be an exciting sensory experience for your preschoolers and early ed students. Trish at Preschool Playbook shares a spectacular craft activity that provides some good old fashioned texture fun with an ocean twist!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Recycled cardboard or stiff card stock
- Sandpaper
- School glue
- Colored decorating sugar crystals/sprinkles
- Kids craft scissors
- Kids paint brushes
- Sticky tack

Begin by creating a starfish cut out from the recycled cardboard or card stock. If you’re working with younger students you may wish to create a starfish template before beginning the craft, but older students will enjoy the challenge of creating their own sea star! Provide your students with shallow dishes of school glue and a paint brush, instructing them to cover their starfish cut out with a thin layer of adhesive.
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The Thumbs-Up Game for Kindergartners

Wondering what games are fun and appropriate for your kindergarten classroom? Deborah J. Stewart, early childhood education professional and Teach Preschool blogger, suggests the “Thumbs-Up” game!

How To Play

1. Ask for two or three student volunteers to come to the front of the classroom.
2. Instruct the rest of your students to remain at their desks with their heads down and one thumb up.
3. Invite your student volunteers to roam around the room, lightly tap one of their classmates on the thumb, then return to the front of the classroom. When tapped, this student, still keeping their head down, will put down their thumb. Read more

Tools for Helping Emergent Readers Master the Concepts of Print

It’s never too early to start literacy activities with your emergent readers. Amanda Morgan of the blog Not Just Cute suggests that every successful reader must first master the concepts of print. Morgan reminds us that the important concepts of print include:

1. Letters are building blocks. When combined, they make words.
2. Words have meaning; they represent objects and ideas.
3. Proper directionality includes reading from left to right and top to bottom.

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Fine Motor Skill Fun!

While most tasks your preschoolers or early ed students complete throughout the day help strengthen their motor skills, targeted practice is important too! Homeschooling mom of four and Almost Unschoolers blogger shares a great exercise that’ll do just that!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Recycled food packaging (e.g. cereal box, cracker box, etc.)
- Sharpie marker
- Craft scissors
- Paper clip
- Magnet

Creating the Board

Begin by cutting a rectangle from your recycled food box. On a cereal or cracker box, the front or back panel works great! This will be the “game board”. Using a permanent marker, draw a looped, twirly path from the top left corner to the bottom right corner. Since the outside of the box will be littered with designs, lettering, etc. it’s best to create your maze on the inside of the panel. Be sure to label the trail’s “Start” and “Finish” points.
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14 Ways To Become A More Effective Teacher by Stevan Krajnjan

Here are several ideas that you may want to try using in your own classroom. They have made my life easier and I am sure they will do the same for you as well! One of the best things you can do for yourself as a teacher is “arm” yourself with knowledge that will help improve your classroom management skills, teach you how to prevent and deal with behavior problems, and help you plan lessons more effectively.

1. Create an atmosphere of mutual respect – coach a team, support an activity, lead a club, get involved with students in your school, show them that you care about things that they care about.

2. Have a sense of humor – it really makes a big difference for you and the students! Smile and interact with students… yes, even in the presence of those who irritate, frustrate and rub you the wrong way.

3. Plan effective lessons – Make your lessons interesting, meaningful, and have them connect to personal experiences of students in your class. Help them link what you teach to what they already know. It will make learning and understanding happen, and students are likely to look forward to what you are going to do and say next!
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Tic-Tac-Toe Ocean Style!

Tic-Tac-Toe is a staple for many early childhood classroom game shelves. Kristin of Bunny Cakes blog recommends sprucing up your game boards and playing pieces to attract those kidders because it is around the “game table” that children learn valuable social skills, critical thinking, and problem solving!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Shells
- Orange or red tempera paint
- Craft glue
- Wiggle eyes
- Modeling clay

Begin by selecting five mid-sized scallop shells, ten small cone shells, and five sand dollars or other smooth, circular shells. The smooth, circular shells should be set aside as the first set of game pieces. The scallop and cone shells will be used together to create the other five crab game pieces.
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Emergent Literacy for the Infant Classroom

Room to Grow blogger T. Wright offers a great list of activities you can complete with your infant children or students to foster important literacy concepts and connections that will lay the foundation for these skills later in life. For a full listing be sure to visit her blog – here are a few highlights!

Talk

Infants begin to understand sound and language long before they say their first word. At an early age they can distinguish speech from other sounds and even recognize the voices of the significant adults in their life. As you talk to your child or student about the world around them or describe for them the day’s activities they begin to identify and catalog the distinct sound “building blocks” of language.
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Print Making in Preschool

Allison McDonald suggests thinking outside the box when painting with your preschoolers. Paint brushes are great and allow your students to practice properly holding a writing utensil as well as strengthen fine motor skills, but introducing new tools and styles will boost creativity and help them make connections between lesson concepts and the world! One of her favorite activities is print making with unconventional tools!

Print Making

Print making is a wonderful art concept that will help you teach your students about precision and accuracy, as well as textures and relationships. As just one example of how you can incorporate printing into your curriculum, McDonald suggests having your students make prints of various cups and jars during your unit on circles.
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Preschoolers & Dry-Erase Boards

Dry erase boards aren’t just for high school anymore. Deborah J. Stewart, early childhood professional and Teach Preschool blogger, provides several ideas for incorporating these great learning tools in the preschool classroom!

Dry-Erase Options

• Large wall-mount boards. These are great for instructional use, but not ideal for interactive activities.
• Easel boards. Adjustable legs allow this board to be used for both instructional and interactive learning.
• Paper pads. Paper with dry erase surface features reusable sheets that can be mounted on walls, easels, and other clean surfaces when in use, then taken down and stored for future needs. Great for instructional learning, as well as interactive exercises.
• Lap boards. Offers an ideal solution for individual practice and interactive learning.
• Sentence strips. Provide lined options for individual printing practice and interactive exercise participation. Read more

Take Your Career to a Whole New Level With Training 2 You!

Hey everyone I just wanted to make a quick post to tell you about a really neat site that I stumbled upon the other day. It’s called Training 2 You and it provides tons of incredible resources that can truly help you take your career to a whole new level. Whether you want to learn a new language, enhance your computer knowledge and skills, or manage employees better Training 2 You can help! The cool thing is that they don’t actually sell any training courses themselves so their opinions and the programs they feature are completely unbiased. Take a look at the site, http://www.training2you.com/, and let me know what you think in the comments section below!

If you’re looking for some ESL teaching resources in particular you may also want to take a look at the following link ESL Teachers Board: Free teaching materials, ESL jobs and resumes..

Magnifying Glass Matching Game

Wondering how to incorporate your box of magnifying glasses into classroom activities? Cathy at The Attached Mama provides instructions for a wonderful matching game your preschoolers are sure to enjoy!

Constructing the Game Board

Download the pre-made game board and game cards from Kelly’s Kindergarten. Kelly provides three game variations; each game consists of a set of larger pictures that make up the game board and smaller pictures that should be cut apart to create game cards. For durability, use heavy card stock to print game pieces and laminate both the game board and cards.
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Jackson Pollock Inspired Splatter Painting!

It’s never too early to introduce your children or students to the beauty of fine art and the inspirational work of famous artists. Allie of No Time For Flash Cards suggests taking a field trip to an actual art museum then re-creating some of the childrens’ favorite works! An easy style to adapt to your kids’ or students’ differing ability levels is inspired by Jackson Pollock’s splatter paint.

Supplies You’ll Need
- Cardboard, heavy art paper, or canvas
- Craft paint in assorted colors
- Kid’s paint brushes

Before beginning the activity, transfer your paint into shallow containers and thin it out with a few drops of water. Also, designate an area of the classroom or schoolyard for this project, prepping the area with drop cloths or old sheets to minimize messes. In the week leading up to the craft, it may be prudent to inform parents of your project intentions so they can send a set of old clothes.
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Organization Tips for the Preschool Classroom

Organization is key to the success of every classroom. Deborah J. Stewart, early childhood education professional and creator of the blog Teach Preschool, offers several tips to help new and seasoned preschool teachers make the school year run more smoothly.

Supplies You’ll Need
- Colorful plastic baskets or tubs
- Pocket file folders
- Labels

To organize daily lesson plan materials, Deborah suggests creating a labeled pocket file folder for each day of the week, filling each respective pocket with the children’s books, games, craft projects, songs, etc. that you plan to use that day. Placed in a plastic basket or tub these pocket file folders keep lesson materials easily accessible and allow you to focus on presenting the lessons in new and exciting ways. Note: If all your daily lesson materials and supplies do not fit within the folder pocket, use the files as dividers, placing the supply “overflow” between them in the basket.
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Homemade Binoculars

Equip your children for an adventure around the house or schoolyard with these toilet paper roll binoculars! Posted by Merryn at Crafty-Crafted.com, this project is perfect for encouraging pretend play at home and school.

Supplies You’ll Need
- 2 empty toilet paper rolls
- Black tempera paint
- Aluminum foil
- School craft glue
- Spring clothespin
- Black heavyweight construction paper
- Black cord or yarn
- Colored cellophane (optional)
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Encountering New Concepts in Art

You don’t have to put in a lot of time and effort to provide your students with a new art experience. As Jean, creator of The Artful Parent blog, suggests, simply cut a hole in the day’s art paper, provide an abundance of graphic art tools, and observe the new techniques, art processes, and progression that takes place! She proposes beginning with a single, centered hole, then introducing an off-centered hole, several small holes, or a smattering of different sized holes. Once your students have become tired of circles appeal to their imagination and artistic creativity through squares, triangles, and the other shapes!
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