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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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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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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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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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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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..

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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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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Learning About Coins in the Elementary Classroom

Teaching children about money (e.g. the different denominations, the value of each different coin, etc.) can be a challenging job. Amy of Teach Mama suggests purchasing a package of play money kit and using these songs/poems to help children learn!

Ten Pennies

One little, two little,
Three little pennies.
Four little, five little,
Six little pennies.

Seven little, eight little,
Nine little pennies.
Ten little pennies in a dime.

From Scott Foresman–Addison Wesley
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Tips for Organizing Art Supplies

In a classroom of twenty-five plus students, organization is imperative for successful transitions between activities. Deborah J. Stewart discusses several ways in which art supplies can be stored for easy access, distribution, and clean-up.

Supply Caddies

Supply caddies work great if supplies need to be shared among a group of students. Stock the organizer with a full set of washable markers, a full set of crayons, several pairs of kids scissors, a bottle of glue, several glue sticks, a ruler, a stapler, etc., store them on a shelf in the art cabinet, and instruct a student volunteer of each group to automatically retrieve the a caddy when needed. Students will practice taking turns and won’t take up desk space with bulky art boxes.
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Top Preschool Blogs

If you’re a parent or teacher looking for inspiration for play time, Raising Playful Tots has compiled a list of 100 blogs that provide just that! Be sure to check out there entire list!

Here are a few of our spotlights:

1. No Time For Flashcards – Allie provides insight for preschool teachers; crafts, activities, exercises, and much more for all aspects of learning!
2. Let The Children Play – Jenny shares her experiences as a preschool teacher and her natural ‘playscapes’ are divine!
3. Irresistible Ideas For Play Based Learning – Preschool teachers Sherry and Donna have it figured out; if you make it irresistible, the children with come (and learn!). Get great ideas for play centers, themed units, activities, and much much more!

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Re-Organizing Your Classroom Book Shelves

If you’ve come to the end of the year and your classroom bookshelves have become an eyesore, here are a few tips for re-organizing it in preparation for next year. And it only takes ten minutes, so no excuses!

Supplies You’ll Need
- Timer, stopwatch, or clock
- Boxes, totes, bins, or bags for sorted items

Before you begin, mark your sorting containers appropriately (e.g. “Keep”, “Library Sale”, “Good Neighbors/Goodwill/Give Away”, “Throw Away/Recycle”). Since you’ll be weeding out the books in your classroom library and your teaching book shelves separately, these will get lots of use.
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Prevent Summer Reading Loss with these Tips

Here are some great tips you can share with parents to help prevent summer reading loss provided by Jennifer Perez at Early Childhood News & Resources.

Frequency

The number of books read during the week depends upon age of course, but make sure to set aside time each day specifically for story time or reading. For toddlers, this can be a great transition activity from breakfast to play time, from play time to nap time, etc. and for older children it can provide a nice relaxing rest time in the middle of the day. However you schedule reading time, make ‘book finding’ exciting by setting aside a weekday morning to visit the local library or bookstore in search of fun books to read!
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Substitute Success

If you haven’t been accepted for a full-time teaching position, it may be beneficial to explore substitute teaching options! Written by Val Mills, a retired teacher and contributing writer for Suite 101, here are some strategies for becoming a successful substitute!

It can be nerve-racking to enter a new classroom everyday. Not only do you have to brush up on normal class routines, subject matter, and procedures, the students are likely to ‘test’ your very authority from the minute they walk into the classroom. Here are a few suggestions for breaking the ice and having a productive class period.

1. Relate to the students. Smile and greet them as they enter the classroom. Be sure to introduce yourself. If possible, tell them a story that they’ll relate to or even use a bit of humor to catch their attention.

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Free Play in Your Toddler Classroom

With toddlers, play-based learning is highly beneficial. Since their attention span is much shorter than older children, organized lessons can sometimes fall flat, but by taking advantage of organic learning opportunities created through normal play, your students are on the fast track to completing all the learning objectives on your list!

Trucks & Cars

By observing your toddlers as they push around their Matchbox cars and oversized trucks, you’ll notice that more is at work than simple play:

• As they push the cars up inclines and over bridges they’re discovering gravity.
• They experiment with motion and speed as they ‘race’ cars around the classroom (and sometimes in to walls!).
• Students tap in to problem solving skills during activity.
• As students work and play together, they learn critical social skills.

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How Problems with Attention & Memory Affect Math Performance

While attention and memory are important in every subject, they are especially critical to math success. Tammy Andrew, feature writer for Suite 101′s teacher tips and training section, discusses how to identify poor math skills stemming from problems with one or both of these.

Common Attention Problems

• Student overlooks important details. This will be especially evident in word problems.
• In problems with multiple steps, student frequently skips one or more parts.
• Student makes random errors (e.g. adding instead of multiplying), showing that they have not taken the time to read the problem in full or check over their work.

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How to Expand Your Students’ Vocabulary

Sometimes building vocabulary comprehension and exposure requires less complexity than you think. Carolyn Lingenfelter, a seventh and eighth grade language arts teacher, offers some practical ways to get your students involved and learning!

Lingenfelter suggests starting each week with a new activity sheet entitled “Words of the Week”. At the beginning of each class period, present your students with a new word. As Chris Anderson commented, a year’s worth of vocabulary can be planned in advance to ensure a logical progression and/or relatedness. Additionally, word choices can be correlated with specific objectives (e.g. literacy topics or themes covered, linguistic origins, parts of speech, other subjects of study, etc.).
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Student Opinion: Qualities of A Good Teacher

Ever wish you could climb into your students’ heads to find out what they expect from you? The Apple contributor, Alistair Bomphray, has compiled a video of just that! Here are a few of the student’s responses:

• “…a teacher who’s honest and dedicated to their students…[one] who is willing to be there for their students no matter what.”
• “…someone who is energetic, not too boring, knows how to teach but have a good time…someone who’s strict, but not too strict, and someone who works with the students one-on-one.”
• “…someone who’s understanding…who [reaches] the student’s needs.”

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Techniques for Presenting Songs and Fingerplays to Younger Students

While most teachers enjoy having music in the classroom, it can be a daunting task to plan, introduce, and perform new songs. Deborah J. Stewart, an early childhood education professional, not only provides CDs and other resources for those who don’t want to be the center of attention during singing, but a great ‘road map’ for presenting songs and fingerplays to young students. All you have to do is follow her S-I-M-P-L-E method.
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Cultivating An Environment that Supports Failure For Success

Amanda Morgan of Not Just Cute hits the nail on the head with her conjecture that, “when we invite children to learn something new, we are…inviting them to be brave enough to fail, so that they can learn to succeed”. For many children and adults, this can be a tall order. If we want our students to be successful learners and people, cultivating an environment where failure is an accepted part of growth is not just important, it is a necessity.
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Modifying Classroom Instruction for Student Success

Dorit Sasson, writer and ‘coach’ for new teachers, describes how to adapt classroom instruction for student success in this article from Associated Content. The first step includes:

• Determining WHAT students are expected to learn based on their capabilities and not on your own suppositions; and
• Assessing (and continually reassessing) HOW students will be expected to demonstrate learning

Sasson surmises that, once these overarching goals have been defined, you’ll be able to provide diversified practice to accommodate all skill levels, abilities, and knowledge.

Diversifying Practice

There are several ways to provide variety for meaningful learning including working in pairs or groups, one-on-one instruction, individual or classroom practice exercises, additional classroom instruction, etc.
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Preschool & Science Reunited

As Deborah Stewart so eloquently describes, often times, “preschool teachers shy away from planning science in the preschool classroom because they are under the impression that science is all about formal experiments and chemical reactions”. As a preschool teacher and experienced authority in matters of early childhood education, Stewart maintains that the act of encouraging students to ask questions, nurturing a desire to explore and order the world around them, and even making predictions about everyday occurrences sets the stage for future encounters with science! Stewart has a few suggestions for approaching science in the preschool classroom.
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