Second term at WGU and slightly ahead of the game

 I am pretty excited. I made 100% SAP at Western Governors University for my first term and have begun work on my second term early, although I officially don't begin the new term until March first. I am about 30% finished with my first educational course and am really enjoying it. I love being a student online and so far, have found the courses challenging and my mentor, very friendly and enthusiastic. I have been extremely satisfied thus far with my online courses and am glad I made the choice to try to finish my degree this way.

 In other news, this week at daycare we are finishing our unit on dental hygiene as well as starting a mini-unit on Dr. Seuss. Each day we have a special Seussian activity with a correlating book. Today we read Fox in Socks and had "silly socks day".  Tomorrow we'll cover Green Eggs and Ham  and eat---what else but green eggs and ham! The kids may have other ideas, however.

 I have only been with my students a little over a month but already we have made a lot of progress in following rules. This is good considering I am new to them, and I came in and gave them an almost-completely new schedule, new expectations, new way of doing things, etc. Still, we are always working to improve behaviors and continue exhibiting positive ones.

 We already have a pocket chart with smile/frown cards that we use to monitor everyday behavior. But today I decided to go a step further as some students need to work on particular issues that are arising repeatedly. I recycled an old, home-made pocket chart into a more specific, problem-targeted behavior chart. I put each child's name on a pocket and slipped one small "great work" paper chart (from Dollar Tree) into each pocket. On the back of each child's paper chart, I listed a behavior that needs improvement, such as "I am working on keeping my body to myself", "I am working on using my big words", or "I am working on staying in my seat at meal time". As children are successful in achieving these individual goals each day, they will get a check mark in the box on their chart card. When all the boxes are full, they will get to pick a small treat from my treat bucket (party favors and donated Happy Meal toys), and be able to take their chart home to show parents which particular skill has been mastered.

 I am hoping this helps us tame some unwanted behaviors and helps our classroom run even more smoothly. Behavior management rules are very important to have in place on the first day of class. I didn't get that chance as I moved into my position rather quickly to fill an opening. I had to learn the names of students, routines, and clean/arrange/paint my classroom within a period of about a week, so behavior management was not on my to-do list at the time. Besides, you must spend some time with a class to see where issues are going to be prevalent. Had I to do it over again, I would work on order and rules on day one and be sure the class was learning obedience before ABCs. If order is maintained and children know what to expect, I believe the education and academics will follow.

   I was (and really still am) wet behind the ears with a large group of preschoolers. Although I taught preschool years ago, I don't recall having such a large group under my solo care. I also don't recall the group I had then being so lively, but that was over 15 years ago and kids have changed (and I have aged. :)  ).  I don't see nearly enough kids today having the attention span that kids once had, and kids today seem to have more problems with hyperactivity/aggression. This probably is due to our environment; we don't have to wait on much of anything. We get it now, or at least, pretty quickly and patience is not learned. And it's hard for a teacher to compete with game systems, computers, and TV, which are instant in gratification and full of flashy, eye-catching, often violent or aggressive images, and crude humor.

  But today's kindergarten is harder than when I attended, and children are expected to know and be able to do so much more. My college course says that kindergarten of today is yesterday's first grade. That is why it's even more imperative for preschool teachers to have a classroom that is run smoothly and efficiently, and where behavior problems are at a minimum. That way we can spend more time doing what it is we love to do: TEACH!

-Lynn

Classroom Arrangement Addiction

Classroom rearranging addiction

What starts out as a quick weekend run by the daycare to drop off a Goodwill find or some discarded toy from my kid's toy box leads to a 2-hour marathon of cleaning my room and re-arranging (again) my furniture.

In a preschool classroom, you have these ideas about how things are going to work. You arrange your room and it looks great. You can't wait for the littles to come in and try it all out. And very soon you realize that your plan has gone awry. There is a reason why furniture must be placed a certain way, and why quiet centers and noisy centers can't be neighbors. So you observe and make mental notes; then you come in and arrange again. And again. Someone please tell me that this stage shall pass. It's not that I don't enjoy being there in my room, in the quiet, reflecting, planning, thinking. It's just I want my room to be DONE. And to function really well.

My main challenge is that my room is very long and narrow and the loft (although I love it), darkens the whole corner of the room and I am a "let the light in" kind of gal. I also have to have seven centers set up at all times. I have no problem setting up seven centers but they do take up a lot of space. And trying to place the centers according to guidelines can be tricky, especially with large, chunky, preschool furniture. I also long for a desk, but there is not one ounce of space to squeeze one into, so I use my cabinet for all my personal storage and the children's table becomes my desk each day during naptime.

Public school teachers have the advantage of being able to paint, decorate, clean, and arrange over summer break, whereas daycare is almost always in session. So it's tricky to fit in long projects or do a major overhaul. My director, her husband, myself, and my husband (with help from some other volunteers) recently  painted the room over a 3-day weekend. They stayed to finish and put the furniture back, literally, at the last minute the night before school was back in session. That was close!

Well, here are more photos of the smaller rearranging I did this weekend:

Added new chart rack to circle time/meeting area

 our classroom song, sung to tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

 Classroom rules

Sensory area

 

added some quiet toys to loft

 

my Goodwill finds this week- watering can for .29 cents, fake strawberries to water, a girl's Pink Leap-pad with case and 4 games (keeping for my kiddo until she tires of it then I will donate to my class), and 20 Big Books (thanks alerting me, Donna M.)

My son gave up his marble maze and I located some dress-up clothes in the daycare closet to add to this center

 

Our daily schedule

 

I added the What Time is it Now? pouch with schedule cards to the bottom of our schedule with sticky hooks. The kids like to change them out to see what time of day it is.

Ok, so even the bathroom got some posters

 

The bathroom door and classroom door were lovingly decorated by my students with help from some Dollar Tree re-positionable wall art I had in my crafting closet.

 

-Lynn

Cheap and Easy Chart Rack

Cheap and easy chart rack

I saw this idea on www.Pinterest.com and my hubby and I went to Lowe's for supplies right away. Total cost was around $11 (I did go back later and get a can of yellow Krylon plastic paint for it. So ok, the total cost was more like $15. But it still beats the prices in the school supply catalogs). It's sturdy and will help me get some of my posters and charts off the walls.

 I forgot who originally posted the idea but I think it came from a kindergarten teacher's blog. She also has a table-top version that would be neat if I could find a reason to use it with my little ones.
Blessings!
-Lynn

A New Year, A New Job Title, and a New Blog

My classroom

Here are some photos of my classroom at the daycare. I teach up to sixteen fours and fives. They are bundles of energy and little sponges all at once! It's a great job in a Christian atmosphere which teaches me more than my college textbooks could about what preschool is all about.

 This is what my room looks like as you enter.

To the right we have our cubbies and mats.

This photo shows are our art center.

Here is a look at our blocks center.

Our helper board allows me to draw names of each day's helpers and assign jobs. The favorites for now are "fish feeder" and V.I.P. at story time.

This is my parent board.

Our science center, which I am looking to add to, and need ideas.

Our schedule chart, not very pretty but it will work for now.

We use this area for our Morning Welcome and again for Circle Time. My chart rack will eventually go here and I'll remove some of the posters to put on the rack as we have fire regulations regarding how much of the wall can have paper on it.

Our music center. Looking for some new things to liven it up and spark the children's interest.

Our reading loft (or the "bear cave" as it has been affectionately called since our unit on the North Pole).

Another view of the reading loft. We have books, puzzles, and JC Penney Christmas catalogs in here. Those catalogs sure do inspire a lot of toy-filled dreams in my littles! I need to sort and organize this better so the kiddos can clean up better.

Back downstairs, a misc. center with a lot of various activities inside. Since this photo was made the table has been moved and I've added three donated computer/Leap Pad tablets to it. I might add a splash of paint to it one day. Our playground door is in the background.

A view of our dramatic play center/house center under the reading loft. This is one of the most chosen centers. I would love to add curtains and flower buckets on the posts. And maybe add some sort of lemonade stand that could become a grocer, etc. I think we could use a bit more lighting in and under the loft but am not sure how to go about adding it. We have one light under it already. There is a corner area under the loft where the kids like to hide. One minute they call it their elevator; the next moment it has morphed into a pantry, phone booth, or cave. What imaginations they have and I love it.

The kitchen inside our house.

This is the view from the back of my room at the playground door. It's a long narrow room with fresh paint. It's really not as dark as this photo appears. The orange is a very cheerful color.