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On the one hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be lovely and simple. Read stories, play, follow routines, talk, play outside, learn about interesting things. On the other hand, spending a morning with preschoolers can be made frustrating and
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*I am going over the winter pre-reading assessment results and trying to focus on all the kids who were in the red zone for rhyming, alliteration, vocabulary, letter names, and/or letter sounds, and spending one-one-one time with them. So is every other
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A new study that came out recently found that children who do not read at grade level by 3rd grade are much less likely to graduate from high school. A student who can’t read on grade level by 3rd grade is four times less likely to graduate by age 19
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We walked to the local library today for story time. Last time we were there, a baby toddled around and then plopped herself down on the lap of one of my little boys, who was both astounded and delighted. She was our favorite part of that story time visit
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Our local library has a new children’s librarian. The old one was good, but she went on maternity leave and didn’t come back, and her temporary replacement was a bit…hyper. We’d walk down the street for preschool storytime, and I would cringe watching
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This is the first card I’ve got posted above my meeting area blackboard. Here’s what I do to help the children meet these goals: Copy/print own name: The children are expected to sign in every day. Some of them could write their names already, but others
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The early childhood department of my school district has, in the last few years, worked hard to come up with end-of-the-year goals that are based on our state standards, and are supported by our assessments, , portfolios, report cards, and parent conference
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Our theme for September is All About Me (Miss Mellow and I decided to heed the advice we were given at a workshop — we are going to do fewer themes, better ), and this past week our focus was on ourselves, namely, our bodies and our feelings. I did some
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Miss Mellow and I met at a coffee shop on Saturday morning to plan out our year. We worked for an hour and a half and could have easily gone for another hour. We were in the “flow” and having a great time discussing curriculum, how to balance all our
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I spent the day with the other pre-k teachers in my district (by the way, how DO you spell pre-k? Pre-K? PreK? Anyway.) and it was great to see everyone. Ali (the former special ed teacher who worked in my room for four years but now has her own pre-k
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Today when we were reviewing the letters and sounds we know so far, a little girl we’ll call Tomato raised her hand. “Why do we learn letters?” she asked. (English is her second language, may I add.) I was about to start answering the question, or to
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This morning I put on my lovely new red coat and went out to meet the buses as they arrived. When bus 3 came, I caught Cherry and Chutney as they got off and had them wait with me. When all the kids were gone, the driver got off, and I told her that I
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We walked to the library today for preschool storytime. When I had the kids on the carpet in our room to remind them about walking safely, holding hands, crossing the street, and all that, Cherry raised her hand. “We can listen to the cars say ‘RRR!’”
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This year I am once again mentoring/coaching other teachers. I know there are plenty of ways that I can improve, and one thing I’m trying to do is to be more organized about my time, and communicate more often with my teachers. I’ve started sending out
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I teach my students a letter of the alphabet each week. Phew. I said it. I know that those are fighting words to some teachers, so I’m prepared to hear why some of you DON’T do a letter of the week. And also to respect your arguments. Here’s a little
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