Confused about what direction you should make your brush strokes or drawing marks? Let's clear out the confusion with this cross-contour drawing exercise.
Equip your child for success with these awesome educational resources! You'll have everything you need to help your preschooler explore the alphabet and beyond. Take advantage of these free printables.
These three icebreakers for teens will make the first class, youth group, or club fun for everyone, even the introverts.
Learn how to knit a yarn over between both knit stitches and purl stitches with these step by step photo and video tutorials!
Lapbooks are a fantastic way to gather information and piece it together for easy learning! Use these free printables to create a Little House in the Big Woods Lapbook.
Two Points: This is MY method, and not necessarily right for you, your teaching or care philosophy, your set-up, or your students. Curriculum participation by my students is VOLUNTARY. I invite them to participate, but if they choose not to, then that is fine. I usually offer them a choice of a few of the activities and let them decide where we start and where we go. An engaged child learns, a dis-engaged child rebels. The 3-year rotating curriculum is theme based. Some times we stick to the plan, but usually I observe what they are interested in learning about, what they are asking questions about, and suggest up to three different themes they can choose from for us to study. I make my own 3-year rotating curriculum for many reasons: Packaged curriculum is often only one year. Since I teach for 3 years, this would be redundant. Most packaged curriculum focuses on skills my students master early. My 2s count to 20, know 11 colors, know most of their phonics, uppercase and lowercase letters, 10 shapes and some of their numbers and I still have 3 years of curriculum to teach them. They often are worksheet intensive. My students usually are cognitively advanced from their fine motor skills. I have 4 year olds that still can't write well. If I had relied on worksheets for the last 2 years, there is no way they would have the skill sets they have. Worksheets are also not considered Developmentally Appropriate Practice [DAP] for children under the age of 8. We use them here for writing practice starting at age 4. [Yes, worksheet-intensive public schools are not using DAP for kindy through 3rd grade!] They can be expensive. If you are purchasing worksheets, why would you spend even $1 a week/$52 a year when you can purchase a 400 page Scholastic preschool workbook from Sam's Club for $8 that covers probably more material, is most likely aligned with the public school expectations, and is colorful. Colored copies are NOT affordable to make from packaged curriculum. Most [ALL!] preschool learning should be interactive. Pinterest is a better source for ideas. My students change every time I do a theme. I have to be able to tweak it to the interests and capabilities of those currently in my care. Plus, I'll find more interesting activities on Pinterest, have an idea for a new game, etc. It's a constant evolution to keep my curriculum relevant to our current group, situation and resources. However, curriculum planning and creation is very time consuming. Even with older curriculum I spend several hours going over it prior to teaching - updating, creating new materials, purchasing and setting new classroom decorations. While I have had my 3 year curriculum, this year I found myself wanting a more specific schedule to focus on specific skill sets for this particular group of children. Most of these skills can be incorporated into our themed curriculum, or they take 5 minute sessions to pop into our day. I have two groups, the younger preschoolers are 2-3 years old and the older ones are 4-5 years old, all at the same developmental and skill set level within their group. This makes it easier, as I can tailor everything to just 2 groups. If I were to have additional levels of children, then it would be tailored to each level. Children here are taught at their developmental level, not age. Asychronastic development is normal, so I may be teaching a child at various levels depending upon the subject matter. For the younger preschoolers, I came up with this structure. For the older pre-k students, I came up with this one. For instance, both of them have Measurement & Comparison on Friday for Reasoning. However, for the younger students, this would be a more/less, longer/shorter, big/little, etc. activity, while the older students would be measuring with rulers, yardsticks, tape measures, measuring cups, unit blocks, foot steps or themed units, and graphing the measurements to compare. Same skill set, differentiated at vastly different levels. Even this needs conditional tweaking. All the pre-k's know how to spell their last names now, so that is no longer a relevant skill activity for music and will be changed out. In another post I'll get into the curriculum components and the importance of each. For instance, how counting on Friday teaches 1-to-1 correspondence and creating method processes for counting groups of objects. CLICK PICTURES TO VIEW LARGER I use this MS Word template, available for FREE on TPT, for curriculum planning. Often, the daily skill sets above are either already incorporated, or can easily be incorporated, into the theme planning. For an example of a completed curriculum unit, check out our Owls Theme. Each monthly theme is broken down into 4 sub-themes. For instance: SPACE Astronauts & Rockets The Universe Our Solar System Aliens & Robots We also have a musical component, often classical, and an art component, often a master, and Spanish vocabulary component that we incorporate. This planning form may not include all games, file folder games, manipulatives, room-set up, etc. that I utilize. For those of you trained in curriculum creation, I do NOT do a full curriculum development for each activity. With having these children usually from infant to school-age, I keep an internal evaluation of progression and plan out only weekly learning objectives. Since I am creating the activities for my personal use, I do not need to create written procedures and evaluations. My curriculum is stored currently in file folders in a large office bookcase unit. I would like to get it into boxes so that I could have EVERY theme-related item, including dress-up, room set-up, manipulatives, etc. together for an easy pull. File boxes will most likely be the easiest, but they do take up a lot of space. In each file some of the things I probably have: Completed planning sheets All the books I own for that theme Flannel board Sentence and word walls File folder games Samples of previous crafts DVDs CDs Coloring pages Mini-book(s) Build-a-[theme item] game Curriculum creation is one of my great joys. I love the research and compilation, the creativity and excitement of bringing something fun and educational to my students. Learning is rarely linear. Children take developmental leaps, sometimes in odd directions. As a teacher, it is important that I keep each one challenged without pushing or inhibiting their growth, and that takes constant evaluation and a good eye for when those leaps happen so that we can move on to a higher level of instruction. When we do an activity, I constantly question if they WANT to do another round, another activity, and I usually cut them off while they are still engaged. I want them wanting more, and they will usually ask if they can continue. One of the most important desires and abilities I can instill in them is that of self-directed learning. So as they choose to go off with their rulers after we've spent several minutes doing a measuring activity, conferring between themselves as to procedures and what to measure next, I step back and let them. They know I am here as a resource, rather than an intrusive director. It is my job to ensure that when I invite my students to learn, they glow with excitement and anticipation of a fun, interactive, playful time. The results, so far, have been astounding. A few of my complete curriculum units are available through my TPT store. Apples Dental Ice Cream Penguins Rainbows St. Patrick's Day Valentine's Follow Connie -'s board Classroom on Pinterest. Tags: preschool, child care, pre-k, curriculum, development, teaching, education, homeschooling, homeschool, home, school, preschool curriculum development, planning
Hello, how are you today? Welcome to our blog About Crochet. We hope you are very well and looking forward to a new Free Crochet Pattern or Tutorial.
PRINTMAKING WITH KIDS + LAKESHORE LEARNING REVIEW
Learning how to use scissors takes a lot of practice, but using scissor skill printables gives your child a lot of time to practice.
Inside you'll find an easy step-by-step how to draw a Minecraft Self Portrait & Minecraft Coloring Page. Stop by and grab yours for free.
What if you gave your kids permission for screen time- as long as it was helping them to learn a new skill? Here are 10 summer hobbies for kids- that they can learn on their own via an online class!
Flowers, insects, and sunshine! Just in time for the month of May, and these Transitional Kindergarten May Worksheets! These printables have been a life saver for me! In the midst of distance learning, I have been sending these electronically to my parents to help my TK students continue their learning at home. You can also...
As part of our All About Me theme, we spent a little bit of time working on learning the parts of the body. More specifically, the head shoulders knees and
Learn how to make a volcano for kids with baking soda, vinegar and salt dough. Fun volcano project for home or school.
Expand your preschooler's world with our tracing shapes worksheets! Enhance motor skills and introduce geometry with fun activities and books. Ideal for homeschool or extra practice.
Handing little learners a pair of scissors for the first time in a classroom can make teachers a little uneasy. Spend time focusing on how to cut with scissors, as well as, seeing what tool learners are ready to use is important. What Scissors to Use? There are many levels of development a child needs
Learn how to make classic homemade meatballs! For the BEST authentic Italian meatballs and sauce mix together ground beef with fresh bread crumbs, parmesan, and spices then then pan fry and braise until tender.
How to Make Boondoggle Lanyard Keychains DIY Tutorial! Boondoggle lanyards are synonymous with Summer! The plastic cord, the bright...
Easy Amigurumi Stingray Fish Free Pattern Ideas – It’s probably okay to give yourself a break by making time to do something fun, relaxing and completely engaging. Why not make ... Read more
When we first moved to the country, we had no TV, and things were really just fine. After that, we opted for Netflix, but just for Madeline, John, and I—not the little ones. Well, that lasted a little while but then the draw of the TV set in. Not for the kids—for ME! It's such
For the past two weeks we were doing a unit study on Symmetry for Little Kids. I found that I could talk all I want about symmetry, but until kids got a chance to do a hands-on project there wasn’t a fire of understanding in their eyes. This project was super fun for all ages
Setting up a kindergarten classroom at the beginning of the year can be an exciting, yet overwhelming. Whether you are a student teacher, or this is your last year teaching elementary school, I'm here to share
Valentines day is just two days away! Yay, another day to share the love, appreciate your loved ones, family, friends and even reach out with kindness to a stranger. I created this little dinosaur card to colour in. I have left it blank so you can add your own text or just leave it plain and cute. Download the dino card here: Dinosaur cardI also drew some animals, particularly cats, and created some little note cards to colour in. I realize they are a bit random but I also thought they were quit
Let's welcome the bugs with these sweet bugs coloring pages for kids!
Open House ideas. Great activity for students to do to show during Open house.
Wander and Wild have created some FREE printables for our community of little explorers to celebrate 'Heal Country' for NAIDOC week in 2021 and inspire and help your little ones to learn about our sacred Indigenous culture and encourage discussions about our traditional Australian landowners. We collaborated with Sheri from Bigi Nagala to create these printables. She is a proud Bidjara woman who tells Indigenous stories through her paint creations. She took our idea and ran with it to create the most beautiful paintings of Indigenous symbols which we’ve turned into FREE printables for you and your family to use and engage with.
When we first moved to the country, we had no TV, and things were really just fine. After that, we opted for Netflix, but just for Madeline, John, and I—not the little ones. Well, that lasted a little while but then the draw of the TV set in. Not for the kids—for ME! It's such
If you want to teach your little ones about the concept of opposites you will want to check out these fun opposites worksheets and activities.
FREE printable Paper Hats that kids can color and wear when learning about community helpers, occupations, or when doing dramatic and pretend play. Great for preschool and kindergarten!
Portable activity kit for little travellers.
Around 2 weeks ago, I was playing indoor soccer as I normally. I was watching the clock above me and thinking to myself that I would have to get going soon to make it home on time.
Smooth out the resin learning curve with these TOP 10 RESIN TIPS. They cover everything that a resin beginner needs to know to get great results every time. Even the experts follow these resin tips to make sure that their resin projects work.
Looking for some fun and unique art activities for your little one? Try our Van Gogh Art Project for preschoolers that will teach your child how to paint a gorgeous painting project like famous artist Vincent Van Gogh.
Everything you need to know about Montessori for your 21-24 month old. Including age-appropriate Montessori material, activity, and practical life suggestions!
Retell The Little Red Hen with free printable Little Red Hen Puppets. Use characters printables to work on literacy with little red hen activities.
Get ready for Fibonacci day with fantastic Fibonacci activities for kids! Explore the Fibonacci Sequence and the Golden Spiral with STEAM.
130 Kindergarten Journal Prompts If you need free kindergarten journal prompts to keep writing fun, you've come to the right place. Not only is this article, there are more helpful posts all throughout the blog. After
