If you are like me, you are scrambling to find fun and engaging spring activities that help build skills in the areas of ELA and…

Fine Motor Journals are a place where students can do various fine motor activities such as writing, drawing, name activities, and cutting! It's like a mini-portfolio just about a student's fine motor skills, so instead of tons of random papers with fine motor activities, it's now in one organized spot! Fine motor journals are FUN short activities to support students learning how to write, draw, cut, and develop strong fine motor skills and match the learning theme (ex: transportation, pets, Valentine's Day, Earth Day, fall, spring) you are doing in your classroom.

Whether you are doing a homeschool preschool program or are a teacher in a preschool, having a plan is essential. Every year, I begin with an outline for what I plan to teach throughout the school year. I created this resourceful, editable preschool curriculum to keep organized and easily change what I teach from year

CLICK HERE FOR OUR COMPLETE PHONEMIC AWARENESS CURRICULUM

There is never a bad time to teach about our health. You can teach this unit at any time, which is very convenient. And there is no rule saying you can't teach it multiple times! Dental Health Month provides a great opportunity for teachers to hit on overall health lessons. This Health Kit is so

This preschool curriculum covers everything your kids need to know before kindergarten PLUS it is super easy for you to follow and implement as a parent!

Children will have a blast with this hands-on, sensory science activity. Don't be surprised if your older kids want in on the fun, too! Sensory Blindfold Science Experiment This experiment is all about exploring the different textures of various materials. It's a fun way to explore the sense of touch with preschoolers and young

Determine the Left and Right directional position in this printable worksheet.

Practice various skills with these Ancient Egypt Worksheets. Egyptian printables explore pyramids, sphynx, mummies, pharoahs, and more!

This curriculum was wonderful for teaching Pre-K at home! Not only did my daughter learn her alphabet & letter sounds but she also learned to read!

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

Waldorf is a holistic educational model that strives to teach the whole child... head, heart, and soul. It's appealing and exciting, but can also feel overwhelming! Kirtsee Raki explains how you too can gift your children a Waldorf-inspired education.

On Sunday in my Pre-K/K Sunday School class, we were learning about the parable that Jesus told about the rich fool in Luke 12:16-21. This is a great Bible Worksheets "Needs Versus Wants" Worksheets & Object Lesson for Children

An educational website dedicated to early childhood education and making learning fun! This post features a free Under the Sea Graph activity!

Practice various skills with these Ancient Egypt Worksheets. Egyptian printables explore pyramids, sphynx, mummies, pharoahs, and more!

Here's a list of fun activities you can do with preschool and kindergarten using rhythm sticks!

A round-up of the best Spanish homeschool curriculums and language courses for Pre-K and Elementary aged kids.

Ultimate free writing printables for Pre-schoolers and reception aged children

These 20 Activities and Lessons that Teach Obedience to Kids will help equip you to teach kids to obey. This is part of my character building series, a great resource for parents and teachers everywhere. The word “obey” has gotten a bad wrap over the years. Before you jump into this post and all it...Read More

These FREE Science Worksheets from My Pre-K Box will help your kids learn about science as it includes topics like weather, seasons, plants, animals, and so much more! Grab your Science Preschool Fun Pack printable now!

A fun, active and interesting activity for helping children learn to distinguish left from right.

LOTS of FREE Printable worksheets for kids to practice math, literacy, science, & history with kids of all ages from 123Homeschool4Me.

This pre-kindergarten skill goal sheet is a one page sheet of typical skills that a student may learn. It is a fun and very visual way for the kids to see what skills they have mastered and document the child's learning. When a skill has been mastered, the child can put a sticker in the box. If you use the black and white version another idea is to have the students color the square or picture once they meet a goal. Skills included are: •name writing •identifying color •identifying letter names •identifying letter sounds •retelling a story •rhyming •identifying beginning sound •segmenting words •drawing a picture •shapes •counting from 1-20 •identifying numbers 1-10 •counting objects These can also be distributed to parents for them to see what their child is learning in preschool. Included in both color and black and white. I have included this product labeled as "my preschool goals," "my prekindergarten goals" and "my TK goals" so you are able to chose the version that you wish to use. Also includes an easy to use student assessments book and teacher assessment cards that be can used to assess each of the goals. These work great for parents teacher conferences and for data tracking. *************************************************************** For another fun and student friendly way to assess, you may also like: Learning Achievement Crowns (Kindergarten Student Assessment Crowns) ***************************************************************

Our Muslim Homeschool uses affiliate links in posts and sidebar ads. Please refer to my Disclosure Policy for more information The following post is from Shannen at Middle Way Mom It just me, or do very few homeschooling methods refer to little ones being in the mix of a typical homeschooling day? One of the things

My dear friend, Deedee Wills, has talked me into jumping into a new adventure! Posting my lesson plans! Here goes! I hope you will find them helpful or get some ideas from them to add to your week. Now, let me explain the format a bit. The green shaded boxes on top are developmental areas that I want to make sure I am covering throughout the week. I simply check mark that column if the activity meets that developmental area. The box with (S Lg I), S - Small Group, Lg - Large Group, I - Individual. My lesson plans range from 1-2 weeks depending on the topic. We are in our second week of this one. I plan several activities for each category to the left. You can pick and choose which one you want to do each day. Over the week, you will hit them all. If you have any questions, please ask. I would be happy to answer anything I left out. I am linking up with Deedee from Mrs. Wills Kindergarten. Great ideas to be shared! Thanks Deedee! My Lesson Plans " What Do I Want To Be?" Tip: To print on 8x11 paper click "Fit to scale" before printing.

Making educational activities at home is not only fun, but it’s a huge money-saver. Once you invest in a laminator – and it doesn’t cost much – you’ll be able to create dozens of fun learning projects. Here are 17 of our favorite laminating activities for babies, toddlers, preschoolers, and beyond.

How to teach handwriting skills in your Preschool or Pre-K classroom. What's developmentally appropriate? What about worksheets?

Learn Animal Classifications for Kids with 10 FREE printable Cootie Catchers! Fun animals for kids activity for all ages!

Distance learning, virtual learning, hybrid learning - it's hard to keep up. These are my favorite tips for encouraging student participation

Free printable beginning sounds activity for kindergartners to practice identifying initial sounds with cute animal clip it cards.

Use the correct positional word to describe the position of the bee in this preschool positional word worksheet.

These light experiments are great science lessons for 1st graders! Aligned with NGSS, the resource also includes books and related activities.

Teaching preschoolers about music is both easy and fun! These little learners enjoy making noises with almost anything they can get their hands on, so it is very simple to take their love for noise and make it a preschool music lesson! Rhythm The first step for your preschooler’s music lesson is rhythm. Without rhythm there …

Unlock early learning and fun with our free printable toddler worksheets! Keep kids engaged with alphabet mastery, coloring fun, and more. Ideal for parents and teachers to add creativity and joy to toddlers' education. Share for joyful learning adventures! #EducationalFun #ToddlerActivities #LearningIsFun

I love these fun ways to teach the alphabet to my toddler! So many ideas for crafts, fine motor activities, sensory bins, and more - plus free printables! #alphabet #letters #preschool If you're teaching your toddler the alphabet, you'll want to check out this huge list of playful alphabet activities for 2 year olds!

Encourage scissor cutting practice with these free Montessori-inspired farm animal cutting strips. An instant download with a variety of skill levels!

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

In order to be strong readers, kids need strong phonological awareness skills, which includes Phonemic Awareness. Click through to read more!

CUTE printable Construction Worksheests make practicing counting, matching upper and lowercase alphabet letters, and more FUN!

Super fun science experiments you can do at home using items that you probably already have in your kitchen! Perfect boredom buster for kids.

Homeschooling can be expensive, but it doesn't need to be. Check out this list of high-quality, free homeschool curriculum.