Surviving the Summer Count Down
Everyone can feel it. The days are dragging by. Your kids are losing their minds. The summer heat is creeping in. Parents are daydreaming of summer vacations. And you, dear teacher, are hanging on trying to survive the last couple of weeks.
Everyone can feel it.
The days are dragging by.
Your kids are losing their minds.
The summer heat is creeping in (well...in AZ it's been here since January).
Parents are daydreaming of summer vacations.
And you, dear teacher, are hanging on trying to survive the last couple of weeks.
Even if you're working at a year-round preschool, the seasonal transition can certainly be felt by both students and staff, and trying to stay motivated during this time period can be rough to say the least.
If you're hanging on by a thread, here are a few tips to keep your classroom, and maybe even your sanity, intact until summer.
Take it easy on yourself and the kids.
Knowing that summer is around the corner can really change the atmosphere of your classroom. You'll most likely find yourself getting a bit more frustrated than you usually would.
During these moments don't forget to offer your kids and yourself a little bit of grace. The end of the year is tough for everyone and we might not be performing at our optimal best.
This is the perfect opportunity to tap into self-regulation techniques (for both teacher and students), affirmations, and stress-relieving activities.
Plan less (or more).
Depending on your classroom this might be the time to ease back on the lessons and elaborate classroom designs and opt for simple and easy activities instead.
The end of the year is a great time for review, book-themed lessons, process art, and more unstructured free play.
On the same coin, however, you could reserve the last two weeks for something super special just for the end of the year. Water days, “messy" sensory days, or special guests (like a firefighter) are all great ways to end the year with a bang and some memorable fun.
You might have some more flexibility too since ratios tend to drop as more kids stay home and you have fewer kids.
Remember that you'll have to remind often.
It's almost magical how quickly little ones will forget a whole year of rules reinforced.
You'll probably spend the last few days reminding your kiddos about rules that you know they understand. Brace yourself, breath through it, and know that it's not your class falling apart or suddenly your teaching skills have deteriorated.
This regression is completely normal.
This is a good time to make future plans.
Whether you have a summer break or not, the transition into the summer months is a great time to start reviewing the last couple of months (what worked, what would you like to improve, what goals do you have for your class, etc.) and set an intention for what’s next upcoming.
The kids would probably love to help you purge through old toys and papers as well.
Take a look at your to-do list and the things you've pinned on your "one-day" board on Pinterest and see what you can knock out or what you're willing to do.
When in doubt, dance party.
You can never have too many dance parties and kids love it. When the energy is just too much, throw on some music, hand the kids some colorful silk rags and ribbons and let them wiggle around.
If you want to get extra fancy, have some glow sticks stashed away and break them out in dire situations.
Bonus points if you join in!
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5 Ways to Encourage Parent Support in the Classroom
It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes one to teach them as well. Being an educator can be challenging but it helps immensely when there’s a supportive team of adults and caregivers in our corner. Unfortunately, it’s not always an automatic response for parents to rally around the teachers in the classroom and we need to find ways to encourage their support.
It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes one to teach them as well.
Being an early childhood educator can be challenging and it helps immensely when there’s a supportive team in your corner.
Unfortunately, it’s not always an automatic response for parents to rally around daycare/preschool teachers and we need to find ways to encourage their support.
The stronger bonds and relationships we can build with parents, the easier it is to help the child succeed in the classroom. This relationship becomes especially important if challenging and difficult behavior arises.
It’s important that parents and teachers not see each other as competing influences in the children’s lives, but as a unit, with both working to ensure the best for the child and their education.
Here are some ways to build strong relationships and encourage parental support in the classroom.
Get the parents involved in the classroom:
A lot of parents have to work long hours, which means leaving their kids to the care of someone else for long periods of time.
It’s easy for parents to feel disconnected from the classroom and what their children are doing because of this.
For some parents, disconnection can result in not understanding how the home environment and parenting effects the child in the classroom and vice versa.
You may notice a lack of consistency for attendance and/or drop-off times, not taking the concerns of teachers seriously, low engagement for classroom events, and little sense of urgency for requests like evaluations/assessment results or paperwork.
Likewise, that disconnect can sometimes also leave parents feeling like someone is replacing them or trying to overstep their parental position in the child’s life, nitpicking/over-exaggerating, or judging a parent if a teacher is perceived as pushing too hard or delivering difficult information like behavior challenges.
Help parents get involved in the classroom and reconnect with their child’s learning environment by giving them opportunities to volunteer. If they have a way to contribute and be a part of the classroom experience, they’re more likely to feel connected to it.
This way they don’t see it as you on one side, them on the opposite side, and the child alternating between these two sides, but rather a circular relationship.
Although, not every parent will be able to volunteer their time they might be better suited to volunteering their talents or funding. Be sure to offer different ways for parents to contribute.
You can offer parents the chance to:
Read to the classroom
Help with classroom events
Bring in snacks, and classroom materials
Help with larger projects (like changing classrooms theme or DIY projects)
Decorate the bulletin board
Contributing specific skills (like parents who are good with gardening or painting)
Creating center/lesson materials from home
Offer special extracurricular activities (like a soccer game, yoga, or music class)
Help with school events like classroom parties
Parent Teacher Conferences
Even though the children are young, it’s still important we have regular discussions about children and their development, goals, and progress with their parents.
Sometimes the brief 3 minutes we have with parents during pick-up/drop-off times don’t offer the opportunity to discuss things in depth.
Having these conversations can help both teacher and parents gain insight into how the child is doing and what might be impacting certain behaviors and development.
Not only that, it can help parents feel more involved and more included in the decision-making process when teachers are creating lessons and individual goals.
This is the perfect opportunity to help parents gain insight into the inner workings of the classroom, your curriculum, and the expectations you have and hear what the parents are needing from you as well.
Conferences shouldn’t only be to discuss behavior issues either. They can be used to discuss overall progress and growth.
Not all childcare and preschools can have dedicated time to parent-teacher conferences, however, and likewise, not all parents can make it during the day.
Consider pre-planning a day that parents are notified of at the beginning of the year, hosting online conferences with parents over platforms like Skype or Zoom, having a substitute available for teachers if you can’t close the school for a day, or sending out detailed “progress reports” that include a section for parents questions and comments.
Conferences can also communicate to parents that what children do, even in early childhood classrooms, is still vitally important and you’re a professional.
It’s more than just “daycare”, but important, foundational experiences that will build on their future educational journey.
Open Communication
Outside of “daily reports”, there should be open communication between parents and teachers.
Often, besides “they did well today” there’s no real conversation between parents and teachers. Utilize unique apps like MyKidzDay to engage in meaningful conversation and keep parents in the loop about their child.
Not every day is going to warrant a page-long report about what the child has done, but sharing pictures, having a parent board or a display of children’s work, and newsletters can really help parents feel like they know what’s happening in their child’s day-to-day life at school.
Parent Education Nights/Resources
Teachers can really have a lot of insight that parents might appreciate, and as a teacher sometimes we have access to resources that might be harder for parents to find on their own.
Consider having parent education nights on things parents might be struggling with, have expressed interest in, or would help the teachers and staff out more if the parents were more aware of that topic.
It could be a short 30-minute discussion, informative pamphlets/articles, guest speakers, or information on classes/workshops in the area.
Some good topics could include:
Positive Discipline
Stress Management
Healthy Eating and exercise for young children
Literacy and reading for young children
The importance of play
Resources for single parent/military/blended/etc homes
It’s also good to regularly keep parents informed about the importance of the teachers and their role in the classroom and the children’s lives.
These types of classes are a great way to help parents gain insight into how important early childhood education is and how much their support means.
School Wide Events
When they feel close to other parents and their families, the staff, and everyone as a community, they’re more likely to be invested in the individual classrooms.
Host school-wide events like family picnics, holiday events, garage sales/fundraisers, read-a-thons, and craft days to bring the school together.
Let Them Get To Know You
You don’t have to necessarily be friends with all the parents and caregivers, but building a solid relationship can be key to getting them motivated enough to support you in the classroom.
Have an updated bio about yourself somewhere for parents to see, and connect with them over a similarity or shared experience (ex: if you notice they wear lots of Stranger Things merch you can mention you also enjoy the show or if you’re both from the same state), or share bits of your personality like a silly, appropriate meme on the parent sign in board.
A guest appearance outside of the school environment, such as stopping by the school fundraiser at a frozen yogurt shop, can help parents see you as an individual and not just “Anna’s teacher” and bridge that gap in your relationship with them.
The biggest part of encouraging parent support in the classroom is keeping communication open, and making sure the school's environment is friendly and inclusive of parents.
Take time to truly listen to the parents and their concerns, help educate and include them, and make them feel welcomed and appreciated.
While we have no control over their parenting decisions and what they do outside of the classroom, we can invite them to be contributors inside the classroom.
It’s not us vs them, but all of us together, to help their child thrive.
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What is the Reggio Emilia Approach?
What is the Reggio Emilia Approach and what can traditional classrooms take away from it?
There are a lot of early childhood philosophies that we can learn from, and even implement, in our classrooms.
However, despite the growing popularity of these philosophies (more specifically in the United States), there is still a lot of misunderstanding about exactly what these different philosophies entail and what they mean.
Getting to know what different philosophies are out there, what the core belief and practices are, and even gaining inspiration from them can be greatly beneficial to our classrooms; or at the very least, help us build community with those who teach in a different environment than us.
In this blog post, we’ll be looking at the Reggio Emilia philosophy.
History
Reggio Emilia is a small town in Italy in which the philosophy developed. It started in the 1940’s and gained popularity during the time when there was a strong push for progressive education that followed the child’s needs.
It’s good to note that there’s no specific way to be a Reggio Emilia school, hence why most schools will call themselves Reggio inspired and many consider only the school in the town as a true Reggio Emilia school.
Schools follow the overall beliefs and perspectives on the role of the teachers, students, and classroom environment, but each classroom could operate differently, depending on the needs of the students.
Core Beliefs
The environment is the third teacher.
This is a common term you’ll hear often when it comes to Reggio Emilia, in which they refer to the classroom as the “third teacher”. The concept behind this is the importance of the classroom environment and how the children interact with it.
The classroom and the materials inside of it are crucial to strengthening and empowering the children during their learning experience. Everything from the lighting and colors in the classroom, to how the materials are displayed and how the furniture is arranged is held in great regard.
The Teacher (or atelierista) is a guide.
The lessons are child-led and developed around the children’s interest. It’s the teacher's job to help them explore their interests in depth and provide opportunities for them to do so.
Student’s are capable of directing their own learning experience.
There’s a strong trust in students directing their learning, and that they’re already drive by their own curiosity and natural interest to explore without adult intervention. There’s also a strong emphasis on group work and communication.
Documenting.
Another popular term in Reggio, many people misunderstand this as simply hanging the children’s artwork up in an elaborate way. There’s actually a very intentional process behind these displays, giving the children (and teachers) a visual display of their progression and learning process.
Many lessons are carried out over a longer length of time that’s not typical in traditional Early Childhood classrooms and documentation is used to keep track of their thought process, achievements, and learning progression. These also spark future ideas and inspiration.
The Hundred Languages of Children.
The belief that children express, learn, and share their thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways, and the classroom and teacher should offer plenty of opportunities for the child to explore ways of expression. They’re all valued and no “language” or method of learning and expression holds more importance than another.
So what can we learn from it?
While your classroom might not be Reggio Inspired, there are still some concepts that can be adapted and implemented in any classroom. Some of them to consider are:
The Hundred Languages of Children: take a look around your classroom and see if you’re classroom offers a variety of ways for children to learn and explore their interests.
Children all learn in different ways and forms and it’s important for any class to make sure they’re meeting the needs of all their children.
The Third Teacher: while you might not adopt the typical nature-inspired look of a Reggio environment, it is worth it to make sure your classroom is working for you and your students.
Does your classroom encourage exploration and creativity?
What atmosphere do your colors and decor create in your classroom?
Does your classroom belong to the children or is it designed for adults?
If you’d like to read more about Reggio Emilia and its philosophy here are some great resources.
What is your experience with Reggio Emilia?
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Help! My kids are destroying things in our classroom!
Are you having a hard time with your classroom constantly breaking and destroying their toys and material in the classroom? Find out where the impulse comes from and what you can do to help them learn how to respect and care for their classroom more.
Teaching young children how to respect their environment and materials in the classroom can feel like an uphill battle, especially when they're still learning to control their impulsive nature to toss, drop, and throw everything they see.
Helping children learn to navigate their environment without being destructive requires patience, intentional actions, and intentional language.
Before we start taking action on their behavior, first it's important to understand why children destroy or break things seemingly on purpose.
Many times their smashing, throwing, squishing, or other rough behavior with the classroom material isn't with destroying the items as the intention necessarily.
Children explore and learn by interacting with things and sometimes they're simply trying to figure out of they do one thing, what happens. They aren’t thinking “I want to break this just because!” but rather “I wonder what sound this makes when I drop it?” or something along those lines of exploration.
Their curiosity and thirst for knowledge doesn't always manifest itself in appropriate ways for the classroom environment.
While we're thrilled when a young child takes interest in the effects of gravity on their toy airplanes, it's not appropriate to let them fling it across a room where it can potentially hurt another student or break something. Likewise, you don't want the plane to break and no longer be of use to play with.
This is a good example of how their environment or adults can accidentally send mixed messages to our students.
Using the example above, the child’s understanding of airplanes is that they fly, so they throw it to make it “fly”. In this case, as a teacher, we might have to model imagining it flying, rather than throwing it. It’s our job to help them navigate these distinctions.
Then provide a way for them to explore aviation through other outlets like paper airplanes, observations of the sky, or books.
Another example is when we create something fun and inviting such as a “small world” scene. It can be a bit tough to watch their little hands flatten down your carefully placed fairy houses and mix up the sand and water from your thoughtfully designed beach environment, however, it's important to remember the purpose of those kinds of things.
You want your students to engage and interact with the material and sometimes that means letting them explore things fully, even if they're not using it the way our adult minds would like.
Either way, we want them to understand that we still appreciate and respect the classroom and all of its materials. As a community, everyone contributes to taking care of it.
Here are five ways you can encourage your students to use their classroom materials respectfully.
Have materials in the classroom that require special care and handling. I know it sounds counterintuitive but it’s great practice and sends the message that you trust them with these items and that if they enjoy these materials, they’ll have to take care of it.
Dollar store ceramic vases and figurines are sturdy enough to handle a few drops but still require children to use caution when handling. Frequently demonstrate how they can hold and handle it and give them opportunities to do the same.
Explain what happens if it breaks and teach them safety rules in case it does get dropped and shatters (in our classroom the safety rule is to immediately freeze, then call for an adult). Don't fret if you end up going through a few broken items before they get a hang of it. It's all part of the learning process.
Discuss and fix items with the children. When a book is torn or a toy is broken, don't just reprimand the child and throw the item away to never be seen again. Use it as a learning opportunity.
Tape and repair the book at group time or glue the toy back together with the child who broke it. Discuss with them what happens when the material is torn and broken. If the item is safe to still be used, consider returning it to the classroom and give reminders of how to use it correctly when needed. If you don’t return it to be used, let them know why it’s no longer for use in the classroom.
Give them a few items first and introduce more as they become familiar with the classroom. Especially during the beginning of the school year (and after long breaks like Winter Break, if you have them), and after rearranging the classroom.
Before or shortly after setting a new toy or item out in the classroom, have a group time discussion about the new item, what they like about it, and how they’re to treat it.
Tune in to your student's needs. If they're consistently mistreating their material and not engaging in genuine play then it could be a sign they've tired of it, are no longer challenged by it, or they're seeking an outlet for something that's not available to them in the environment.
An example of this could be having children (2-year-olds & up) dumping out containers of toys but walking away and not playing with them (dumping toys is normal for very young toddlers).
This is a good time to take an evaluation of your classroom and see if there are some changes that need to be made or review your observations to see if the child is seeking some kind of input.
Have them contribute to the classroom decor and make their classroom beautiful. As adults, we tend to unknowingly impose our adult perspective on their world. Carefully consider the purpose of the decor and its placement.
How much of it is made by the children themselves? Is your wall overcrowded with store-bought posters? Is the decor too busy, loud, or stimulating?
There's a strong correlation between classroom decor and student behavior, and when you feel invited and comfortable in your environment, you're more likely to care for it.
And through all this remember that it takes an enormous amount of patience, consistency, and repetition before children fully grasp ideas. Don't be discouraged if your students stop picking the petals off the classroom flowers only to begin tearing the new pictures.
Take a deep breath, celebrate your previous wins, then focus your attention on the new task at hand.
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5 Ways to Reduce Preschool Teacher Overwhelm
Preschool teachers have dozens of worries and concerns that can easily wear them out physically and mentally. Here are 5 ways to reduce teacher overwhelm.
Being an early childhood teacher is not for the faint of heart or mind.
It requires a lot from someone and the amount of multitasking and demands can easily cause teacher burnout and overwhelm.
Along with the day-to-day tasks of teaching, there’s also a lot of mental workload too.
From lesson planning to state requirements, upcoming assessments, and parent concerns— a parade of worries is seemingly always rumbling on autoplay in the back of our minds.
It’s not hard to believe that by the end of Tuesday, most preschool teachers are already physically and mentally exhausted.
5 Ways to Eliminate Preschool Teacher Overwhelm -Early Childhood Educators Academy
So here are some tips to help lessen or simplify your workload
1. Do frequent braindumps then prioritize what tasks you really need to take on.
From there decide which tasks you’re willing to keep on your plate.
It's tempting when you're planning lessons for the next month to scroll through Pinterest and want to do #allthethings.
However, a mountain of ideas crowding your thoughts can easily lead to feeling like there's way too much to do with very little time.
Prioritize what you have to do, then make intentional choices about what extra crafts and projects you want to add.
Take any exceptional inspirations that you just can't let go of and put them in a folder to look at later when you have spare time (and energy).
2. Utilize a project management system to help make tasks manageable.
Technology is getting fancy so there's no need to try and remember everything that needs to get done for the classroom party or parent-teacher conferences.
Take large projects and break them down into smaller chunks using apps like Todoist, Google Keep, or my personal favorite, Trello.
Also, be sure to recruit help from staff and parents too, and delegate.
You don't have to be a one-man band when it comes to teaching. Send out flyers and ask for volunteers from the parents, trust your assistant with some more hands-on tasks, or see if there's another teacher who would like to team up with you for larger goals.
3. Goal setting works in the classroom too.
Whether it's for certain milestones for a child, behavior, classroom decoration, or something else, having an obtainable end goal can be helpful in keeping you focused.
So instead of stressing about the bulletin board and reorganizing the supply closet and replacing books in the library and rotating materials the block center *whew*
Set a goal for one task then set the rest aside and focus on getting goal number one completed first.
For example, if you know your kids are starting to get bored of the current materials, set a goal to reorganize the supply closet this week so you can see what toys you have, then make a goal next week to rotate the block center.
The same works for behavior management too. Instead of “get child to behave” Create a behavior plan with smaller goals like “child requests emotion chart when upset” and “child cleans up toys without resistance 2/4 times” and work on achieving those smaller goals.
4. Be honest about when you're receiving too much work.
If suddenly your director suggests adding a Christmas production on top of the Christmas parties, but you already feel like your classroom is transforming to crowd control, speak up.
Be professional, but be vocal and share when too much is being added to your plate.
If the projects are absolutely required ask for extra help or ways you can simplify the process (such as only learning 1 song instead of 3) or insist on the admin offering extra support to meet those goals.
State your case clearly.
You never want to approach the subject with "just because" as the supporting argument. Your leadership simply might not be aware of how much you already have planned and be willing to cut some extras off the task list if they can understand why.
Sometimes, the tasks you’re required to do like a 20-minute circle time for your 1’s classroom might not be developmentally appropriate, so can pointing back to data and best practices (“DAP” or developmentally appropriate practices) can further strengthen your case.
If you’re participating in a quality rating program like Quality First, GEEARS, you can point back to the measurement tools they use like ECERS or CLASS.
If you feel like you're bearing too much of the weight in the classroom as a result of a co-teacher not helping enough, sit down and discuss everyone's role in the classroom and how you two can better work together.
Avoid blaming and labeling. Objective statements like “I’ve done diapers 5 out of the 6 times all week” and focusing on how you perceived it “I feel like maybe I’ve taken on a bit too much of the diapering tasks and need help” can help keep the conversation from feeling accusatory.
5. And above all, to reduce the overwhelm, it's important that teachers offer themselves a lot of grace.
Everything doesn't have to be Pinterest perfect and some days there will be things left undone.
Sometimes “good enough” will be the standard we aim for and we may have to be okay with simplicity in lieu of elaborate but stressful projects.
Rest assured, you're a great teacher and your kids think so too.
Need some teacher friends who get the struggle? Join our Free Facebook community for early childhood educators.
The Magic of Kinetic Sand
How we use Kinetic Sand in the classroom with a DIY recipe for Kinetic Sand -Early Childhood Educators Academy
Kinetic sand feels and "behaves" much like wet sand and was originally made for sculpting but has found its way into many classrooms.
It is by far one of my favorite items for the preschool classroom and for good reason.
Why Kinetic sand?
Kinetic Sand is a great sensory experience for children.
Not only is it unique in the way that it feels, but compacting it, molding, and kneading it gives children the tactile input that they need in multiple ways.
It can be incredibly relaxing for kids who want something soothing.
The slow almost lazy movement of the sand, as well as the soft texture, can really be grounding and help calm busy minds and bodies, especially for children still learning to regulate emotional responses. This is also therapeutic for stressed-out teachers!
But it can also be equally stimulating for kiddos who need something to smoosh and squeeze. Kinetic sand can be stuffed into cups and hold its shape and easily flattened back into a pancake.
It's a really great tool to use for fine motor skills, such as using the knife to cut through the sand, building grip strength (a crucial prewriting skill) while forming and compacting the sand, and kneading through the sand or using tweezers to pick up toys out of the sand.
Kinetic sand can also be used to extend/enhance learning, such as using colorful sand for color recognition, using it as a base for a small world setting, burying letters/numbers for children to uncover, or using it in dramatic play to make ice cream cones and waffles.
Kinetic sand also doesn’t dry out!
That means you can use it over and over again if you remind the kids to wash their hands before using it.
You can store it in a ziplock bag, a jar, or just leave it in the sensory bin/container and even without a lid, it will be fine.
It's also easier than other materials to clean up should it spill on the floor or carpet since it just clumps together.
It's super easy to DIY your own Kinetic sand as well. All you need is:
Dish Soap
Water
Fine Sand (you can buy from the craft store)
Cornstarch
Food Coloring (optional)
First, mix the sand and cornstarch together
Then mix the water and dish soap (you want it to be bubbly) in a separate bowl
Then slowly add them together until you get the right consistency
You can fold in the food coloring afterward if you choose to add color or diluted essential oil for scent.
Depending on the consistency of your sand, you may have to add more water. You do want to avoid using craft sand that has a lot of rocks and pebbles (like playground sand) or is too chunky.
If you're not a DIY kind of person you can always buy kinetic sand on Amazon or in most big stores like Walmart.
Let us know in the free facebook group for early childhood educators: Do you use Kinetic sand in your classroom?
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Aggressive behavior like hitting, kicking, and biting are easily cited as one of the most stressful behaviors in the early childhood classroom. Here are some tips for handling aggressive behavior in the PreK/daycare classroom.