Preparing Your PreK Class for the Holiday Chaos
With the holidays fast approaching, a lot of teachers are probably seeing their classroom becoming more restless than usual. Here are a few ways you can prepare your classroom for the “holiday chaos”.
October has rolled around which also means the holidays are also on their way.
During the holiday season though, teachers often experience that their classroom suddenly turns abnormally chaotic.
There seem to be more whining, tantrums, and children start testing their limits more than they normally might.
Although a little disruption is normal during this time, we can minimize the impact the holidays have on our classroom by being proactive.
Here are a few things to keep in mind as the holiday season approaches.
Expect some restlessness, emotional meltdowns, and testing behavior.
Children tend to absorb the energy around them and the holidays certainly make people busy and excited. Also, it can be a busy and even stressful time for families filled with family trips, activities, and events.
This means your students are probably seeing changes in their schedules and routines, such as staying up later than they normally would for a fall festival or having relatives visiting their homes.
These events and changes can be a lot of fun for children, but also stressful and tiring.
Tired and overwhelmed little ones may misbehave, become emotional, or even shy away or refuse to participate in classroom activities in an attempt to escape the busyness.
They’re not “being bad”, they’re stressed.
You can help your students by making sure your own classroom isn’t overly busy with endless activities and by trying to stay consistent with your routines.
For example, having your “party” at the same time you’d normally have a snack can reduce disruption.
Remember to plan with your students in mind.
The holidays always bring a whole new level of inspiration for fun activities and crafts for the classroom, but be mindful that you’re not getting swept up in the excitement and forcing activities, especially when it comes to process art.
We can become so excited about making cute handprint turkeys and Santa beards to display and send home to parents that we don’t remember that for children, the process and experience prior to the finished project are where their learning really happens.
And they might not want anything to do with the craft altogether.
Make sure you’re giving your students plenty of time to explore and enjoy their art and crafts and that they still have plenty of open exploration too.
An indicator that your kids might not be enjoying the activities is if they start resisting participating. Don’t be afraid to give a child who’s not interested permission to do something else or opt-out.
Also be mindful of overplanning events such as parties, parades, and performances and their lengths.
Plan for more Gross Motor activities and whole-body movement play.
Depending on where you live the weather can be having a serious impact on your ability to take your students outside, and sometimes they’re only able to be outside for a limited amount of time.
All of that energy that they’d normally be able to release by running around the playground is hard for little ones to contain.
As a result, you might find them running around, wrestling, and becoming overall antsier in the classroom.
You can try to buffer some of this extra energy by planning lots of gross motor games and having more activities that require whole-body movement. Here are a few ideas:
Incorporate more dance and movement outside of group time
Create an indoor hopscotch
Make a large road around the classroom that they can move cars around
Have a separate group time for stretching and yoga
Provide weighted blocks and large, weighted toys for their center activities
Rotate through calming sensory bins
Have large yoga balls and balancing beams available indoors for them to use
Take small groups on small walks around the school
Be flexible with your plans.
Maybe you had planned to make mummies or paint pumpkins for that day but you can’t seem to get your kids to sit still long enough to even get the paint out.
If it’s become more stressful than fun for you and/or the kids, it’s okay to change plans.
There’s really no point in insisting on completing the activity if you’re spending 80% of that time redirecting and trying to get them to pay attention.
It’s perfectly fine to reschedule the activity for a different time/day or just drop it altogether and move on.
Reach out and recruit help.
If you need help, ask for it.
Having an extra hand who can shadow and sit with some of the children that are busy or having a hard time can make all the difference in a classroom, especially during the holidays.
Asking for help during classroom parties or messy activities like playing with pumpkins or baking holiday treats can keep the classroom from spiraling out of control while you’re busy trying to keep the flour in the bowl.
Ask if there’s a floater who you can ask to step into the classroom, or if your assistant director is willing to come in for a little bit with you. You can even recruit parents and help them get involved.
The holidays can bring lots of chaos with them.
With children filling up on treats, staying up past bedtimes, and having to stay indoors because of snow or rain, it can be a bit much.
But it’s also a lot of fun and a great time for special events that you wouldn’t normally do.
With a little bit of planning and forward-thinking, teachers can turn all that extra energy into a lot of fun.
Spooky Themed Books Every Preschool Class Will Want
Halloween books that are sure to be a hit in your preschool classroom!
Halloween and other October celebrations are on the horizon and it’s time to welcome all things spooky, creepy, and crawly.
Books are a great way to connect children with what is happening around them, including these seasonal holidays.
Below we’ve listed some of our favorite October books for preschoolers and toddlers.
This post contains affiliate links
Creepy Carrots is guaranteed hit in the classroom. Although it’s not specifically “Halloween themed” the (kid friendly) creepiness certainty still makes it a great October read.
Jasper is sure there are scary carrots following him and starts seeing them everywhere, but are they really?
There’s also the 2nd book Creepy Pair of Underwear which always gets a giggle out of the class.
Dem Bones is a fantastic rhythmic books that’s silly and a ton of fun.
It’s a remake of a popular African American spiritual and even if your kids don’t quite understand the skeletal structure the pictures and rhyming will still keep them engaged.
Great for circle time or to get out some extra energy.
Shake Dem Halloween Bones If you’re looking for some more movement and rhythm this book is perfect too.
All the favorite fairy tale characters like Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood come out to dance to this fun, upbeat book on Halloween night.
Little Blue Trucks Halloween Little Blue truck is a great series and kids will really like seeing a familiar character and his Halloween adventures.
It’s a lift-the-flap book revealing each friends costumes that kids love guessing. In the end Little Blue Truck has to decide if he wants to dress up or not too
Can be a great conversation starter about kids costumes.
When the witch looses her hat, bow, and want, a couple of friends are more than willing to help get in back, and in return, they want a ride on her broom.
This is a pretty silly story story and as an extra bonus you can make cut outs of the different characters and tape them on a printed broom as each friend tries to squeeze their way in.
It can be a little lengthy though, even for older groups of kids, so be mindful of attention spans!
Goodnight Goon A fun remake of the popular children’s book Goodnight Moon.
The illustrations can be a tad bit too creepy for younger children so I’d suggest reading it to an older audience of 4' year old’s and up.
The Very Hungry Zombie. Another fun remake of The Very Hungry Caterpillar that kids are sure to love.
The Zombie is hungry for more and goes on a eating spree and nothing’s off limits for this zombie, including astronauts and of course braaaaaiiiinnns!
The night before Halloween. The night before Halloween can be super fun, but what will these little monsters do when they finally come face-to-face with human trick-or-treater’s on Halloween night?
This is another familiar series that older children will enjoy.
Splat the Cat and The Pumpkin Picking Plan
Splat the Cat is determined to find and pick the biggest pumpkin, but the real question is, how is he supposed to pick it?
Great for classrooms that don’t want to necessarily focused on Halloween but still want a seasonal book to read.
Dia de los Muertos is a fun and vibrant board book all about the traditions of the Mexican festivities during the holiday of Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).
Beautiful illustrations show kids how they honor ancestors and celebrate passed loved ones. Great addition to introduce kids to other cultural traditions.
Easy Construction Worker Small World
Easy to make Construction Worker Small World/Sensory Bin for Preschoolers
Small world bins can be extremely fun and despite how elaborate they can look on Pinterest, they’re usually actually pretty simple to make.
Here’s a construction worker small world that was under $7 to make using dollar store items and my sons toys.
The materials I used I had around the house already because we do a lot of sensory play, but they were mostly purchased from the home decor section of the dollar store.
If you’re looking for sensory play material, skip the toy section and head to the decor and holiday section of the dollar store; that’s where most of the great material is located.
The serving tray we use for sensory play had been reused for many projects but that was purchased at Target. You can use the trays from the dollar store however or even a deep pan or cookie sheet.
Black decor rocks/fish tank pebbles.
Decor logs (or you can use material from outside! Even better)
River rocks
Plastic Construction truck and Lego man
Whatever other material inspires you!
We laid down the rocks and spread them out and arranged the material.
My son loves watching the process so if you’re doing this at home or in the classroom, let your kids watch you put it together or help. It’s super exciting for them!
If the small rocks are a hazard concern you can substitute them for beach sand or kinetic sand.
My son had a blast playing with it. This small world has a lot of tactile sensory aspects with the pebbles and rough wood logs. The pebbles also made a really cool sound when he drove the truck across it as well.
He did eventually decide to add his Hotwheel cars (which he does for most of our projects) and sticky blocks which is fine.
This is a very important part to remember about small world!
It’s okay to for them to add or take away items from the small world. The ultimate goal is to let the child explore and engage with it the way they want to.
It ruins the point if you try to keep the project looking perfect!
Questions/conversation prompts you can ask to extend learning:
How many ______ are there?
How do the logs feel? (Introduce new vocabulary like “course” and “rugged”)
Have you seen any constructions sites lately? What do you think they were building?
What other kind of materials should we use to build ____?
Which of these stones is the biggest?
Which log should we use as the base to make our tower sturdier?
How do you think the construction worker would feel if he accidentally built the tower backward?
Drop by our Facebook group and show us what small world/sensory play bins you’re creating at home or in your classroom!
10 Ways to Make Daycare Drop Off's Easier
Getting your kids up and out of the house in the morning is challenging enough, so how can parents help ease the drop off’s at daycare and school?
If you have a child on their way to preschool, the scene of a little one clutching onto their parent’s leg with a death grip and pouring tears might sound familiar. It might even resonate on a personal note if you’ve had to pry little fingers off your arm at drop-off.
Going to daycare/preschool can be an exciting time for both a parent and the child/ren, but that doesn’t always guarantee they enjoy the transition from home to school.
Here are 10 ways to help ease the drop-off transition for both you and your child.
Well rested and well-fed makes a happy kid.
Some days can be a blur of rushed teeth brushing and repeating “get your shoes on” 20 million times, however taking the time to make sure they’ve eaten a good breakfast and they get plenty of sleep the night before can make all the difference.
If you’re often finding yourself and your family pinched for time, consider having a few healthy “on-the-go” meals prepped for these types of days. Bowls of fresh fruit, mini pancakes, and breakfast burritos travel well.
Have a casual discussion about school in the morning and on the way there.
If your child feels up to it, ask them if they plan on playing with their favorite playmate, what they’ll build with the legos today, or what their favorite game at the playground is. Helping them get excited about how much fun they have can help build anticipation instead of anxiousness.
Skip the lectures about “no crying” during drop-off. It could just amp up their anxiety and unintentionally create guilt or shame about having a hard time separating from you. Reassure them and remind them that you’ll be returning.
Let them help prepare for school.
Kids love being involved and might be more willing to part ways if they know they’ve had a hand in preparing their lunch or getting dressed. Giving choices and offering to let them help can also remove some power struggles which is an added bonus.
Stay calm.
Children can sense when you’re anxious or nervous about something and that can feed into their own fears. Be confident at drop-offs and show your child you trust them to be in their teacher’s care.
Remember the language you use with yourself too. Instead of thinking “they’re about to start acting up!” when you see the beginning of their tearful meltdown don’t let yourself get riled up. Ground yourself and stay positive.
They could very well cry, but we don’t have to adopt our children’s moods to empathize with them. Children are allowed to be upset, but you’re also still allowed to be calm and excited about their day at preschool.
Make drop-offs simple.
It’s tempting to linger until they settle down but the majority of the time, extended stays can make the separation harder. By doing this the child builds an expectation of you staying or might pick up the message that you’re not comfortable leaving them. Give them a hug and goodbye then drop them off.
If you have to, physically hand them off to their teacher. While the cries might be heart-wrenching, usually a child can be soothed a few moments later.
There might be exceptions when the child seems to do better if you gradually leave and this is something to discuss with the teachers beforehand. You might be able to walk them to the playground instead of using the carpool or help the child put their lunchbox away to give them that extra time with you.
Either way, remember when it’s time to go, it’s time to go. Try not to get roped into the “one more minute” battle. Confidently tell your little one goodbye, you love them, you’ll be back and leave.
Brace yourself for the first few days.
If your child is starting a new school, coming back after an extended break, going through a major life event, or starting childcare for the first time altogether, know that adjusting can take some time.
7. Don’t stress if the second/third day doesn’t go well (even if the first day did).
You might be surprised to see your child stroll into their classroom with no issues the first day, and then delighted to hear they’ve done fine all day only to have them fall apart on day number two. This is normal if the child suddenly realizes that this is going to become a recurrent event.
8. Make a plan for communication.
Sometimes drop-offs are more stressful for the parent than the child. If you’re feeling nervous about sending your little one off without you, don’t be shy about asking your child’s teacher if you can get an update for the first day or two.
Most teachers won’t mind sending a picture of them playing to help you gain some peace of mind.
9. Ask the teacher if you can bring a lovey. Sometimes having a blanket from home can help comfort a child. However, as they become more accustomed to their school, help them learn other soothing methods as well since loveys can sometimes be a distraction in the classroom or cause a quarrel.
If blankets aren’t allowed you could send your kiddo a love note, a picture, or a surprise card in their lunchbox.
10. Don’t sneak out.
This is different than simply leaving quietly if they found something to do. Sneaking out would be something like purposefully pointing your child’s attention towards the classroom fish and then suddenly disappearing. * poof * or pretending like you’re going to get your jacket and then not returning.
This can play into their worst fear about being abandoned and can not only make future drop-offs harder but also leaves them upset throughout the day.
Remember that being upset isn’t a bad thing.
It’s okay for your child to miss you and express this. Continue to be consistent, stay resilient, and keep reassuring them that you love them and will see them after school.
Was this post helpful? Share it with others!
3 Things To Do (and not do) When Dealing With Challenging Behavior
Challenging Behavior can be stressful for the child, parents and teacher. Here are three things teachers should do, and three things teachers shouldn’t do, when they’re faced with helping a child work through their behavior.
Guiding kids on how to identify, regulate, and safely express their emotions, and other social/emotional skills are crucial and should be the focus of teaching in the PreK and Daycare classrooms.
And with little minds trying to process big emotions it's inevitable that we’ll come across a child who’s having a harder time with this than his or her peers and we as teachers have to navigate our way through various behavior issues.
Some of them can be as simple as a child refusing to line up for outside time or as concerning as aggressive behavior and harming themselves and/or their peers.
Helping a child through this time can feel daunting and stressful.
There are many moments where it can feel tempting to call it quits and send the child on their way to someone, anyone else, but with the rise of preschool expulsions, many of these “problem children” get bounced between a number of schools, making their behavior worse.
As the quote says “the children who need love the most will ask for it in the most unloving ways”.
The children that are requiring the most energy from us are often the ones that need our attention, our patience, and our determination the most.
That, however, doesn't remove the fact that these challenging behavior issues put an enormous strain on our mental and physical resources.
Having an understanding of these actions as well as a plan of action can dramatically reduce the overwhelm and put the control back in your hands as an educator instead of being at the mercy of a young child's executive functioning skills.
Here are 3 Dos and Don'ts of managing difficult and challenging behavior in the classroom.
The 3 Do’s:
DO bring up your concerns to relevant guardians in the child's life. This means getting parents or caretakers together for a meeting to discuss the child's behavior, making sure you and your assistant or co-teacher are on the same page about what you've observed and how you plan on managing their behavior, and asking your director for any support, advice, training or resources they might have on hand.
It's important that this becomes a supportive team effort and not a solo mission which can easily lead to teacher burnout.
DO show empathy and love. While it's true challenging behavior requires a firm response, that doesn't mean we have to withhold affection and empathy.
It's okay to offer a hug or one-on-one time in appropriate situations. Validate their emotions and frustrations, show them you care. This is actually a key part in overcoming challenging behavior.
DO be proactive. Make detailed observations and try preventative measures as often as possible. Use your observations to pinpoint the child's triggers and avert any negative behavior you can predict.
For example: if you know transitioning from free play to lunch sparks a meltdown, try giving them an individual 5-minute warning and visual countdown.
It also helps to be proactive with discipline techniques in cases when you can't prevent challenging behavior.
The 3 Don’ts:
DON’T assume the why. It's easy to just chalk up certain behavior to poor parenting, technology, sugar, or some other type of scapegoat. However, when we begin to assume the cause of the behavior without really looking into the situation, we cloud our perspective on the potential real reasons and thus, prevent ourselves from coming up with lasting solutions that can help the child.
Challenging behavior often requires a fair amount of detective work to get to the root of the issue and requires even more patience during the trial-and-error process.
DON’T make empty threats. Children are perceptive and catch on quickly to a lack of consistency and lack of follow-through.
It's tempting to say something dramatic or something that you know will elicit a response like you'll call mom or dad if they keep misbehaving but the chances of them eventually calling your bluff are high. If it's something you can't follow through on, it's best to look for a different solution.
DON’T get sucked into the battle. Ever caught yourself negotiating with a child? One minute you’re explaining to them why they can't do something and ten minutes later you realize you’ve somehow been dragged into a back-and-forth debate that's going in circles.
Or you’ve spent the last few minutes lecturing and trying to get them to understand why their behavior was wrong.
When children are dysregulated enough to act out they’re also too dysregulated to hear reason.
They need someone to be their stability. It's important to stay in control of the situation and avoid a power struggle.
This can sneak up on us! You might even find yourself going back and forth with a child about no longer going back and forth, repeating things like “That's enough” or “I'm done discussing this” over and over.
A good rule of thumb? If you've said the same or similar phrase more than 3 times in a short period of time you might be feeding into a power struggle.
Likewise, being mindful of accidentally internalizing their behavior and/or sharing their emotional state.
Just because the child is upset and frustrated does not mean you have to be as well. You can empathize and help them work through big emotions without sharing them.
The biggest thing to remember about challenging behavior is that it's an ongoing process.
There isn't an overnight solution (and if you know one please share it!) and it's going to take some trial runs, testing, and patience to sometimes see even the smallest results. When thinking of solutions you need to think long-term.
Short-term solutions that temporarily provide a band-aid fix to a much deeper issue can be helpful to relieve stress for all parties involved until a better strategy is implemented. But we should always have long-term solutions as the goal or we increase the risk of the child regressing and ultimately do the child a disservice.
If you enjoyed this share it with other teachers!
Further reading: Help! They’re destroying the classroom.
Using Group/Circle Time With Intention: Building Impulse Control
Group Time/Circle Time is a perfect opportunity to help children build and strengthen important Executive functioning skills like impulse control and emotional regulation!
Circle time is a great opportunity to build crucial skills beyond letter recognition in preschoolers that will benefit them in and out of the classroom.
Executive functioning skills are basically the skills we develop to help us with mental processes to focus, plan, follow multi-step instructions, and more.
It’s been compared to an air traffic station for our brains, giving the planes (our thoughts, emotions, and information) direction.
It’s our brain’s ability to intake all of the information and initiate, execute, and complete a task.
These skills were previously assumed to be “built-in” and predetermined at birth, but now we’re learning that we have the ability to strengthen and build these skills, especially during our early years.
How to use group time to build important executive functioning skills in the preschool classroom
Group time/Circle time is a great opportunity to help children build on these skills, including impulse control.
This time is ideal since you’re able to intentionally plan your activities and lessons to help build specific EF (executive functioning) skills.
The two that are particularly useful to help strengthen at this time are impulse control and following directions.
Before we start though I do want to make a quick PSA.
You can (and should) build these skills outside of circle time.
Circle time shouldn’t be very long if you chose to have it.
You actually don’t even need formal circle time at all…
Alright, with that out the way, let’s get started!
Impulse Control:
Impulse control generally refers to the ability to control oneself, especially one’s emotions and desires.
But the ability of a child to resist acting out their impulse is hard.
The ability to resist that impulse when they’re feeling an intense emotion is really hard.
Learning to resist that impulse while emotional, and then redirecting themselves is even harder.
So this is a skill that needs lots of practice and repetition.
Learning impulse control can help when it comes to tasks like cleaning up, sharing with others, and reacting appropriately when feeling big emotions like anger or excitement (i.e. not hitting).
One way to build impulse control? The tried and true recess games:
Games that can help build this skill:
Simon Says
Freeze Tag
What Time is it, Mr. Fox?
Red Light Green Light
Teacher, May I?
Building these skills in a group setting can further reinforce these skills because not only does the child have to remain aware of their own actions, but they have to resist the distraction from other friends.
For teachers, this can help reduce the “domino effect” that can happen where one child begins to act out and the others follow.
Another way to help build this impulse control is to have children perform very specific actions within certain parameters.
For example, The “Spaghetti” Game: at your instruction children wiggle different body parts one at a time like it’s spaghetti (arms, then legs, head, etc), and at the end wiggle their whole body.
This allows for kids to be silly and funny but they also have to practice keeping their energy contained by only wiggling one body part at a time.
Also, try games where they have to pass items to someone else or take turns.
Sometimes, during group, we’d bring something fun to observe like a crystal or a souvenir from a recent vacation and let the children hold it. They can observe it for a moment before giving it to the friend sitting next to them to do the same. During this, we’d sing “take a look and pass it on”.
During these types of games, children have to actively resist keeping the item to themselves and regulate their emotions while watching someone else have a turn.
Also, toys like a rainbow tent and having kids wait till you say go before running underneath can help build impulse control when they’re excited.
And of course, music and movement always work.
Songs like the Freeze Dance, Listen and Move, and Going on a Bear Hunt are great songs to practice keeping their energy contained while being excited.
This song has always been a hit in my classroom:
Last tip:
Remember to provide clear instructions and expectations for these games so they understand what’s expected of them.
For the most part, most children simply recognize these games as a fun way to “get their wiggles out” and don’t know you’re building important skills in them. ;-)
ENJOYED THIS POST? DON'T FORGET TO PIN AND SHARE WITH OTHER TEACHERS!
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.