Thursday, July 17, 2008

Preschool Lesson Plans: Time to Do a Kindergarten Prep Theme

It's that time of year! It is time to prepare our students in a year round 4K preschool programs for kindergarten.

They will be experiencing so many new things in a few short weeks, and it is our job to prepare them. They will be in a new class, with new kids, a new teacher, and a new way of doing things.

So that being said, you can take a few weeks and use a theme to prepare them. I have used a Kindergarten unit with my classes several times and I know how it made them more comfortable. I am just going to go through some elements that I like to throw in there.

I like to, of course, schedule a trip to a Kindergarten class or have a Kindergarten teacher come visit. This helps them get settled even if it isn't their teacher.

I would do a calendar activity where we counted down until Kindergarten. I gave each child a calendar page print out to hang in their cubby. Everyday at the end of circle time they got a graduation cap sticker and marked of a day. this helped them better predict how much time was left.

I have a bunch of books about Kindergarten, my favorite being Ms. Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten. I would read this book in circle time a lot, and created an activity to go with it.

I would have a child's backpack and a teacher's bag, and I would have a bunch of stuff that a child or Ms Bindergarten would use to get ready for school- i.e toothbrushes crayons markers, ABC strips. And had each child pick one and decide which bag it belonged to. We would pack the bags.

I also had a activity called a "bubble race" in which I taught good hand washing skills. This was important for healthy hygiene in kindergarten because the teachers might not be able to help as much as we did. The idea was to do every step correctly 3 days in a row. When they did they got a bubble race award I made up on the computer.

That's just a few ideas from my arsenal, but if you have some of your own leave them in the comments section.

The main idea is just prepare these beautiful kids for the adventure they are beginning.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Preschool Lesson plans at home

Last year I tried to do a co-op preschool with friends that didn't work out. But now I am going to try to do it with my daughter at home.
Right now we are talking about bugs because she is fascinated, and along with that the letter B.

We do calendar time, weather,, and now we do a form of circle time (My daughter initiated it). Yesterday we had 2 stuffed monkeys, and 3 baby dolls in circle with us. She really is enjoying it!

I thought I would post a few ideas about creating a classroom in the home and adapting preschool lesson plans for home.

  1. Find a corner in the kitchen, playroom Etc. to create a place to color, write, glue, paint, and of course learn!
  2. Don't spend a lot! I bought all my stuff for the "School" at the Dollar Tree. They have a lot of teaching materials for, of course, $1.
  3. Don't think it has to be an all day thing. It only has to be a hour or two. Then you can get back to the laundry!
Here are some pictures of how I did it-

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

File Folder Games in Preschool Lesson Plans

Hi,
I have gotten busy over the last months and haven't blogged. I am going to try to keep it up this time. I have a lot of great ideas and really want to share them.

Also, if you have read my preschool co-op blog you know I TRIED to do a co-op with my friends that didn't work out. But this year, I am going to do it with just my daughter at my house. I have a corner in my kitchen set up as our "school". She really needs to be academically challenged more, and because of health issues we aren't ready to let her go to preschool yet..... So teacher- mom to the rescue!

We had our first "lesson" today. We talked about bugs, the letter B, and of course, butterflies. We colored a butterfly, and made a stamping picture of bugs.

I am just trying to get her used to the idea.

So, please join me again for this little adventure, and my many other ideas in child development and preschool lesson plans.