Modeling Clay Products - There are many types of modeling clay available for children. Some are oil based and never dry out, others air dry and some are meant to be baked in an oven until they harden. Some types of modeling clays are better for fine, detailed work than others. Note that some brands of modeling clay stain and will not come out of carpets if ground in. For best results, use all ... continue reading...
KIDS MODELING CLAY
As children explore and play with kids modeling clay, they discover how to make basic forms, develop hand-brain coordination, agility and fine motor skills. Using modeling clay gives children many opportunities to be creative and can also result in longer attention spans. As well as being a calming activity for children, playing with products such as Plastercine™ and Playdoh™, helps kids ... continue reading...
EFFECTIVE KINDERGARTEN TEACHING
Implementing the following ideas leads to more effective kindergarten teaching. Children have a natural curiosity about their environment and teaching them with an approach that hooks into this desire to learn, as well as increasing their understanding of a topic, and their ability to read, write, and reason equals success. When the students' interests are kindled, they enjoy spending time ... continue reading...
HOMESCHOOL PRESCHOOL CURRICULUM
There's a lot to consider when buying a kindergarten or preschool curriculum. What's included in the kit, what is a typical day like, what will my children learn, will I receive any support are all questions that you may be thinking about. Some will be wondering if it is necessary to buy a homeschool preschool curriculum (or kindergarten curriculum)? Questions such as, what do I need to teach ... continue reading...
BEST TEACHING METHODS
Keep motivation intrinsic Young children are generally motivated to learn about everything. Unless they have been made fun of regularly, when investigating or presenting their knowledge, they usually have a strong desire to find out and share information. One of the best teaching methods is to motivate children by modeling enthusiasm and curiosity. Motivation comes from within (intrinsic) and ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN TEACHING
A kindergarten teaching career is rewarding and enjoyable and when you understand how young children learn, you'll have more successful results. Imagine young children peeking under rocks at the beach. They're curious, exploring, experimenting, discovering, touching, asking questions, and motivated to learn. To them it’s all play, they don't need adults praising them for their efforts, it's ... continue reading...
LITERATURE BASED EASTER CRAFT
Combine scraps of construction paper, a child's imagination and inspiration from the "Runaway Bunny" by Margaret Wise Brown and watch kids create unique literature based Easter crafts. It's easy to think children need photocopied type crafts but the one below with the pop up bunny was designed by a five-year old. Instead of always providing your students with ready made worksheets for ... continue reading...
RECYCLING FOR KIDS - 2
Recording recycling experiences A "Recycling for Kids", investigation offers many opportunities for young children to record their experiences and observations. After taking a week or two sorting, counting and weighing classroom recycling and trash (read post here...), students may want to complete the following activities. Hopefully your students have a compost to investigate at the school or ... continue reading...
BECOMING A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER
Every child wants to be accepted, appreciated, spoken to in a polite, respectful manner and wants to feel that he or she is a capable person. If you can foster confidence in children, you're well on your way to becoming a kindergarten teacher. Visit kindergarten classrooms as often as you can to see if the reality of this job is really what you imagine. Be prepared to spend time helping with ... continue reading...
TIDEPOOL CRAFT
Primary students love this mini tidepool craft. A sturdy paper plate creates the base. Another sturdy or lighter weight paper plate with the center cut out and a cellophane window added, creates the effect of peeking through the water. To help students learn the names and characteristics of each tidepool animal, use the name often as you go through the step-by-step modeling instructions. The ... continue reading...
PICTURE BOOK DVDS FOR KIDS
If you're looking for DVDs to enhance your literacy program, animated picture book DVDs for kids are a great choice. They have a much slower pace and energy than many other DVDs, a benefit if you are trying to maintain a calm learning environment. I don't recommend using these as a substitute for reading classic picture books to children but they're great if you have already read the books or ... continue reading...
ONLINE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION DEGREE
There are advantages to getting an online elementary education degree, one of them being that you can keep your current job while you work towards your degree. Getting an online degree may work for you if you work and do not have time to attend school full time, if you can't afford to move to another area and pay for room and board, if you don't have time to commute, work and attend school or ... continue reading...
LEARN TO APPRECIATE PARENTS
In your efforts to become a successful teacher, it's key to appreciate parents and to learn to work them. Often new teachers feel nervous about having parents in the classroom but remember, the parents are nervous too. You'll probably have to guide them in their roles, to begin with. (see more on this below). Parent helpers are an invaluable resource, are enthusiastic and many will help with ... continue reading...
SCHOOL BULLETIN BOARD IDEAS
I remember gazing at my bulletin boards after a busy day of teaching a lively bunch of four and five-year olds and feeling guilty that the pictures on the faded construction paper background had been pinned there for more than a month. By three o'clock, I was pretty tired and spending another hour changing my bulletin boards was the last thing I felt like doing. Eventually, I learned the five ... continue reading...
CLASSROOM BULLETIN BOARDS
Classroom bulletin boards not only make the learning environment more interesting and colorful, they serve functions as well. Some give a great visual display of important information, others, such as ones displaying a shapes or a number poster, reinforce learning and review important concepts and skills. As well as displaying student artwork and seasonal decorations, use them: to let your ... continue reading...
6 WAYS TO HELP CHILDREN MAKE FRIENDS
Learning how to be a good friend involves body language skills, basic friendship skills such as offering to help or share, as well as conversational skills. These skills do not come easily to all children (or adults!). Kids need to learn the words to say to enter into a group of children already playing, to know how to invite others to play with them and to figure out how to settle problems ... continue reading...
COUNTING ACTIVITIES
A terrific way to introduce counting activities to the class is to read,1, 2, 3 to the Zoo by Eric Carle. His beautiful picture books have the qualities required for preschool and kindergarten children. In this story, brightly colored animals are riding on a train to their new homes at the zoo one elephant, two hippos, three giraffes, all the way up to ten birds. This story shows all the ... continue reading...
SUPPORT PARENTS
Help your student's parents or guardians feel supported by helping them recognize the important roles they play in modeling learning and thinking skills in their children. Show them how children learn with concrete materials by referring them to a sample math lesson with manipulatives. Keeping them informed of what is going on in the classroom with an easy to read calendar to post on the fridge ... continue reading...
APPLE THEMES - MORE MATH & LITERATURE CONNECTIONS
Investigating apples with an apple theme works well in late September and early October. Add to the math and literature connections found in the post, "Ten Apples Up on Top", with the great story, "Caps for Sale", by Esphyr Slobodkina. Caps for Sale is a folktale and subtitled, A Tale of a Peddler, Some Monkeys, and Their Monkey Business. Instead of balancing apples on top of his head like the ... continue reading...
APPLE THEME MATH
Apple theme math activities provide opportunities for students to practice the skills of sorting, sequencing, graphing, patterning and data recording. As always, introduce all new concepts with concrete materials and avoid giving the children piles of apple worksheets rather than giving them hands on experiences with 3-dimensional manipulatives when learning math. Apple Theme Math - ... continue reading...
TEACHING EARLY CHILDHOOD - PATTERN
When teaching early childhood students pattern activities, to begin with they have no concept of what you want them to do. They are familiar with patterns in time, such as snack time, play time, morning, bed time and night time. In their homes they may participate in creating patterns, such as knife, fork, knife, fork when setting the table for dinner. In her book, "Investigating ... continue reading...
TEACHING MEASUREMENT SKILLS
Teaching measurement skills using inquiry play-based activities with open investigations, explorations, and small group, guided instruction, are best for young children. Kids learn as they talk about and consider ideas from their immediate surroundings. As they observe you comparing different heights of towers of blocks to a classroom chair will spur them on to experiment on their ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN NUMBER ACTIVITIES
Include lots of time for children to play with and explore sets of numbers when planning kindergarten number activities. Although children may be able to count to 5, they may not know what "5" means. Number sense means that the child has an intuitive understanding of numbers. Some children enter kindergarten with an excellent number sense to the number 5. Another student's number sense may be ... continue reading...
LEARNING NUMBERS
Children begin learning numbers from everyday experiences. They hear numbers in conversations, nursery rhymes, songs, poems and picture books, they watch their parents print numbers and count out cookies for lunches. Poems and/or books such as, "10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" or "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I caught a fish alive", introduce children to the sounds of numbers. As children grow, ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN NUMBER SKILLS
Children as young as two years old are developing an intuitive sense of number. Although they may not know how to count and understand what the words mean, they may be able to recognize a group of two or three objects. As children get older, they can recognize more objects in a group and can picture the group of numbers in their minds. As they develop more number sense, they learn that it is ... continue reading...
TEACHING PATTERNS IN KINDERGARTEN
There are many opportunities throughout the day for teaching patterns in kindergarten. Children learn to recognize, create, copy and extend patterns through repeated daily activities. Integrating five-minute patterning activities into your daily schedule is not only fun for children, but also helps them to be aware of patterns in their daily surroundings. Any sets of shapes, numbers, letters ... continue reading...
MAGAZINES FOR KIDS
Magazines for kids are attractive and have colourful layouts and large images. Children's magazines help establish a lifelong love of books and provide opportunities for children to listen to short stories for 5 to 10 minutes, to encourage them to read, to solve problems and follow directions, to recognize letters and words and to practice reading. Children find the shorter stories, puzzles, ... continue reading...
CALDECOTT BOOK AWARDS
What are Caldecott awards? The Caldecott Medal book awards are presented annually by the Association for Library Service to Children, to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published that year. The award was named in honor of 19th century English illustrator Randolph Caldecott. There are now 2 runner up awards as well, since there are many beautifully ... continue reading...
TIDEPOOL CRAFT 3
Crabs usually have a thick exoskeleton and a single pair of claws. They are found in fresh and salt water and may be as tiny as a pea or up to 13 feet. They like to walk sideways and have a mixed diet of plants and animals. Other fun crab facts. Crabs communicate with each other by waving their pincers or drumming them. Crabs have 10 legs but the first two are pincers. A group of crabs is ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN SOCIAL STUDIES TOPICS
Teaching about the following four kindergarten social studies topics helps children become thoughtful, responsible, and active citizens, and helps them be able to see situations from other people's viewpoints. Students learn to identify a variety of roles and responsibilities in their environment as well as gaining an understanding of their roles as members of society. They are ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN SOCIAL STUDIES
Rather than teaching social studies skills in isolation, teach them as children participate in hands-on activities incorporating other areas of the curriculum. Social studies integrate well with art, literature, and drama. Social studies skills develop naturally through play, dramatizations, role-playing, field trips and through the study of hands-on themes. Most young children enjoy making ... continue reading...
KINDERGARTEN READINESS SURVIVAL SKILLS
Kindergarten readiness is not only about identifying numbers and letters. Although many children starting preschool or kindergarten can recite the alphabet, print numbers, and letters and count to 10, there are other skills necessary to survive in a classroom. A child who has had opportunities to be independent, to listen and follow basic directions, to solve problems, to lose games ... continue reading...
TIDEPOOL CRAFT 2
Teach about limpets and barnacles as your students make them out of modeling clay. The limpet has a one-piece shell that is like a pointy hat. It is a relative of the snail and has one big foot that it uses to stick to rocks. They move around at night grazing algae off of the rocks. The interesting thing about limpets is that they always go back to the same place after they finish eating. If ... continue reading...
VISITING TIDEPOOLS
Pre-trip planning: 1. Check the tide charts before setting a date. For the safety of the children it is important to choose a day and time with a very low tide. Tidepools are rocky pools on the shore which are filled with seawater and many of them only occur at low tides. Tides listed in minus feet are the lowest. When looking at a summer tide chart, remember to check to see if it is adjusted ... continue reading...
TIDEPOOL CRAFT 1
This post accompanies the tidepool craft here... Below find instructions to help students model a starfish and a sea anemone out of Modeling Magic™, Plasticine™ or a homemade modeling clay. There are many varieties of starfish with a great variety of legs and colors, so your students are sure to have fun with their creations. The common starfish usually has 5 legs. To make children more ... continue reading...
STARFISH FOR KIDS
Use the four free starfish for kids patterns below to make tracers for children's art. First, cut out the patterns and trace them on lightweight cardboard. Then cut out 2 or 3 of the four different starfish for classroom tracers. Children can arrange the tracers on their paper with a ball of tape to hold them steady, trace with a felt marker, color or paint their picture and embellish their ... continue reading...
TIDEPOOL BOOKS
Read your students tidepool books to help them understand how resilient organisms must be to survive life in a tidepool. Sea stars, mussels, anemones and other organisms cope with daily changes in temperatures, waves, currents, salinity, as well as predators. A few of the tidepool books below are out of print but can be purchased from Amazon.com or other online book sellers. I recommend ... continue reading...
TIDE POOLS
What are tide pools? Tide pools are rocky pools filled with seawater near oceans. They can be small, shallow puddles or huge, deep holes. These habitats are called tide pools and are filled with many plants and animals. Although this environment is complex, young children can focus on learning characteristics and names of a few tide pool animals and are fascinated by the variety of plants and ... continue reading...
TIDAL POOLS
What lives in tidal pools? Although tidal pools are complex environments, it is easy to focus children's attention on discovering and observing characteristics of a few tidepool animals and plants and their survival requirements. Start the unit with a collection of dead and dried shells, crabs, limpets, barnacles and other items that children can touch and examine. Tips for teaching about ... continue reading...
TIDAL POOLS - ZONES
What do I teach about tidal pools? Tidal pools form as the tide comes in and traps ocean water, plants and animals in crevices in the rocks or beach. Twice a day when the tide goes out and then in, pools of sea water are left in the rocky pockets along the shore. Tidal pools can be small, shallow puddles found high up on the shore or huge, deep pools nearer the sea. The animals and plants in ... continue reading...