Disclosure: St. Mary Preschool receives curriculum from Experience Early Learning each month in exchange for blogging about our honest and unique experiences using these materials. One of my favorite "tools" or components of the Mother Goose Time curriculum is the Teacher Guide. Early in my career, I spent hours writing lesson plans and preparing activities for the next week. I pulled ideas from this place and that and then carefully wrote the skills and goals for each activity. Despite my best efforts, I did not have a scope and sequence to the skills being taught, it was merely based on isolated goals. I did not know about "scaffolding" with children back then and even though I know the children learned things in my care, my lesson plans lacked a cohesive flow. Now, I have my evenings and weekends back and even more importantly, I can feel confident that the children will learn appropriate skills in the correct order. In one glance, I can see the day's activities across two pages. Beginning with an opening Circle Time and Community Challenge, leading to a Make and Play or Creative art experience, then on to two table top activities, a STEAM station, an activity related to one of the suggested books and finally, a closing Circle Time. Because Mother Goose Time believes that learning is a process of inquiry and investigation, you will find that the activities have 3 main components: Discuss, Explore and Play. Below you will see how these prompts led our students on to an exciting path of learning. The Learning Process: Transferring Water Transferring Water was one of the Investigation Station activities featured in the teacher guide. Discuss: What do you think might happen when I add the drops of food coloring to the water? Should I add more? How do you think we can get the water from this cup to the empty one next to it? Explore: Have you ever used a dropper before? Let's practice squeezing the top of the dropper, then letting go. Play: Let's squeeze the top of the dropper then place it in the water. What is happening to the water when you stop pinching the top? I wonder if you can squirt the water from the dropper to the empty cup? The Learning Process: Shadows One of our past Make and Play activities were shadow puppets. Children made a simple bear puppet that they played with for most of the morning. Discuss: Have you ever seen a shadow before? (This led to a very lively discussion of shadows in their room at night and things that scare them, so the actual playing with shadows was therapeutic for some). Explore: I will shine this flashlight on the wall and place my hand in front of the light. What do you see? Do you want to try? What else could you place in front of the light? Play: Let's place our stick puppets in front of the light? Now what do you see? Could you tell a story with your bears? Allow children to observe this process of others. This is a form of learning for many children. However, sometimes it can get a bit crowded. If we have too many children at the table that want to observe, we will make a list of interested children so they can see when it will be their turn. Once a child receives their turn, they are allowed enough time to really explore and play with the materials. If we run out of time available for all children who have expressed an interest to have a turn, then we will offer the activity again later the same day. These are just two of many activities that have engaged the mind, body and heart of our little people. I hope you feel empowered to create an equally inviting learning environment. Best, Sheila
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Disclosure: St. Mary Preschool receives curriculum from Experience Early Learning each month in exchange for blogging about our honest and unique experiences using these materials. Predictable Schedule and Routines When our students arrive to school, they find the clothespin with their name and clip it to a job. Once their job is chosen, the three year-old children are able to choose from the many investigation stations that are set up around the room. The children who are four years-old meet me at the writing center to do a morning project. The project is designed to help prepare them for kindergarten. It is brief in nature at the beginning of the school year and always relates specifically to each child. For example, we begin by tracing our names on the name cards that are included in our Mother Goose Time curriculum (Check out this company here: www.mothergoosetime.com), then progress to longer, more difficult projects as the year goes on. As soon as the child is done with their project, they too may choose to work at one of the various investigation stations. Uninterrupted work time At St. Mary Preschool, we respect the child's play as their "work." We provide at least 50 minutes to an hour of uninterrupted play time, twice a day. This allows children time to choose where they want to work, make a plan and carry it out. Another reason we plan for uninterrupted work time is because of the complex social situations that arise when you place a group of preschoolers together in one room. It is not natural for preschool children to share toys, materials and ideas. Language, large and small muscles and impulse control are still developing, so patient and caring adults are needed to help them navigate the situations that arise. The following can be happening simultaneously: A block structure is suddenly knocked-down by someone passing through the block area, two children want the same toy, paint is dripping from the easel and a child in the bathroom is calling for help. Expecting children to carry out ideas in 30 minutes is not realistic or respectful in our opinion. Visual Schedule Hanging a visual schedule at child level can be helpful for those kiddos who are anxious and want to know what is happening next. You can move a clip from activity to activity, showing children the order of the day, which is actually setting the stage for math concepts such as seriation. You can see a glimpse of the schedule cards (that our curriculum company provides at no extra cost) behind the birthday girl below. We learned the hard way, that it would be best to hang the schedule just a bit higher and in a different location because our students like to rearrange the cards. I will provide our daily schedule at the bottom of this post as the one in the photo does not adequately reflect our day. Investigation Stations At the end of each school day, we set up the classroom for the next day. It is a wonderful feeling as a teacher to walk in to a classroom that is ready and organized. A few tasks such as filling water bottles with fresh water or setting out paint, must be done in the morning; however everything else is all set to go. Children arrive to many different choices instead of a harried teacher, trying to find materials. Here are a few examples of investigation stations that have been set up in our room in the past: Cohesive Curriculum
Our curriculum comes with a teacher guide for each week and includes lesson plans for circle time, a community challenge, a STEAM station idea for each day (one of which includes an outdoor activity), 2 table top learning activities, a creative art or make and play activity and a closing circle time. Each week 2 books are suggested along with activities that increase print awareness and critical thinking skills. Skill Time The table top learning activities from the teacher's guide quite often become a skill time activity. The preschool children (three year-olds) work with the same teacher each day during skill time. The pre-k children (four year-olds) work with their teacher in a different part of the room. The teachers record observations from these activities using the Child Folio app. Parents are able to view their child's secure page on the app and learning is visible and documented throughout the year. I hope you have enjoyed a glance into our day at St. Mary Preschool. Wishing you the best, Sheila Resources: Our daily schedule (without actual times) Arrival: Children choose job Investigation stations open. Preschool children choose an investigation station to work at. Pre-K children do morning work at table, then choose an investigation station to work at. Open snack (children serve themselves snack as they are hungry). Circle Time Skill Time groups meet (Preschool children in one group with their teacher and Pre-K in another group with their teacher) Playground Lunch Jesus Time Rest Time Open Snack (children serve themselves snack as they are hungry) Open investigation stations Skill Time Playground End of day Preschool Curriculum:www.mothergoosetime.com Observation and Assessment App: childfolio.com |
AuthorSheila Anderson has over 25 years experience in the Early Childhood Field and still loves going to "school" everyday. Archives
January 2022
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