Please see our affiliate disclosure here. We have children ages 3-years to 5-years old in our classroom. Often, I get asked how we meet the needs of the children that vary in chronological and developmental age. One way we do this is by using Experience Preschool Curriculum that provides us with weekly Teacher Guides and lesson plans. Each day there is a suggested small group literacy and tabletop math activity and a Science STEAM station. The second way is how we schedule our day and customize the curriculum to fit our needs. Above, a student working with the Tangrams and pattern cards included in this month's Friends and Feelings theme kit. School Readiness Skills: MR5 Patterns and SED 4 Social Relationships. A side note, in each monthly kit, we receive most of the materials for the art projects and tools for literacy, math, and science. These tools are ours to keep and use again in the future. We have an AM and PM Skill Time scheduled each day. Mrs. P. has one group of children (typically the younger, but not always the case). I have children who are going into kindergarten the following year. We will then use the suggested small group or tabletop activity in the teacher guide. Sometimes we repeat an activity from a previous lesson if we feel some children could benefit from more practice. I use a blank teacher planner to write in the title of activity and page number from the teacher guide provided in our kit. You can read another post on how I customize the curriculum, here. I modeled how to create simple patterns to my group and then had them work in pairs to create a pattern to share with me. I walked the students through their pattern if it wasn't quite correct, asking engaging questions and having them work through it again. We then celebrate the hard work of the teams!
I hope you enjoyed seeing how we customize Experience Preschool Curriculum to meet the needs of our mixed-age preschool classroom.
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Please see our affiliate disclosure here. Here, we highlight a few language and literacy lessons embedded in our preschool curriculum from Experience Curriculum. This month, we are learning our way through the monthly theme of Friends and Feelings. Why themes? Learning is rich and meaningful when we explore related topics for an entire month. Children can build on previous skills, all in the context of a theme. My Feelings Book Our curriculum provides us with weekly teacher guides and suggestions on how to carry out the lesson plans. I have become adept at using the materials to fit our program. For example, a literacy lesson was used as one of our arrival activities. After children put away their belongings and wash their hands, they join me in the literacy area to work on a project before choosing where to play in the room. Writing Center One of the centers children can work and play in is the Writing Center. We receive word cards in our monthly curriculum kit. and display them in the writing center. The children can use the English or Spanish side of the card and are encouraged to copy the word on a strip of paper and add an illustration if desired. Skill Time Twice a day, we break into skill time groups to work on school readiness skills. During the Letter Community activity, we worked as a group to create letter posters for our word wall. Children rolled the cube, said the letter and its sound, then wrote that letter on the appropriate poster. I was then able to assess the following skills: LLD 7 writing and SCI 1 Investigation and Inquiry. We use this information to influence future lesson plans. Would You Rather? In this activity, I posed the question, "Would you rather play with stuffed animals or blocks?" I held up name cards, and once the child identified their name, they used them to vote for their choice. It became a math activity as well when we discovered which group had more and which had less. Skills assessed: SED 1 Self-Awareness, MR 1 Number Sense, LLD 1 Listening If you would like to explore this curriculum for your preschool, child care center or homeschool student, please visit their website: https://www.mothergoosetime.com/
It is one of my favorite times of the year. Back-to-School time! I love a fresh start, and back-to-school time provides just that. The curriculum that we use makes it easy to prepare for the first week and beyond. Let me walk you through our room. Our enrollment DOUBLED from last year! God is amazing. Not only did he bring us through COVID-19 scares, regulations, virtual learning-hybrid learning, and so on, he helped us THRIVE and double in size. Wow. This summer, two members of our Parish volunteered to paint our classroom. They are not retired, either. They have careers and a growing family. We are so very thankful that they shared their time and talents with us. To prepare for painting, we had to move everything to the center of the classroom. Then our carpets were steam cleaned, so that meant we had to relocate everything to the linoleum. With a fresh "new" classroom on the horizon, I began to think of how we would work, play, sleep and eat in this space, especially since we had twice the amount of students we had last year. I also thought about what bugged me about last year's classroom design. Children meet in this area upon arrival for a table activity (usually handwriting), then the Pre-K group meets here for skill time in the morning and afternoon. The Preschool group meets across the room. There are eight language and literacy skills and 14 goals; embedded in the curriculum. Experience Curriculum provides the lessons, materials, and assessment tools for us each month, so no more lesson planning on the weekends! Experience Early Learning is influenced by the best educational philosophies in the world, one of which is Reggio Emilia. Our art experiences very much reflect the Reggio way of inviting children to the art table and the process that ensues from there. Watch for a post of this soon! I prefer to sort our materials according to color in glass jars as I have done in the past, "COVID" requirements have changed that. The children are learning responsibility and name recognition (not just their own!), so not all bad has resulted from the change. Most of our furniture is pushed against the wall this year, and it seemed to work during the first week of school. Our science, nature, and health area are in one section, leading up to the teacher chair and concept wall. Children had more space to make their own on the carpet, and we could spread out for dancing and singing during Circle Time. I cannot wait to highlight our STEAM stations in future posts! Experience Early Learning provides a source of deep, meaningful learning, across all domains. We alternate movement and sitting down activities at Circle Time to increase the oxygen flow to the brain and lengthen attention spans. The block area is on the same carpet area as many other centers. The new classroom layout has allowed children to spread out and play on the floor without being too crowded. The newer organization of this area has made it easy for the children to use. It flows nicely into our "Jesus Time" area also. We listen to Bible stories, sing Christian songs as we gather around the crucifix and fireplace. Our monthly curriculum arrives separated into a Teacher Bag, Circle Time bag, and daily lessons. We place the lesson bags into the labeled drawers, post the weekly lesson plan and monthly curriculum map and hang up our new concept posters. I hope you liked this quick classroom tour! Watch for more posts on specific themes and activities.
Resources: Paint: Inspired by Magnolia Paint (It is Well) Learning posters: Experience Early Learning Decorations: Schoolgirl Style's Woodland Whimsy Hobby Lobby: backgrounds, lanterns Dollar Tree: Butterflies, tissue poms |
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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