Rocket Ship

We did a space unit for a couple weeks and I wanted to create some sort of visual that help stimulate creative thought, so I hit the internet; taking different ideas from Pinterest I decided to create our own rocket. I took white butcher paper and painted it red, blue, and yellow for the different elements and then I sized them to the entry-way and taped it to the wall. When I first did it I had not added the flames or "USA" and lots of people thought it was a house (I couldn't have that) so I added flames using orange construction paper and "USA" with red construction paper and it was instantly more recognized as a rocket. The kids loved it! They used it during play time and we also did little skits within our class groups to present for everyone else and they loved that too! They really loved it and it helped me feel artsy fartsy.   :)

Meal Manners

I don't know about you, but we seem to have quite a bit of troubles (sometimes) controlling and promoting proper table manners. So I compiled a short list of basic manners that should be observed by even the youngest of my students. While this poster didn't magically fix all our problems, it did help provide the visual that many of our students need. Often times we till take a few minutes during meals to review the poster just as a simple reminder. It took some work to find all the images online, print them, colour them, paste them above the letters that I tried to so neatly write, and then I used contact paper over the whole thing to help ensure longevity. 

Anti-Tattling

Working in an all day preschool with sixteen 3-5 year olds can be tough, especially when it comes to the topic of tattling on friends, in our efforts to fight this behaviour we tried to encourage our children to tell us when they saw their friends doing especially good things. I believe it was a great idea, however, it didn't work as well as we had hoped it would. The children would often say things along the lines of, "Suzie and I played together and she's my best friend" etc., which is great and all, but we were trying to encourage things like, "I saw Jonny share his toy with Luke because he didn't bring one to school today" etc. We even tried giving the children examples and recording the things that we saw through-out the day, but it never really caught on and we moved on to different means of encouraging positive behaviour and not tattling.

Hi

Hello, I figured my first post should be one of introduction, I have attempted starting blogs before, but I never really had a great direction that I was leaning toward; but now I do. I am currently a preschool teacher and an in-charge for a private preschool home with 16 adorable and intelligent students. I am with these children 6-10 hours a day and help them navigate all areas of learning that 3-5 year olds need. I love to be as hands-on as possible while still maintaining the ability to send home classwork with students so that parents can also see what they are learning and achieving while at school. I am a big fan of art (though I'm not verry gifted in artistic abilities) and technology in the classroom as well as taking the classroom outside where there is even more to learn and discover. I also rely heavily on books for a fun way to learn, I think it is vital to incorporate books and reading at the youngest of ages. I am also a seller on TeachersPayTeachers and sometimes I will show images of worksheets or other items that I will have up on my store.

I have worked with children all my life; as far as teaching goes, I have worked with children from infancy to 5th grade. Having formally taught children pre-k through 5th (skipping 3rd graders) in a classroom setting. I love children, always have and always will. some say that working with kids as much as I do every day that I must be on the best birth control ever, and in all honesty, I'm not. I eagerly look forward to the day that I can raise my own children with my husband and my two dogs. Being 24 and married not quite 2 years I have plenty of time to look forward to those days, because once it comes life will be a whirlwind.