KidsbCool Preschool Crafts Songs Games Part 2

IN THE BEGINING...

First Week Of School

For the first week of school ( or two depending on the children)
you want to keep things simple. Start out with just a few things in each area
so it does not overwhelm the kids.
They have enough to deal with in a new school with new people.

BULLETIN BOARDS

Background Yellow... Outline green rolling hills on butcher paper. Paint in a few trees. Find cut outs of school buses and place buses going to a cutout of a little school.

Background White... Line another bulletin board with blank white paper and at eye level with the children. Tell them this is their bulletin board and they will be decorating it later when everyone gets settled. When later comes around (sooner than you think) give the child that asks to decorate it some markers and show them how to color on just their board. Clip a clothes pen on their shirt and have them give it, the pens and the rules to someone else who has NOT had a turn yet when they are finished. They will give the pen up soon just to tell the next child the rules which will give everyone a turn with the least amount of intervention from you, the teacher. This is a good way to encourage communication between the students.

SCIENCE TABLE

Keep it simple

A magnifier.

A bees eye (little toys that let's you see what the bees do.)

A small bowl of leaves.

An empty fish tank. (trust me)

ART/FINE MOTOR

Have the first day with just colored markers and paper. Use some of these other ideas the rest of the week.

Easel paint with big fat brushes using only one color the first time. I like red to start with. They usually know this one.

Finger paint with blue.

Use animal stamps and washable ink pads with strips torn from a cash register role of paper.

I grab all the toy magazines that come from sales people to our school. Let the kids use scissors (supervised) to begin learning cutting skills. You will be surprised at the children who have never been allowed or could afford a pair of kid safe scissors. Supervise closley any cutting the first few weeks as there is always that one child who will cut either their own or someone elses hair. This makes mad mama's! :}

Use chalk on small chalk boards.

Use big fat crayons on a choice of different colored paper.

Notice all of these things are simple with very little instruction needed. You want to spend your time getting to know the kids and letting them get use to you.

CIRCLE TIME

Don't expect a 3 to 5 year old to sit longer than 5 minutes the first time or the first few months. Show each part of the room-I have a Music Center... Book Area...Housekeeping...Blocks...Art table...Table Toys. That leaves two areas where they have room to run. Don't let that happen! Fill your blank spaces with another activity. We have a water table, a bean table and a play carpentry toy.(Little Tykes) I have a circle(large) right in the middle of the room. Hence Circle Time when we meet. Use colored duct tape. Stays all year! Next day go over the rules of the room. I have one rule.

Nobody can do anything that might hurt anyone.

That covers it all! Then you spend the next month(or two)showing kids how running in the room, throwing objects, biting...etc..could hurt someone.

Gather your children to the circle with song.
It works much better than just saying it's circle time.

Put a small mirror in a brown paper bag. Tell the kids someone special is in the bag.
Let each child take a peek but tell them not to tell. When you go around the whole circle ask the kids who they saw!
Read a book about the first day of school. Make it short and sweet.
Use a hand puppet. Tell the kids (mine is shy wolf) that the puppet is shy so could they tell it their names. Ham it up with the puppet!
Have the puppet ask your name too. Would a kiss or hug make that puppet feel better at a new place? YES!
Introduce the kids to Mr. Mop and Ms. Broom! Let them know if they need to clean up where they can find them. By the middle of the year you will have very little clean up at the end of the day. Keep regular size and child size in the room.
Oh Yes! The fish tank! Spend one day looking at pictures of fish and pet stores. Make a small area of the room a pet store with toy pets for sell. Then take a trip to the pet store! (Not recommended until the second or third week) Keep a fake fish in there until your kids are ready. Bring home your fish and write everyones pick for names down. Have someone blind folded to pick out THE name.

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