I am often asked about a preschool program,or even just asked to teach my DK's their abc etc.... and now have invested in some simple learning tools. I am not a teacher (obviously) and am finding it really hard to "teach" abcs, numbers, days of the week, seasons, weather etc.
How do you use themes in your day? If you have a learning time how do you present it to children 2+ age groups?
We all sit down and sing a welcome song (for the longest time it was just me singing, lol). Then we talk about what day it is (put up sign), what the weather is like (put up sign), what our colour is (find other things of same colour in room), what our shape is (find some in room), and what our number is (count with fingers). Then we sing another song. We sing songs to learn the days of the week, the alphabet, manners, and many other things. I have a piano and a guitar in our playroom.
Then we usually do a worksheet or colouring sheet to do with our colour, shape, number or theme.
First I think you need to decide what you mean when you say preschool and programming. It can mean having everyone sit down in circle or at a table and go through a series of academic activities. It can also mean setting up the playroom so that there are centres or activities based on the academic skill available to the children. It means some one on one teaching which usually then leads into another child showing interest and joining the two of you. Taking advantage of these teachable moments can be more beneficial because they are built around when the children show their interest. It isn't always about what the children actually learn in terms of information they can give back but that they learn to love learning. The role as the teacher then is to find the resources to place in the room to accomplish the learning goals they have set. This could be things like setting out a cookie sheet and magntic alphabet letters, putting some dinosaur figures on the feltboard, putting a few books in a small bin but have several on the topic/theme you would like to introduce. One of the things I really don't like is when the "teacher" chooses a theme and then makes over the entire room to reflect the theme. What happens if the kids aren't as into the theme as the teacher and would rather do something else? It is also limiting in the sense that it only happens for a few days per year. Children in the 18 m to 3 y age range are changing way too fast. They need to experience the same "themes" over and over every few months as they have new skills to use in the learning. I think because we use some terms such as preschool and early childhood to mean different age ranges in different contexts it is hard to know what is developmentally acceptable for each age of child.
I agree that teachable moments are where the children will draw the most benefit from! I was homeschooled as a child and my parents followed that same philosophy.
i usually teach my 6 yers old boy the abc and how to read some basic words like mom dad food milk..
Currently, I have 3 two year olds (one is mine) and a 4 year old (as well as 2 one year olds). I have a letter and colour of the week...last week of the month is a review of all we've done. For example, this week it's 'O' and the colour of the week is Orange. I do have circle time, but honestly it's hit or miss with my 2 year olds and I don't force them to sit through it. At that time we talk about the weather (I have a magnetic felt figure that we dress for outside) and then read a story (this often turns into a couple stories), sing a song etc. About 1/2 way through I have them get their fidgets out by running and grabbing a toy in that colour and bringing it back or running and pointing to something that colour. Otherwise, I have a clothesline that goes the length of our playroom and at the start of the week I have filled it with Orange letter O's (or whatever the letter/colour may be). On Fridays, they get to pick one and we glue random things on them (googly eyes, stickers, Pom poms)...then I glue a magnet on the back (you can get sheets of magnets at the $store, I just cut them) and voila a take home letter that they can practice with at home! I also encourage them to bring something from home that exhibits that colour/letter...they love that too! We also make up books (from $store: Page protectors and those tabbed project folders) of magazine clippings (cut and paste skills) in a certain colour (Red book, Blue book etc.). The kids are pulling those books out all the time and just sitting and looking through them. Also, I pull each aside individual and quiz them with a gummy bear as a reward ( even the 1 year olds; they can point to the colour I ask!). I could go on forever. Oh and also, I keep what I call a binder with sections for each which has milestone and J/K readiness checklists in it. I review this weekly and send (email) a monthly progress report to each parent (nothing long or detailed, just simply what they have mastered). Whew...long post...sorry!
When we are walking outside I'm playing I spy with them to teach colours or I spy a fire hydrant or flag, or purple flowers, and so on. When we pass a police car or other vehicle that interests the children we stop to examine it and we smell the flower gardens and feed the birds, it's all teaching.
I came up with a process where I start with A & #1 the first week of Jan. and get to Z & #20 by the end of Aug. to help prepare the children going to JK but if I have all little ones in care I make it simpler than that. But I love to have themes because I like to get books at the library to match my theme every week and google craft and game and song ideas for the theme.
I have a frog on the wall that we dress according to the weather with clothing and put up sun or clouds. I also have days of the week songs and other similar songs and use flashcards and games to practice letters, numbers, shapes & colours. If they are paying attention to you they are learning. If they are just playing they are also learning how to be a friend and share and co-operate and imagine. Sometimes I think we stress too much, but if we are providing a good variety of toys and textures and materials, especially while crafting then we are teaching.
With all the themes I go over in the 3 years the children are here with me I feel like I've planted many, many little seeds in their brains that they can use when they are at school.
I do not do 'themes' with my crew aside from 'seasonal and cultural celebrations' like Halloween or Christmas and so forth my program is emergent ... my job is to set the stage for learning with the environment and theirs is to choose how to use the materials in the program to meet their learning needs on their own agenda - I observe and listen and offer 'teachable moments' through their play to scafold learning and take their thinking deeper.
I find LEARNING is everywhere in life NATURALLY without planning ... just this morning at the park my 3 year old and 6 year old had an AMAZING science, math and social skills lesson all on their own with little help from me ... they were collecting rocks at the park and began a discussion about whose rock was 'bigger' and I posed the question 'hmmm wonder how we could wiegh them at the park to find out' and the 6 year old remembering how the science of a teeter tater works decided they could each place their rock on the teeter tater to see which one 'dropped' and that would be the larger rock .... they balanced even Steven so next they took their lesson to each choosing another 'rock' from their collection until one weighed more and it continued from there - they played for almost 30 minutes at this task before the park got busy and their attention went elsewhere .... but my point was that was a more meaningful and likely longer lasting lesson on 'more and less', prediction, creating hypothesis, trial and error and so forth than I ever could have PLANNED for them ;)
I attended an amazing conference this past weekend about PLAY and childhood and how to find a curriculum through PLAY BASED learning ... here is his website if you ever get a chance to hear him in your home town GO he is inspiring and amazing speaker!
http://www.jeudenfant.ca/workshop/de...lang=en&page=2
One of the basis of discussion was him asking us to think back to the most meaningful and memorable times in our own childhood .... we listed them on papers and he 'read them off' .... and then he asked 'hey were they THEME RELATED memories of school" nope they were all natural learning through free play with peers often with NO ADULT present ;) Were they memories of sitting with your peers making little ducks where you add fuzzy cotton balls and when you look up on the wall everyone's basically looks identical? Nope most were finger painting in WATER after a rain outside or exploring in MUD outside and so forth?
Memories of curling up with a book on the couch, memories of building forts and hide outs, playing at the park for HOURS and coming home when the street lights came on, memories of LOTS of time outside and so forth!
If we think back at the evolution of MAN ... we were raised the most INNOVATIVE CREATIVE MINDS without THEMES, without WORKSHEETS in daycare, without PLANNING their day out the wazoo ... because children of that era were allowed to PLAY ... to think creatively, to problem solve and explore, to take risks and learn from mistakes and so forth ... they developed the skills to LEARN for themselves ... they did not have people spoon feeding them flashcards to master their ABC, 123 and so forth and teach them that rather than LEARN to just regurgitate the information that the adult threw out them ... and my sister is a Professor at the University level and she will tell you that her favorite students are the HOME SCHOOLED ones where parents have chosen to keep their kids out of the 'acedemic / testing style' curriculums were there is only ONE answer to things the 'textbooks' ... because textbooks can be WRONG textbooks can be OUTDATED and if we do not think creatively about NEW ANSWERS to life's OLD QUESTIONS we will stop growing as a society!
We need to take back CHILDHOOD for children and allow them to be CHILDREN AND TO PLAY cause that IS their CURRICULUM .... and if you watch carefully you will see it is FULL of the mastering of skills and if we ADD resources to their PLAY to help ensure they are mastering new things and concepts you will be AMAZED at how smart and competent learners they will become ;)
Now don't get me wrong ... I do love my 'circle time' however I stopped PLANNING it ... I have a collection of books, puppets, finger puppets and felt board stories in a big box and after snack in the afternoon we bring out this big box and each child gets to pick something out of it to 'share' with the group ... so some days we read 5 books and other days it is fall finger puppet songs and other days it is all felt boards or a mixture depending on their 'choice' ... but it is more meaningful to them, they REQUEST it because it is authentically theirs ... on inclement weather days we might sit for an hour or more getting multiple choices to pick ;)
We also do some 'crafts' during seasonal celebrations however mostly our creative art is open ended exploration of mediums as children create representation of things of interest to them.
I love everything you have said "Inspired by Reggio". I do not have a program. I think daily activities are a learning experience. I often have parents ask about programs...even for babies. What about just being a kid!
Ya - I get that pressure to for the 'product orientated' crafts even with babies ... I remember once as a new grad in a centre we had to do 'crafts' in the infant room and at the time the mat leave was SIX WEEKS so here were these parents of six week old babies expecting 'crafts' coming home and a Boss in the office expecting them to be hung on the wall and so forth ... it seemed well so WRONG to force little babies hand over hand to be gluing and coloring and so forth :rolleyes:Quote:
Originally Posted by mom2crazyboys
We often got into the habit of just 'doing' the little arts with the oldest infants who were ready for toddler room and they would do 2 or 3 but we would write the other babies names on them so that every 'infant' in the program be they 6 weeks old or 6 months or 16 months had one to go home .... well this one new mom was SO EXCITED to find this little airplane with cottonballs glued on it for 'clouds' as part of our transportation theme ... her sons first ART she went to Michaels and paid $100 to get it custom framed in one of those shadow boxes .... and he was SLEEPING when we did art so he did not even do it :(
Seriously how embarrasing to have to stand there as this poor mother proud as punch about her child's 'master piece' at 6 weeks of age ... it just feel so WRONG to me that the early childhood education field was toting this as normal practice to expect INFANTS to do theme based crafts .... thankfully 20 years later and MOST programs have learned that infants are more sensory learners and so tray of cotton balls or pom poms to explore with is more appropriate and meaningful than making them glue them on an airplane....they do not NEED a product cause they are all about the process ;)
I do have a 'program' it is just play based and emergent learning program ... it is rich in math, literacy, science, social skills, physical mastery and so forth offered through the environment and 'invitations' I might set out in the environment ... for parents who need help 'seeing' the learning in that I do documentation with photos and quotes and so forth to show how their child is master new skills and learning through their play!
For anyone looking for LOTS of awesome ideas on play based learning in a HOME setting MULTIPLE age groups this blog ROCKS with ideas ... :wub:
http://playathomemom3.blogspot.ca/