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/
That is a great blog. Love the ideas. Think I might even include a few links like that in handouts I give to parents so that they can see there are other ways to do things out there with evidence they work besides the "traditional" letter of the week or theme week method.
Shhhh .... I still do Jolly Phonics in my program :o
However I do not do it as 'intended' by the manufacturer ... I do two letters a MONTH but introduce them in the order of the 'phonics' because that is how frequent those sounds are heard in our lives ... SATPIN and so forth verses ABC .... I do it where I set the environment to reinforce those letters over the course of the month with new foods or new songs or books and I do not do the 'worksheets' that come with the program instead we play other hands on ways to reinforce the literacy and prewriting component around those letters and letter sounds :o
Thanks Reggio! I am a new provider...only in it one year now and I have felt pressure to do themes, etc, but it just never seemed right for the care that I want to provide. You have said it so perfectly! Kids used to just be kids and play all day often without adults around. My fondest memories are of the hours upon hours I spent either alone or with my brother or friends playing on the beach (we lived on the ocean)...we used kelp to make pretend food or to play doctor and perform surgery or to make a slippery slide to slide on etc. I didn't start school until 6 as there was no kindergarten in the rural area I lived in. Once i started, I learned so fast that I did two grades in one year and jumped ahead...I loved learning! THAT is what I want for my kids and hte kids in my care. I could teach them their ABC's etc right now...my 22 month old knows some letters, but is it meaningful to a toddler or preschooler? Do they actually understand what letters are for or are they just reciting them by memory with no meaning attached? I think the latter. I want them to love books...to love learning...to be creative and think for themselves. They will have many years of being forced to sit and learn in school ( I was bored to tears once we moved from our small community and I was no longer allowed to learn at my own pace...I hated school, not because I was not smart, but because it was boring and meaningless most of the time). Oh, and Reggio, I am glad you mentioned about the crafts. I have many a time been dismayed at the crafts presented at playgroups for the "kids" to do. Most of the time the parents or caregivers have to do all or most of the work and then the kids take it home and present it as theirs. I have told parents that I do not want to have MY artwork and crafts hanging on their fridges, so my crafts are always simple and allow for creativity. If I child wants to colour a sun black instead of yellow or orange, who am I to say no? Today we coloured paper eggs with bingo dabbers...they were supposed to dab on the circles provided, but I certainly did not object when they dabbed all over front and back...they were having so much fun and mixing colours etc. I don't care what the finished product looks like...the point is they did it themselves and enjoyed doing it :)
One of the great things about living in Ontario is the government is currently doing its own big PUSH on the benefits of Play Based Learning with the new full day kindergarten programs ... there are lots of resources to help share with parents!
I got to hear Bill Tucker (Director of Education ) speak at a conference and teachers are even being retrained to not use THEMES that are planned out for the year but rather go with the 'emergent interests' of the group .... so hopefully this will eventually trickle down to parents soon as they see the value of learning coming out of the ELK programs who are using the proper 'new model' of curriculum.... and the better news is that the schools that ran the pilot programs for the 'play based learning' are seeing it bounce UP into grade one and two where teachers have less 'desk time' and more 'centres explorations' where kids can move around the room exploring at their own pace and learning styles and they are getting BETTER results with 'test scores' cause unfortunately we cannot get entirely away from that in the 'education system'!
I do the letters in order each month as in one per day and then the story I have picked is based on that letter. That is as much as we do with the alphabet for the age group I have. So on P day we might read a book about pigs or pickles or pancakes. And then do activities based on the book.
I do shapes and colours as part of my seasonal time.
Instead of a long circletime I do 3-4 per morning with each lasting about 5-10 minutes with a different topic/subject for each one. That way I cover seasons, themes of interest to the kids, science, and a topic of my choosing to introduce something new.
i thought i am rouge, since i do not follow any themes, but i realized most of you support play base learning - or simply put "let them be kids".
i've read the preschool curriculum, and gather tidbits which is useful in my PLAN. With pre-schoolers, most of the PLAN goes to trash, but thankfully here comes what we CAN.
There is routine in my care, there are learning centers, but the most important of all, I allow flexiblity. I develop active kids, healthy minds principle by pushing more physical activity.
I call my business Active Kids Daycare. My main component is fun + nature exploration. Depends on my group, I am very outing oriented; storytime at library, OEYC playgroups, NCC pathways and some adventures along the abandoned trained tracks.
Basically, numeracy is learned by counting your bean bags for bean bag toss.
Colors are learned through outdoor observation. Green leaves, brown bug, green caterpillar.
Days of the week are learned base on our outing theme:example: wednesdays are going to O-train day, friday associate with pajama day.
letters are learned by finger painting your names.
play dough is messy, home made measured by toddlers.
spring/summer is learned by working in my backyard garden.
they learn to raise their own veggies and harvest them, and taste them.
I have a fitness leader background, so i created a program for them, structured for around 45 minutes a day. simple standing on one foot, imitating animals and integrating to action songs. it is actually funny and comical. we also sing the OEYC songs at home. We love the action songs. You can integrate this in your programming - even without fitness background. Just listen to children songs, give them maraccas and voila, they are dancing.
I have yet to try my ZUMBA for kids, as I just finished my instructor training last week. it looks fun, but i think my 3 year old need more transition from our silly dance, to an actual structured 1 hour.
There are more observation needed and working around ---- what you can with them. i notice that kids remember what you teach them, when they have fun! So, i program around play and fun stuff.
My story time includes opening a big back felt board, and i sit on the couch. I bought the animal collection of felt story from CCPRN. The kids run my story time, and I sit with my coffee. They tell me about the pig that said, OINK. and they found bingo the dog - and they started singing BINGO! and they found ducks who said QUACk, and they stop for a while. They tell me they had fun this morning because we visit the duck pond. As one parent walk in, I ask her to grab a coffee/water from the kitchen and listen to story time.
Most of my story time is base on our outings in the morning block. If we have a day at the airport, I give them the airplane shapes.....and they will tell me about the planes they saw. the small ones, the big ones, the ones that fly..the one with the luggage. You have no idea how fun this story time is and i have been doing this for a long time. My youngest 2 year old, he talks about a garbage truck - regardless if our topic is airplane or library.
I agree with someone above - let them be kids and they will teach you a very valuable lesson in life.
Angie
I love this part of your post. But my themes are lots of fun for us and it keeps me inspired to change up the songs and stories and crafts and to remember that I'm also a teacher, not just a chef and bum changer. I believe in freeplay too but I have a boy who just went to JK and he came to visit on his PD day and was so excited to tell me that his JK teacher is talking about dinosaurs and she was so proud of him for his knowledge that he learned from ME!Quote:
Originally Posted by mom2crazyboys