May 2009

Designing for Play

Play is a natural part of a preschooler’s learning process. To best facilitate this important part of a child’s learning process, the teacher needs to consider… The Environment: The environment should be rich with materials such as books, puzzles, blocks, cars, art supplies, dress-up clothes, toys, and other age-appropriate materials that children can freely explore [...]

Choosing the Right Books

Reading to preschoolers starts with choosing the right books. There are several points to consider when choosing books to capture a preschooler’s interest and keep groups of preschoolers engaged in the story. Illustrations: The books you choose for young children should include quality illustrations. Most preschool-age children are not yet reading and depend on the [...]

Reading Aloud to preschoolers

During the preschool years, preschoolers are developing life-long attitudes about the reading experience. A preschool teacher plays a major role in developing a joy for reading by creating the right reading experiences. For this reason, a preschool teacher should have a good grasp on how to best read-aloud to a group of preschool children. When [...]

Mini-Lessons in the preschool classroom

A Mini-lesson focuses on skills preschoolers need to learn in managing everyday classroom and life skills. Unlike a teachable-moment, a mini-lesson is planned out ahead of time. Like a teachable moment, the idea or topic of a mini-lesson often originates from an unexpected occurence that a teacher begins to notice or observe happening repeatedly in [...]

Teachable Moments

Teachable moments are times when something unexpected occurs and the teacher helps to guide the unexpected occurrence into a learning opportunity. Preschoolers are discovering the world around them. Their natural curiosity and need-to-know creates many opportunities for teachable moments. The teacher has to develop a teaching perspective in order to not miss out on unexpected [...]

Lesson Plans: A Basic Approach

Before writing your next lesson plan, consider the “Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How” approach. For each activity you plan to do, ask yourself the six questions below. Who are you writing these activities for? The “who” focuses on keeping the lesson plan age appropriate. What activity are you going to do? The “what” [...]

What is a Daily Lesson Plan?

A daily lesson plan is a clearly defined schedule of activities that you plan to implement throughout the classroom day. Lesson plans come in many formats. Some teachers write their own lesson plans and other teachers follow a lesson plan provided by the school. In either case, the key to success in any classroom is [...]