Developmentally Appropriate Practices

Exploring birds that are not-alike in preschool

December 30, 2011

Today was a wonderful exploration of birds and nests but this post also shares a few observations on creating a successful preschool experience.

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Our play dough is under construction in preschool

August 26, 2011

We pulled out the play dough and accessories but our construction workers had a better idea…

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Painting with Eric Violette and a preschooler

July 19, 2011

I had a few special guests stay at my house this past week. Eric Violette, the guy from the free credit report . com commercials, and his fellow band members were in town to perform and while staying in my home, I asked Eric if he would like to join Wy and I to do [...]

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Reading spaces for a toddler

June 30, 2011

A great way to create a toddler’s interest in children’s books is to integrate books into their play environment. Often times, we get stuck with the idea that books belong on shelves or in a basket on the floor. We want to keep them organized and clean but for toddlers, the best place for a [...]

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Starting with the activity and ending with the book in preschool

June 27, 2011

I have almost always started our day with circle time in preschool. I choose a great children’s book along with other conversation sparkers that ultimately branch out into a variety of other content areas like art, math, and so forth… But lately, my three year old nephew, Wy, has been teaching me to rethink my [...]

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Hands off in preschool

June 24, 2011

In our zest to help children “create” sometimes it is easy to forget what it means to be creative… Creativity is inspired when we give children the opportunity to explore the art process and materials without the pressure of having to do it in a specific way… In an effort to teach children, adults get [...]

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Playing the train game in preschool

June 20, 2011

During our musical a few weeks ago, I taught the older children a little train song and dance. Part of what we did was use our chairs to make a train for the musical. The two year old children would often come into the room and watch us as we practiced the train song… I [...]

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Rock climbing with a three year old

June 11, 2011

When my little nephew Wy comes over, I learn to view things in and outside of my house with new eyes… Everyday, I drive past these rocks that are out in my front yard and don’t really give them much thought. My husband put them in the yard as a landscaping feature and I have [...]

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Try the frog leap in preschool

May 18, 2011

In preschool, the frog leap is just a bit different than the old fashioned leap frog game where you jump over another person’s back… In this classroom, the teacher laminated some lili-pads on the floor for her little frogs to leap across. We have the two-footed leap… The split leap.. The full-body leap (sorry for a [...]

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Creative challenge: The little box carpenter

May 5, 2011

It is my sincerest privilege to share this post along with 20+ fabulous bloggers who have collaborated together to present this creative challenge: creative ideas to do with a cardboard box.  This terrific blog linky was put together by the tireless efforts and leadership of Tinkerlab in honor of her 1 year anniversary.  Congratulations to Tinkerlab! [...]

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A kitchen timer and a preschooler

April 28, 2011

The use of an egg timer to promote play and learning in preschool!

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An earth day poem: What do you see?

April 23, 2011

I wrote this little earth day poem based on the story “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” by Bill Martin Jr. and  Eric Carle. Teacher, teacher what do you see? I see lady bugs, sorting, and counting games looking at me…. Teacher, teacher what do you see? I see paper animals, trees, flowers, [...]

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Getting babies and toddlers outside to play

April 17, 2011

This week Childhood 101 is celebrating “Get Outdoors and Play” and that is one thing my nieces and nephews love to do.  There are all kinds of fun things infants and toddlers can do outside… My little niece Clara is having a ball swinging in her backyard… If this doesn’t look like fun, then I [...]

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The color game in preschool

April 3, 2011

This is a little game we made for our preschoolers to have fun working on color recognition… First we made a little cube and put a different color on each side – red, yellow, blue, green, orange, and purple. Then we cut out 6 large circles from construction paper and laminated them… The object of [...]

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Y is for yarn in preschool

April 2, 2011

Preschoolers are unpredictable when it comes to what they will find interesting and how they will play with the different items we put in the activity boxes. I found this adorable idea of making yarn designs on sandpaper by Polwig and decided to turn this idea into one of our activity boxes… We placed sandpaper [...]

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