Professional Development

At play with baby: in and out

What can baby Clara do with a spoon, and a pan, and a plastic egg? The egg goes in… The egg comes out… The egg gets rolled all about… Turn the pan over and then Clara can… Go tap, tap, tap on that funny little pan.. But uh, oh where did the egg go? There [...]

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Get informed about early childhood education degree programs

Early Childhood Education Degree Programs: What are Your Options? By Brian Jenkins What types of early childhood education programs are available? Many colleges and universities offer accredited undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the subject. You may also have the option of obtaining a professional certificate at certain schools. Programs are available both on-campus and online. [...]

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Yelling is not an effective teaching practice in preschool

Whether you call it yelling, hollering, or raising your voice – the reality is, yelling, hollering, or raising your voice to get the attention of your students is not an effective teaching practice. Yelling makes you grumpy. Yelling makes you tired. Yelling increases your stress. Yelling makes your students grumpy. Yelling makes your students tired. Yelling increases your student’s stress. [...]

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At play with baby: I am special

Look in the mirror and who do I see? I see baby Clara looking at me! I see two eyes, two ears, a nose, and a mouth Two hands and two feet! Uh, oh! Where did baby Clara go? There she is! This article is being shared with you by Deborah Stewart of Teach Preschool [...]

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Evaluating lesson plans in preschool

I write a lot of lesson plans and I never know how well something will turn out until I see it in action. One of the best ways to evaluate lesson plans is to observe children in action. When evaluating lesson plans, some questions to ask yourself might include… Were the children interested in the [...]

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The value of scooping and pouring and counting candy corn in preschool

If there is one area in my own professional development that I have come to appreciate more than ever, it is the value of sensory play. I have always included sensory play in my lesson plans but it hasn’t been until this past year that I have really taken the time to sit down with [...]

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Hand and footprint art in the preschool classroom

As a parent, there is nothing more precious to me than hanging up a piece of art my child made out of her own hand or footprint. But as a teacher I sometimes observe hand and footprint art activities and simply wonder where the benefit is to the child.  Don’t get me wrong, I think [...]

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The challenge of cooking in preschool

Cooking in preschool can be a challenging process – especially when you have 1 teacher to 10 three year olds. Every one wants a turn to stir, pour, crack an egg, and everyone wants to stick their finger in the batter no matter how many times they are told that they need to keep their [...]

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Sharing things from home with your preschool classroom

Every teacher brings unique and special gifts to their students and every student will apply these gifts in their own unique and special way. Teachers often have brilliant ideas and things from home they want to share with their students. Over the summer, this class had been talking about seashells and under the see creatures. [...]

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Join me for a free early childhood webinar

I hope you will come and join me for my presentation of “Ten Leadership Tips to Inspire Your Early Childhood Program Staff” on Wednesday, September 22, 2010 from 2:00 to 3:00pm EDT. This free webinar series is sponsored by Robert-Leslie Publishing! If you haven’t tried attending a webinar yet, then this is a great opportunity to [...]

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Including sign language in the early childhood classroom

Including Sign Language in Early Childhood Curriculum Co-written by Emily Patterson and Kathleen Thomas One of the keys to thriving in the modern economic climate is versatility – and the ability to communicate articulately in a variety of ways with the widest possible audience. This includes bilingual ability as well as the ability to communicate [...]

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If you send a preschool teacher to buy a gallon of milk…

You know you are hooked on preschool when you just can’t think about anything else.

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Building connections to math, art, and more through children’s literature

When I am at a loss as to what to do in my preschool classroom, I always sit down and start thumbing through all my children’s books. As I read through my collection of children’s books, my mind begins to swirl with all the ways each book can be extended throughout my curriculum content. I [...]

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Building connections to math, art, and more through children’s literature

When I am at a loss as to what to do in my preschool classroom, I always sit down and start thumbing through all my children’s books. As I read through my collection of children’s books, my mind begins to swirl with all the ways each book can be extended throughout my curriculum content. I [...]

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We didn’t like painting with popsicles in preschool

I almost did not write about this activity because, quite frankly, it wasn’t all that great! But – I decided that it was important to share experiences that don’t work out quite as expected. Each child was given a piece of paper and a Popsicle. I thought they would love seeing how they could draw on the [...]

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Promoting independence at naptime in preschool

In my years of classroom experience, I have found that the more I encourage children to take care of their own property the more responsive and cooperative they become. Naptime is an example of how children can be taught to take pride in doing something well and then enjoy the results. Naptime begins in this [...]

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