teacher tips

The secret recipe for inviting children to take care of books in the preschool classroom

Here is my secret recipe for helping the preschool-age children in my class take care of our classroom books!

How to put on a coat in preschool

To help the children be more independent in putting coats on, we teach them this simple process so they can learn how to put on their own coat.

Tips for having a classroom visitor come to your preschool

A few tips that you might want to consider when inviting a “paid” visitor to come to your preschool…

The importance of a predictable routine in preschool

Sharing our daily routine and the importance of a daily routine in the preschool classroom.

DIY yarn machine in preschool

This is a simple way I use for children to get their own yarn and to help keep the yarn organized in the process….. I call this my yarn machine. It is very basic – you just drop a ball of yarn (make sure it is a ball) in a tissue box then thread one end [...]

Managing teacher stress in the early childhood environment

Whether you are a new teacher or a teacher who has been in the field for a long time, it is important to recognize what causes teacher stress and how to manage that stress so you can keep your joy for teaching…

What do you do with all that left-over paint?

Don’t toss out all that left-over paint in preschool!

A polk-a-dot trash can for the preschool classroom

Sprucing up the preschool classroom by turning an old trashcan into a bright colorful addition to the classroom!

Teaching twins in the preschool classroom

Teaching twins in the preschool classroom can present its own unique challenges. See what the experts had to say on this topic…

Preschool circle time idea | Grab a spot

I am so blessed each day by the folks over at Teach Preschool on Facebook! They are always giving me great ideas and when I hear of something really cool, I like to try it out. A few months ago, we were sharing ideas for sitting in circletime and among the many wonderful ideas, [...]

Ketchup and mustard squeeze painting in preschool

Yesterday I shared about how we painted on the grill for our barbecue dramatic play day and today I want to show you our ketchup and mustard squeeze painting… The mustard and ketchup bottles actually contain red and yellow paint… The canvas is a large piece of currigated cardboard that I cut up into squares… Squeeze [...]

Wonderful windows in preschool

There is something about having windows in a preschool environment. In almost every classroom I go into, I find a child looking out the window… I sometimes notice that teachers cover their windows with lots of artwork which can be quite beautiful but I recommend that where possible, you keep most of the window free [...]

Building parent-teacher relationships in preschool

I participated in two discussions on the Bam Radio Show about building or understanding the parent/teacher relationship. Each conversation had a completely different spin on the topic. You can listen to each show by clicking on the photos below… (Or click here and scroll down the wall to find the title of each radio show) [...]

Bam Radio: Tips for addressing misbehavior in preschool

I recently participated in the Bam Radio conversation “Bad Behavior: When to Ignore, When to Intervene” with Rae Pica, Mary Gersten, and Kate Williams. This is truly a wonderful discussion and I hope you will stop and take a listen. If you can’t listen to it here or here… I have highlighted some of the points from [...]

Simple tip for organizing activities that go with your favorite children’s books

I thought I would share how I keep track of some of my favorite teaching resources that go with some of my favorite children’s books… There are some activities or materials that I just know I will want to use the next time I read a specific book to my class so I simply tuck the [...]

Keeping the glue bottles with brushes clean in preschool

This is one of my favorite glue bottles that I highly recommend for young children… The only problem is that after some use, the glue lid gets impossibly stuck to the bottle… I spent a long time cleaning the tops of these bottles and even ended up with some pretty sore fingers trying to pry [...]