teaching tools

The tools we write with in preschool

September 8, 2011

Use a variety of tools to help children build their writing skills!

DIY: Make your own flannel board for preschool

August 6, 2011

Making your own flannel board for preschool is simple and it is a great tool for teaching young children!

DIY: A homemade sensory table and tinker table

July 21, 2011

Last week my husband got highly motivated and built me some new furniture for my outdoor classroom. He built me a sensory table… And what I call a tinker table… And a stand-alone plexiglass window (which I will share more on tomorrow)… The dimensions on the tinker table and the sensory table are the same. [...]

Sorting it all out in preschool

April 4, 2011

We have been doing some serious color sorting this past week and as you know, serious play leads to serious learning… To review colors, we put together color sorting trays. This tray was a box used to hold crayons by the bulk and it made a perfect sorting tray. We simply added laminated color cards [...]

Five graphing tips you can use with preschoolers

March 26, 2011

Graphing is a wonderful tool for promoting basic math concepts, vocabulary and mathematical thinking… Before graphing… Let the children explore the materials: the graphing process is more meaningful to children as they explore the materials they will be using for the graph ahead of time. Before graphing their ice cream, the children tasted three kinds [...]

Organizing your teacher bag for preschool

February 26, 2011

I think I have hundreds teacher bags laying around. I get them from all sorts of places but mostly from conferences I attend. Several months ago, I shared how we organize our teaching materials for the week. My main purpose in using a teacher bag is to make transitions between activities go smoothly and to [...]

Exploring measuring tools in preschool

February 14, 2011

Part of learning how to use a measuring tool is to first be given the opportunity to explore the use of measuring tools through their play. In one of our most recent activity boxes, the children found a set of measuring tools, a measuring chart, and some items and pictures to measure. The measuring box [...]

Our favorite ways to glue in preschool

February 4, 2011

Gluing with Cotton Swabs Cotton swabs make a quick and easy way of adding glue to art activities – when you are done, just throw the swabs away. The drawback is that if you use one swab too long, it gets kinds of stringy so you need to have plenty of fresh swabs around to [...]

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

September 2, 2010

If you send a preschool teacher to buy a gallon of milk… She will stop by the paint store on the way and ask the paint guy if it is okay to take a few color swatches. And if he says “Yes,” she will ask if it is okay to take two of each color… [...]

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

August 28, 2010

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

August 27, 2010

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My pre-k handwriting book

August 18, 2010

This little handwriting book is simple to put together and keep on hand to help children practice their handwriting skills. The cover of the book is printed on the computer on heavy card stock. Pieces of lined paper are placed in the center of the book and another sheet of heavy card stock is placed [...]

Using the book cover to keep preschoolers engaged in storytime

August 15, 2010

There are some children that just don’t want to sit down and read. They rather do anything but listen to a story. The next time you are preparing to read a story, try these little attention getter ideas… Repeated illustrations… At times you will find that the illustration located on the front cover of a [...]

My list of must-haves for preschool teachers!

August 11, 2010

I am linking up with…. Babbling Abby: for the Teacher Must-Haves! A Beautiful Mess and Five Minutes for Mom: for Wordless Wednesdays! What are your ‘must-haves’?