Weekly and Daily Routines

Our weekly routine is very flexible, but Tuesday morning is set aside for our preschool group. I teach a group of four little girls for about two hours.

Below is my lesson plan template that I started with. I've modified the times a bit. We now spend the last 30 minutes doing free play. I cut that time out of the circle time and math blocks. Eventually I will update this template with shortened blocks and a time for potty/snack breaks which are typically at the same time everyday.

The four boxes below are for notes and individualized instructions for each child in our group. I use a kindergarten readiness checklist to drive this instruction.

For two weeks we learn a new letter, and every third week is a review week. I pick a common theme from the previous two weeks and do a big STEAM unit. The review week does not follow the above lesson plan template. In place of circle time, we will do a quick phonics lesson to review letters and learn sight words.

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Planning A Morning Routine

It's important to start each preschool day the same. Children thrive with routine and you will notice that behavior problems are significantly minimized when children know what's going to happen. A timid child will have less difficulty saying goodby to Mom and an energetic child will get right to work. Needless to say, each morning for us starts the same. Which means planning is pretty repetitive as well. My first task is to find a theme. I use The Peaceful Preschool curriculum from The Peaceful Press to find a theme. The next step is to go online and reserve five to six books on the same theme from our local county library system. This planning stage must take place several days in advance in order for the books to be available in time. Otherwise, I have to make an extra trip to the library to pull books myself. Now I need to come up with several hands-on, student-led, independent activities to set out for stations....

Check out my piles!!

TAH-DAH!! Welcome to my very first link-up courtesy of Mrs. Bainbridge's Class . (I feel silly saying linky, I'm new to this blogging stuff. Give me time) ;) So here's my story... I am something of a pro when it comes to packing up my room. At my old district, of the 6 years I spent teaching I've had to pack up and move everything out of my room about 6 times. Yikes! Once, I moved rooms during the school year, with the kids in the room, in the middle of the day, given a 3 days notice (not complaining, It was a move for the better ;)). So yeah, I got this under control. This will be my first year in a new district, I cannot wait to get my junk out of the attic. (That would be my ENTIRE classroom)!! Pile one consists of boxes I've been through this summer. Nice and organized. The second and much larger pile is everything else. Who knows what I have back there! It's been a whole year since I've been in a classro...

Year at a Glance

This week marks our first official week of preschool. We've been dipping our toes in it for the past month with a lesson here and there, but this week we are full force. Fine motor and sorting practice The Peaceful Preschool from The Peaceful Press is the curriculum that works best for us because we can tailor it to our needs and you can go in any order. I follow it loosely and add in supplements from various STEAM resources from Left Brain Craft Brain . It feels like all bases are covered with this combo. I might mention that another great resource that I use is Teachers Pay Teachers because the content is created by teachers and the activities work in classroom and homeschool settings. For me, this is my preferred alternative to Pinterest. Once I purchased The Peaceful Preschool, I went through each lesson and mapped out our whole year. I looked at seasons and major events or trips we have planned and came up with a scope and sequence th...

Elementary Tales

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