Caffeinate and Teach

A few weeks ago, as a school family we raised money for and purchased two guinea pigs. Their names are Pearl and Roxy and they are a wonderful addition to our school family! They have been so much fun and have provided so many opportunities for the children to work on their observation skills. These skills will serve the children well as they continue with their academic careers. What may appear to be only "watching" the guinea pigs and seem as if it is just a "fun" addition to the everyday in's and out's of the classroom, these skills are important for aiding the children in being able to produce higher level cognitive skills, science skills such as hypothesis and more! During these observations, children have been practicing comparing and contrasting, attention to detail and delayed gratification as they wait for Pearl and Roxy to explore something new in their playpen or "popcorn: (which is basically "popping" around like jumping because th...

Last week, I told you all about the journey of choosing which school family pet we would get. This week, I would like to show you some fun pictures of them and tell you about how we named them! We got two female guinea pigs and they are as sweet as can be! They are young, which is helpful for the adjusting to the noise level in a preschool classroom and helps them in getting to know us and feeling safe. We were able to purchase a play pen for them to play in and to make it easy for us to observe them as a school family. Pictured below are the girls playing with jingle balls and eating hay. They eat A LOT of hay! We started trying to figure out what to name them and found a list of influential women who have been a part of the University we are a part of. We chose four names for each of the guinea pigs from that list. Then we started the voting process. We posted the name choices on the door of our classroom along with a color coded key and colored sticker dots. We allowed the ...

A couple of weeks ago, the children in my classroom abruptly stopped wondering about dinosaurs. I was secretly okay with this ;)  All of a sudden we began to talk about getting a school family pet. Last year I had hamsters in the classroom, two separate occasions and both times, they died. :( I was willing to try again, and my co-teacher and I began to do some research on what the best pet would be for preschool children. A few options were on the table.... Chinchillas, Sugar Gliders, Rabbits and Guinea Pigs. We found out that Chinchillas have hollow bones like birds, and we as preschoolers could literally crush their bones if we hugged them or pet them too hard. So, they were out! Sugar Gliders are extremely expensive and are nocturnal, so they were out too. We had to chose between rabbits or guinea pigs. Through our research we found that guinea pigs are awake up to 20 hours a day, are extremely social and are excellent pets for children. So, guinea pigs it was! We also found out...

During the past few weeks, we have been working in our classroom to create an alphabet wall. We started working on this by taking a children's dictionary and exploring it with the children, discussing the words and meanings and choosing several words for each letter of the alphabet to represent on the wall with drawings done by the children. It was a really interesting time with the children, partly because the dictionary we used, a children's picture dictionary, used words that the children weren't particularly familiar with. For example, in the M section, there was a picture of a parrot. Weird right? but the word to go along with the picture was "mimic". This gave my co-teacher and I an opportunity to not only introduce new vocabulary to the children but expand on their thought process and help them to "think outside the box".  We were also able to introduce them to vocabulary such as "adjective" , "verb" and "adverb". The...

"Look through the window and who do you see? I see _____ looking back at me. Hello! Hello! Hello! and how are you? I'm fine! I'm fine! and I hope that you are too!"   These are the words to a children's song that I often use in the classroom in small groups, for transitions and just for fun. As a lab school teacher, this song is the story of my life. If you follow my co-worker Sharon's blog, you will have read her post on "life in a fish bowl". See, when you teach at a lab school there is always the chance of someone being in the observation booth watching your teaching style, activities and interactions with children. This can feel like a ton of pressure! I have worked in lab schools for the past 11, almost 12 years. Over half of the time I have spent as an early childhood educator has been in this type of environment, and I LOVE IT! I get the unique experience of teaching preschoolers and helping to teach college aged students at the same tim...

In my classroom, we learn through play and my co-teacher and I try to be mindful and intentional with the materials we put into the room so that they are based on the children's interests. I teach 3, 4 and 5 year old children. Every Fall, undoubtedly the children are interested in Halloween or dress up and/or curious about the change in weather. This year, a topic has arisen that made me shake my head...... DINOSAURS...REALLY? See last year I had a child in my classroom who was an expert on this topic. I mean an EXPERT! He knew all the names of the dinosaurs, how to pronounce them with such ease you would think he was saying apple instead of Parasaurolophus (pronounced para-SAWR-ollo-fuss) and the children never ONE TIME asked me a question or made indication that they wanted to research dinosaurs more than just on the surface level. Fast forward to this Fall and all of a sudden dinosaurs are where it is at! We are all about the dinosaurs! My co-teacher and I a...

Fine motor development is vital to every person. Young children gain confidence in their fine motor abilities through experiences, practice and adult scaffolding. Before a child can learn to hold a pencil in the correct manner, they have to be able to explore with dumping and pouring. Dumping and pouring activities such as utilizing cups and containers in a sensory table or even the bathtub, give children a chance to build muscle and control in their wrists, hands and fingers. This muscle control and strength allows them to then become successful in holding writing materials, using scissors, self-help skills such as dressing, putting on shoes, mastering the use of eating utensils, pouring from a small pitcher and more!  Using materials such as play-doh can not only be fun for children and adults alike, it provides a great opportunity for children to use both fine motor and gross motor skills. Heavy pushing, punching, smashing and banging play-doh uses large muscle groups while r...