The Eclectic Preschool Teacher

09/23/2013

For the upcoming October lesson plans, I have decided to embrace Halloween and plan to focus on superhero's! This is a topic I have been told to forbid by my administration, but because of the interests of the children, I am going to advocate for them that this can be a positive topic! I am glad to have NAEYC on my side on this one.http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/201107/Superheroes_an_opportunity_for_prosocial_play.pdf

07/10/2013

NAEYC was a piece of cake! 100% satisfaction with our portfolio and the highest scores across the board for our classroom observation :D

04/22/2013

We made spring flowers during today's Earth Day celebrations by reusing plastic bottles. Using them as a stamper makes pretty flower patterns! Reuse and recycle :)

04/22/2013

Happy Earth Day Teachers! :)

03/22/2013

These are some great ideas especially if your cooped up inside because of the cold weather. Today we catapulted pom pom balls with plastic spoons! Both the boys and girls loved it, and they came up with multiple ways to catapult the balls. :) http://frugalfun4boys.com/2013/03/17/ten-ways-for-kids-to-burn-off-energy/

With four boys, our house has a lot of noise and a lot of energy! (If you want a demonstration, just check out the video in this post!) I would say it gets better with age, but my oldest son (9.5 years old) has the most energy of all of them, so I think it’s probably a personality. My 3 year old…

03/13/2013

Teachers! Are you throwing away your dried out markers? You can reuse and recycle them!

03/12/2013

"A hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much money I had in the bank...but the world may be a better place because I made a difference in the life of a child." - Forest Witcraft

02/20/2013

Each month I showcase two pieces of art from the Art Institute of Chicago. This month we are focusing on works by Jackson Po***ck and exploring his style. These explorations of color and shape were done with oil pastells and displayed in the classroom with the works if art that influenced them. Integrating art in the classroom inspires art making as well as introduces children to rich language and culture.

11/20/2012

Eric Carle characters + animal classification = awesome charting! All you need are your favorite Eric Carle books, a photo copier/printer, laminator, paper, pen, and Velcro! I would have typed the animal types that are up at the top, but I have come to believe it's important for children to be exposed to real handwriting just like live music/singing to a produced recording.

11/16/2012

I would like to invite all my teachers, parents, and anyone else that gets the opportunity to work with children to like one of my favorite pages, Teach Preschool. Talk about eclectic, you can find tons of creative activity ideas!

11/16/2012

If you never know what to do with all those packaging peanuts, and it hurts to toss them in the garbage like most preschool teachers with everything, the answer is here! Prep a container filled with the packaging peanuts, also prep a few trays with a damp wet cloth. Show the children that when you dip the end of one packaging peanut onto the cloth with just a little moisture, it will stick to the end of another packaging peanut! Too much moisture will cause the packaging peanut to melt. Then step back (but not too far) and let this child-directed, open-ended activity work its magic!