The group activities will be a social skills activity most of the time, especially in the first three months when students are learning routines. The second circle time every day is just for teaching social skills and science. We have to teach students social skills and character building just like we teach them letters and numbers. Make sure the clean-up song has a fast tempo so students clean up to the fast beat of the music. We practice and teach clean-up at the beginning of the year and throughout the year as needed. Once they are finished cleaning up their activity, they go help a friend. When it is clean-up time, the music helper turns on a “clean-up song,” and students know what to do. This helps students mentally prepare for the transition. Fading the supports helps them develop independence.įive minutes before clean-up, one student walks around with the “5 More Minutes” sign (visual cue) and tells (verbal cue) their peers that center time is almost over. To help with transitions, I use as many visual supports for my little learners and slowly fade them as the year goes on. Alternate between active activities (outside/gross motor, music and movement, centers) and sit-down activities (circle, small group, journals). Little learners NEED to move and be active. It’s also important to alternate between active and sit-down activities. I usually do a teacher-directed activity and then student-led activity. We infuse movement throughout the day and take a child’s attention span into consideration as well. Our preschool day has a mix of student-led, play-based, and teacher-directed lessons and activities. It’s their time to make decisions, and they are empowered by the ability to choose. They choose when they want to change and move to a different center. They decide who they want to play with or if they want to play independently. Center time is a time when students can choose what center they want to go to and the activity they want to play. I’m sure you will notice that students play in centers for large blocks of the day on both the full and half-day schedules. You can read all about our Linear Calendar HERE. Calendarīefore we review the visual schedule, we review the calendar. Though not pictured, it’s on the floor right below the visual schedule. After a part of our day is completed, we would take it off and place it in the basket below. The left side is the morning, and the right side is the afternoon to help break the day up into manageable pieces. The full-day schedule was too long to use a pocket chart, so I put the visual schedule on a thick ribbon with Velcro dots. I made a blue square with an arrow that we can move to show what part of the day we are currently in. Since I started the half-day program, I use this black schedule pocket chart for my visual schedule. It is a permanent, visual reminder students can use a reference as needed throughout the day.Įvery day during calendar time, we review our visual schedule together as a class and discuss any changes we have in our day. To help students learn and organize their day, I post a visual schedule in my classroom. > Grab all the Daily Schedules by putting your email in the box below(half-day schedule, full-day schedule, and editable PowerPoint version.>Grab the FREEBIE by entering your email in the box at the bottom of this blog post!<< V isual Schedules I want them to know I embed learning into their day every chance I get! I keep a copy of “Our Preschool Day” on the parent board and send it home in their folders at the beginning of the school year. I made this handout for parents, so they know what each part of our day looks like and what students are learning. For example, sometimes students are so engaged in play with their peers that I will extend the center time for five more minutes.īelow you will see our preschool schedule. However, it may be adjusted based on students’ needs, situations (fire drills, etc.), and classroom events. This post contains affiliate links which means I earn a tiny commission when you use my links at no cost to you. Grab the FREEBIE by entering your email in the box at the bottom of this post. Research tells us little learners NEED visual schedules and consistent routines. Students learn the sequence of the day and can begin to predict and anticipate what will come next. Another helpful side effect of scheduling is that fewer problem behaviors occur when a schedule is consistently followed. Routines help students feel safe and secure because they know what is coming next and what is expected. Schedules and routines are so important for our little learners (and teachers too).
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