teaching

Preschool Class Mascot – Gilbert The Dog

November 12, 2018 Leave a Comment

Having a preschool class mascot for your classroom sounds like a huge responsibility and it is. A classroom pet requires a lot of care – just as much care as having a pet at home. Teachers, if you are not up to the task, there is another way to do it. Bring toy mascot to school, instead.

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The Perfect Classroom Mascot

Recently we had a furry visitor come to our class who was absolutely no trouble at all. Gilbert The Dog is a very realistic looking stuffed toy beagle. He was easy to manage and such a good little boy. This toy looks so real, for a moment you might even think you were looking at a real dog!

Adorable little girl with her beagle dog plush toy #AD

Gilbert was actually the classroom mascot for the first graders. One time a week, he went home with a child who wrote about what he did as a guest in their home. Eventually they ran out of children in that classroom to take care of him so it was time for Gilbert to do something new. Our preschool class was delighted to pitch in and have him join us for a day.

The children took him from place to place, petting him and showing him around. He read a book. He sat on the windowsill. He looked out the window. He joined them for circle time, too. He even watched us making our craft of the day. Gilbert had a great time in preschool and we wrote about it in a little story for the first grade class to read.

So, if you prefer to not have the responsibility of a live classroom mascot, I do recommend a stuffed toy that looks real. There are so many plush toy animals on the market that look very realistic, like Gilbert does.

How to have a classroom mascot with no effort at all! #kids #pets Click To Tweet

3 Ways To Have a Live Pet Visit Your Classroom

1.Show and Tell Another idea that requires very little care on the part of the teacher is to invite a live pet to visit for show and tell, like the cute guinea pig that came to our classroom.

2. You could also arrange for a therapy pet to come by. Therapy dogs can come to your class for part of a day, managed by their handlers. It will be a wonderful experience for your children.

3.If you are truly adventurous, contact the local reptile store. Ask them if they make classroom visits. The reptiles can be brought in by trained handlers so everything will be safe and sound. Our kindergarten teacher did just that and it was a great success. Even the most timid child was willing to take a closer peek at those fascinating creatures.

Have you ever had a classroom pet? What kind?

Enjoy!

How To Make Colorful Chair Covers for Your Preschool Classroom

September 21, 2018 Leave a Comment

So, why ever would I make chair covers for my preschool class? It is a lot of work. One good reason is that preschoolers [and kindergartners, too] love having name tags on their seats. That, in itself, is motivation.

In previous times, there were easier ways to mark my students’ chairs. For years I had taped laminated tags with their names onto the backs of their chairs. You would have thought that taping the tags to the table in front of their chairs was the best but the tags get destroyed so much more quickly. One good spill from the juice box will ruin a tag, even a laminated one.

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This year, our school moved into a new building. We are renting space and the chairs belong to the landlord. They are painted and taping tags to painted chairs pulls the paint right off them when they are removed.

That is when I got a brilliant idea. I would make slipcovers to go over the backs of the chairs. Velcro has a new product that adheres to fabric. How perfect is that! Now, I can move the labels from chair to chair in seconds, a valuable feature if we have a “chair-identity-crisis.” [This is preschool. That kind of crisis happens – trust me.]

I wanted the slipcovers to be identical and bright. I was so excited to find bright red canvas upholstery fabric to use. Canvas-like upholstery fabric is very durable and holds its shape well. The fabric I purchased is also washable in cold water. I plan to use them year after year so that is important.

☑️Tip: if I had been unable to find the canvas fabric, my next choice would have been wide wale corduroy. It also has some firmness to the fabric and would be very durable!

How To Make Covers For Chairs In Preschool With Removable Name Tags

These slipcovers for chairs are as simple as putting a pillowcase over the chair, only much better.

Supplies

Canvas upholstery fabric cut in a long rectangle.

Sewing machine

Thread

Fabric pins

Measuring tape

Sewing scissors

Velcro for FABRIC

Directions

Measure the back of the chair for the widest part and the length you want for your chair cover.
Cut the fabric so that the width is 2 – 3 inches wider than the widest part of the back of the chair.
Cut the length of the rectangle of fabric so that it is 2 times the length that you want the slip cover to be as the finished product PLUS 2 inches-to account for the hem you will sew at the bottom.
Fold one end of the rectangle over about 1/2 inch and double it over again another 1/2 inch. Pin it and sew straight across it creating your first hem.
Do the same for the opposite end. Be sure that you fold it in the proper direction so that when you sew your slip cover (Reminder – think “PILLOWCASE”) both hems wind up on the inside of the chair cover.

Note: the TOP of the chair cover will be seamless since your piece of fabric is so long. Just fold it over so that the hemmed ends meet. It is neater and less work, too.

Fold the fabric in half, raw edges of the hems will be on top.
Pin each side and sew a simple seam down each side.
Turn it right side out and there you go! You have a chair cover.
Now, cut a piece of the SCRATCHY side of the Velcro, 2 inches long.
Peel off the paper and press the Velcro onto one side of the chair cover so that it is centered and just a couple of inches from the top.
Let it dry for 24 hours before attaching a label.

How to make your own chair covers for a preschool or kindergarten classroom with removable name tags #DIY #preschool Click To Tweet

How To Make Name Tags For Preschool Chairs

Supplies

White card stock paper

Laminator sheets

Laminator

Directions

You can make your own template or use mine. I have saved it as a Word document so that you can add the names yourself.

Get free printable name tag template here.

Insert a transparent text box on the center of each tag on the page.

Type in a child’s name on each tag.

Set your printer’s settings to “color” and print the page onto white card stock paper.

Preheat your laminator.

Insert the sheet of tags into a laminating sheet and run it through your laminator.

Now, cut out the tags.*

Tip: I suggest that you NOT use your sewing scissors to cut out the tags. Using sewing scissors on laminated paper will dull them. Use another pair of scissors to do this task and save the sewing scissors for sewing!

Finally, cut a 2″ piece of the FUZZY side of Velcro.

Peel the paper backing off the Velcro and apply it to one of the name tags.

Now, stick it onto the scratchy side that you put on a chair cover.

Isn’t it the best? Yes!

Get your FREE NAME TAG template here!*

*When you first click on this, the images do not appear. I have NO idea why. If you select the option to open it in Google docs, they finally do pop up for you. Save it to your computer and add names using text boxes.

Enjoy!

……

Preschool Teaching Fail! So Now What Do You Do?

October 5, 2017 Leave a Comment

Let me say from the get-go that I love this preschool class. I have never had a classroom of little kiddos that I didn’t love, this group included. But where, oh where, did this bunch come from, Planet X? LOL!

The first day of school started out a little rough. We had two students suffering from great separation anxiety and it took quite a while to help them through it. While they were crying and being cuddled by either myself or one of my assistants, the rest of the class started with a fun activity at their seats. As things finally quieted down a bit, we were able to move on to eating our snack.

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Then, after our morning snack, we went as a group to the potty and came back for circle time. I started with a story about Elmo’s first day of school followed by a fun getting to know you bean-bag game. What a relief. Even our two little scared kiddos were smiling.

Finally, it was time for me to introduce the classroom rules and routines. When it came to introducing our classroom jobs, I was astounded. First, one little boy blurted out “I don’t want a job!” Another child added “Me neither!” Within moments half the class flat out refused to take jobs. Really!

Now, our jobs are fun jobs. I have never had a student not want one. “Line Leader” – the first person in line all day long – is usually the favorite, followed by “Door Holder.” The Door Holder is the person who gets to hold the door open for the line.

Our others jobs include: Prayer Leader, Song Leader, Flag Holder, Pledge Leader, Calendar Helper and Weather Reporter. All of the other students get to be Teachers’ Helpers for the day. I created colorful flags with the job titles on which to place their name tag as they were awarded their job. For the first time ever, the flags were of no interest to them. A successful classroom routine for three consecutive years was REJECTED in one fell swoop!

I chalked it up to newness and did my best to get the remaining children to take a job, making the process look as fun as possible. “Next week will be better!” I surmised. Was it better? Not much. I still struggled to get them through the whole ordeal. What was I going to do?

The third week, my reluctant participants were obviously not catching onto the joys of employment. My assistant suggested we come up with something new. She was right. This was obviously not going to work. Then it hit me. The process of handing out jobs was just too long for them. I do not know why it worked so very well for the three years prior but it was not going to work with this group.

So, I took the 8 key positions and laminated two signs with four jobs on each with a bright yellow arrow pointing from each job to the right. I taped the signs to my black board in the classroom to write the child’s name next to the job they picked.

The #preschool class that refused to take on jobs => and what their teacher came up with! #kids #fun #homeschooling Click To Tweet

At the start of circle time, I asked for volunteers, holding off Line Leader and Door Holder for the last. The first job I offered up was Prayer Leader. Yes! I got a candidate. I had her come up and help me lead the group in our opening prayer. On to Song Leader. Another couple of hands went up. The Song Leader of the day then joined me immediately at the front of the room to lead us in our classroom songs. On and on it went. Assign a job, do a job. Assign a job, do a job. They were seeing the cause and effect. That was it! They needed to see the instant rewards.

I do believe that this routine is going to work all year long. Now that I know the system that works for them, I will add in assigning Teachers Helpers. I won’t do it, though, until I have a project going where I NEED helpers. Doing it that way, they will see right away what helpers get to do!

One sweet little side story: one of my parents emailed to ask me if we had played Ring Around The Rosey that day. We had not. We had actually played it the week before. Well, she said that she and her husband were checking on their kids after they had gone to bed. They heard him softly singing in his sleep “Ashes, ashes we all fall down!” How cute is that!

So, teachers, have you ever run into a situation where your best efforts weren’t working? What did you do?

Enjoy!