Organizing your preschoolers art supplies

I thought I would share some of the ways teachers organize their student art supplies. Above is a caddy that holds markers, scissors, a stapler, crayons, and glue.

This little caddy also has a side pocket where crayons are kept. The caddy would be placed in the center of the table and the supplies shared by a small group of students. This is also a good way for children to store their supplies at home.

In this classroom, each child is given a plastic baggy to store their own set of supplies. Each baggy contains a glue stick, crayons, and the child's name card. The baggies are kept in a basket on the shelf and the children find their baggy with their name inside then take it to the table to participate in structured activities the teacher has planned.

There are additional art supplies kept in the art center as well such as scissors, paint, play dough, and so on.

The name cards are always included in each baggy.

The name cards are available for children to practice printing their own name and for promoting name recognition.

The children in the Kindergarten room each have a school box that they keep their basic art supplies in.

The children have glue, scissors, pencils, crayons, erasers, and rulers in their boxes.

The kindergarten children have name cards to but they are mounted to the tables.

Each child has their own space during structured classroom activities.

Keep in mind that the supplies kept in individual containers are used for specific learning activities. There are always many other types of supplies available to the children throughout the day in the writing, creative art, science, and other centers.

Centers in the preschool classroom

When children enter this classroom, they will discover plenty of things to do and the freedom to explore because each center in this classroom was designed just for them.  At this table the children are creating paintings with the dot painters.

At the block center, a couple of boys have decided to pull out the legos. As they play with the legos, they also communicate with each other and discovering how to cooperate and collaborate.

These children have decided they would enjoy coloring a cow the teacher set out. It is farm week and the teacher has made available a variety of farm type activities in each center. This class loves to color so the teacher always provides a variety of coloring tools and materials.

The two girls decided they wanted to explore the blocks and woodworking tools. That's right - girls like blocks and tools too!

In the two year old classroom next door, this child is exploring the water table. The water stimulates her senses as she pours, drips, and splashes about.

This two year old reaches up high to paint on the easel.  Easel painting is offered everyday to these two year olds and one can see that they are quite skilled at holding the brush, dipping it in the paint, and using the entire paper to create their masterpiece of the day.

These children enjoy time with play dough. The teachers provide a variety of tools to go along with the play dough each day. As you can see here, the children each have a tray to identify their own work space.

And this child decided he would like to just sit back and enjoy looking through this book.

The use of centers in preschool is a valuable way to keep children engaged in positive and constructive activities. Centers promote independence, social skills, creativity, interests, and more. As preschoolers are given opportunities to explore a variety of centers each day, they enjoy their experience in your classroom.

Providing centers is also a useful way to manage your classroom. When a variety of interesting and age appropriate activities are available, you will find children become less bored and stay more engaged in productive, positive participation.

Using one voice in the preschool classroom

The thing about working with preschoolers is you are always having to either talk over lots of little voices or find creative ways to capture their attention. Lots of little voices all going at once is to be expected but lots of teacher voices all going at once should not be part of the plan.

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Too many teacher voices

If there are two or more teachers in the classroom and each are talking equally loud to get the attention of the entire class - the result is often more chaotic then helpful. The children need to know who to focus on and for a few moments - there should be only one voice.

Not so helpful

I have observed many classrooms where one teacher is in the front speaking to the children and the other teacher will call out across the room telling the children to listen. Each time one teacher raises the volume of his or her voice to help the other teacher it creates a conflict as to who the children should look at and listen to at that specific moment.

Who is in charge?

The lead teacher would normally be the main voice in the classroom. While the lead teacher is gaining the attention of students, all other teachers should use softer voices or even body language to support the lead teacher's efforts. If a student continues to be disruptive - the most helpful thing the assistant teacher can do at that moment is to discretely walk over and quietly address that child individually by reminding or encouraging the child to listen to what the lead teacher has to say.

Ultimately, every teacher should have a voice in the classroom but the goal is to use each voice effectively so that the children are not confused by who is in charge at a given moment. When one teacher is in the lead - then let that voice be the dominant voice.

One Voice

The next time you are in the classroom and you see another teacher ask for the children's attention, read a story, sing a song, or call for clean-up time; consider being the supportive voice that works behind the scenes helping to discretely guide children towards the main voice at that moment.

Remember...more than one dominating teacher voice along with lots of little voices does not lead to effective classroom management and communication.

Ideally, every teacher in the classroom needs to work together to create ONE focal point and ONE voice.

Snack time in the preschool classroom!

Snack time is a terrific time to let children learn to do things all by themselves.

Have the children get into the practice of washing hands first and while they are washing hands, set out napkins and cups at one end of a table or on a low shelf. Have the children go and get their own napkin and cup then sit at the snack table.

These children have  had lots of practice standing in line and waiting for their turn to pick up a cup and napkin all by themselves.

Once the children sit at the table, they open their napkin big and wide and set their cup on the table.  In some classrooms, the children then wait for all of their friends to be seated. The teacher then uses the familiar finger play:

Open-Shut them

Open-Shut them

Open-Shut them and give a little clap!

Open-Shut them

Open-Shut them

Open-Shut them and lay them in your lap!

This gets all the children to quiet down and helps to start off snack at a moderately low noise level. This also allows the teacher to demonstrate any serving skills the children will need to know and to demonstrate talking with each other using a soft conversational tone rather then shouting to be heard.

The teacher then sets the snack on the table with the appropriate serving utensils and allows the children to serve their own snack. The children then pass the serving dishes to their neighbor. These children have become extremely proficient in manipulating the various types of serving tools. It takes practice to do this well but it doesn't take long before the students will amaze you with their abilities.

The children are also able to pour their own juice. The teachers fill a pitcher only a quarter of the way full so that the pitcher isn't too heavy for the children to manage. As needed, the teachers refill the pitcher with more juice.  What you don't see in the photo is the full pitcher of juice sitting on the counter that the teacher uses to refill the student pitchers.

The teachers then sit with the children to role model good manners at the table and to promote polite conversations between the children. The children are much more successful in having a positive snack time experience when the teachers join them rather then run around the classroom doing other things during snack time.

Once snack time is over, the children throw away their own trash and join the teacher on the carpet for a few minutes of after snack story time and singing.

Check out this fun little snack time song!

Preschoolers need you to explain, rehearse, and reinforce expectations

There are three key elements that teachers should include in the process of setting boundaries and expectations for young children...

Explain, Rehearse, and Reinforce

These are not my words but the words of K. R. Victor. According to Victor (2001):

"Once you have created the plan you must teach it to your students.

When teaching the plan, keep in mind three things: Explain, rehearse, and reinforce.

Explain, simply put, means to create a lesson plan that teaches the rules" (p.25).

Victor's words reflect my own views of guiding young children to meet expectations only I have used a little bit different terminology. Let's take a minute to look at Victor's ideas...

Planning
Helping children understand expectations should be a part of the planning process in the early childhood classroom. Young children need boundaries and guidelines that are age appropriate, reasonable, flexible, and understandable. Guidelines and boundaries are based on teacher expectations as well. In order for children to understand teacher expectations, the teacher needs to include time for teaching expectations in the planning process.


Explain
Even for the youngest preschooler, there can be an assumption that the child should already know better. For example, when a preschooler throws a napkin on the floor rather than in the trash, an adult might think that this child just doesn't care or isn't a good listener. Instead throwing the napkin in the trash needs to be looked as an expectation to be learned.

It is important to get into the practice of explaining expectations. Children need to be taught what is expected in simple, meaningful, and understandible terms. Just as we plan our lessons to teach the ABC's or 123"s, we need to devise a plan for teaching expectations rather than just assuming the children should get the idea.

For example: I once had a group of children who would not lay on their cot without kicking their feet in the air. This got to be something that was funny to them and going around cot to cot was simply not effective. As soon as I got one set of feet out of the air, another set of feet popped up. It was like playing the gopher game!

So I decided to plan a lesson on laying down on the cot.  My assistant and I took out a kid's cot and while my assistant gave me simple directions, I layed down on the cot and put my feet down. When my assistant would turn away - I dramatically kicked my feet up in the air. All the children laughed and then my assistant turned around and acted all surprised. She then explained to me why it was very important to keep my feet down and told me how she would be so proud of me if I could remember this rule.  So when she turned her back again, I  snuggled in with a blanket and bear and went to sleep. My assistant turned around again and gave me huge props for being such a big helper and good listener.  The children loved this little play:)

Rehearse
After explaining an expectation to the child, the next step in the process is to rehearse the expectation. The child or children must then practice what was just explained.

For example: The teacher explains how to throw a napkin in the trash; then demonstrates how to throw a napkin in the trash; then lets the child take a turn throwing the napkin in the trash.  This allow the teacher to evaluate the child's understanding of the expectation.

In the cot example above, my assistant and I had each of the children come and show us how to lay down on the cot all snuggly. We made a huge deal out of everyone as they eagerly showed us they understood the expectation.

Reinforce
Once an expectation has been explained and rehearsed, now the expectation can be reinforced. To reinforce an expectation, the teacher can...

Remind the child: "Don't forget to throw that napkin in the trash can!"
Redirect the child: "Should we put the napkin in the trash can or just leave it on the floor?"
Praise the child: "I noticed you threw the napkin in the trash can all by yourself! That was awesome!"

In the cot example, we carried our message into naptime through a positive and praiseworthy approach. The children found it more appealing to show us how they could keep those legs down. We reinforced the positive results by stating over and over, "you look so peaceful and cuddly on your cot" or "I am so proud of how you remember exactly what to do."

Back to Planning
When you see that an expectation is just not being met then this is sign to start back at the planning stage.

Perhaps time has gone by and the expectation has not been reinforced effectively or perhaps the child just wasn't developmentally ready to grasp the expectation. It could be that the expectation was simply not age appropriate. Regardless of the reason, when a child is not demonstrating an understanding of an expectation, then it is time to start the process all over again: Explain, Rehearse, Reinforce!


Victor, K. R. (2001) Identifying effective behavior management in the early childhood classroom. B.R.E. Practical Bible College.

Getting preschoolers to stop and listen

There are lots of techniques teachers use to capture the attention of the preschoolers.

Walk Over
When needing to get the attention of only one child or a small group of children playing together, it is always more effective just to walk over, bend down close and speak warmly to them.  What doesn't work well? Yelling across the room. Kids learn to tune this out pretty quickly.

Eye Contact
I always say if you don't have eye contact then you really don't have the child's attention. If I need the children to stop and listen to my words for a few seconds, I will use a creative technique to get their attention first (which will be described below) and then pause to get eye contact.  I might say, "Eyes on me so I can see you listening" and then wait again for just a second.


Waiting too long
I don't want to exasperate the situation by waiting too long for every student to stop and put their eyes on me. Waiting too long is like putting out fires. The minute you get one set of eyes, you will lose another. So go with the majority of eyes on you and move onto what it is you needed in the first place.


The child that just wont look at me
For this child, I often will walk over while talking to all the other children and gently take his or her hand and have them walk with me while I continue talking to everyone else. I avoid shouting or coming down on the child in front of everyone else. No need for humiliation and the truth is, shouting or harshness really isn't all that effective - it just creates stress and stress leads to a unhappy learning environment.


The observant child
Have you ever watched an adult lecture a child and just by observing you start to feel uncomfortable?  When you decided to come down on one child, the rest of the children may very well feel like they are being punished too. Children are sensitive to your body language, tone of voice, and choice of words whether or not they are target of your frustration.  I had one little girl tell me, "I don't like preschool.... my teacher yells at Nathan..."


It is better and more effective to walk over, make eye contact, and gently address concerns with a child or small group of children personally than to punish the entire class by making a loud scene.

Here are some great suggestions from my fans on Facebook! 
I recently posted a request for suggestions on Facebook and here are some of the responses that I found to be extremely creative.

Jess Mueller:

When I taught preschool we did clap imitations. I would clap a rhythm and that was their clue to quiet down and clap the rhythm after me. I kept clapping different rhythms until everyone caught on and was participating.

Brienna Parker:

"I turn off the lights and say...If you can hear my voice touch your head, If you can hear my voice touch you shoulders" ect It is a great game and it gets their attention. I do this all while lowering my voice. If I am outside, I will go to 3 or 4 children tell them to tell their friends that I am going to play a game and to com on over and I start doing that but much faster, those kids that came laugh and the kids that did not hear them laughing in a group and they come over, so much fun!!

Adriana Escobar

claps and lights works for me too, but I would use them when they'r getting out of control... usually I would say: "1-2-3 eyes on me" (then they will turn at me and blink their eyes) to get their attention.... it works just fine!

Sue Alva

i do "open, shut them, open, shut them, give a little clap, clap, clap, open, shut them, open, shut them, put them in your lap, lap, lap" my kids all know that means it is time to be quiet and listen.

Carol Martin Black:

I bought a soft flower at the dollar store for a $1.00 and it is about two ft long. I call it my 'quiet flower' and whenever I need the childrens attention or I need to talk to them I hold up that flower. I ask them what does this mean and they tell me it's time to listen or time to be quiet. Works great and I don't have to fuss at them the whole time.

Alicia Bayer:

"Raise your hand if you're listening to me." The kids quickly notice each other raising their hands and quiet down to figure out what's going on.

March 23 at 11:58am ·  · Report

Jen German:

I hold up my hand and count down from five, folding fingers down as I go. The kids catch on and start counting down with me, and when we get to one, the one finger goes over our lips in a shhhhh. So, 5,4,3,2,1,shhhh. By then (hopefully) all eyes are on me. I stole that from my son's kindergarten teacher 8 years ago :)

Kelli Gillim Wood:

We sing "Can you be as quiet as a mouse, mouse, mouse?" as loud as we can then repeat it over and over singing softer and softer until everyone is listening. We also squish down to mouse size too. It is not a slam dunk everytime but 2's and 3's seem to like it.

Tanya Sims

I use a call back- I say peanut butter and the students say jelly... and we do it a couple of times if we need too

Marcy McKee Emanuelli:

My lead teacher uses "criss cross applesauce" to sit inidan style and "make a bubble" (with your cheeks) to stop talking.

Diana Davis Pratte:

I have used wind chimes and moved them to get the kids attention. I have also used a xylophone and when that sound was made they were to freeze for directions. I also made up the song" Time to Listen" - Time to Listen, Time to Listen. Right now, Right now. Ears are open, Ears are open. Mouth is quiet (sh) mouth is quiet (sh).

Kim Robbie Lyons:

to get the whole class' attention, I say "catch a bubble in 5-4-3-2-1" and the kids catch a 'bubble' -- puffing their cheeks out.

To get an individual child's attention, I sing while spell their name -- ex. C-H-L-O-E spells Chloe, etc. I just find a tune that matches up with the amount of letters in their name.

Soha Saad Abdelkader:

SIMON SAYS:put ur hands up, shake ur hands, eyes on the teacher, now its my turn to talk & ur turn to listen
IT REALLY WORKS

Merrili Nou:

I whisper and go to one or two of the children, telling them that i need to tell the class something. usually the one or two children stopwhat they are doing, causing the other children to also stop and listen. :)

Erin Eller Jones: I

 would sing (to the tune of if you're happy and you know it) if you can hear my voice, clap your hands, if you can hear my voice clap your hand, if you can hear me it's time for listening, if you can hear my voice clap your hands.

Linda Blankenship Cardenas:

I use 123 all eyes on me, or if you can hear me clap 2 times, etc. Holding up my hand is called the quiet sign, and when they see it, they are supposed to raise their hand too, until everyone catches on and gets quiet.

Jamie Kinney Beastrom: I

 hit the lights ~ off means there is a direction to follow or an important message. they freeze and hands hit the air, they can't move until the lights go back on! works really well for us

Tom Hobson:

I just beat a drum. I use the drum for transitions so they know it means to pay attention.

Rahma Dona:

Just like teacher Tom but Tamborine i use its quite effective*)

Tom Hobson:

I use the drum at parent meetings too. Last year a parent made t-shirts of a cartoon Teacher Tom beating a drum and saying, "Stand up children!" It was so bizarre when the kids and their parents were wearing the shirts at school.

Sharon Gear:

we sing 'are you listening' and it's amazing how fast they all stop to listen....

Beryana Evridawati:

I'll clap n if it doesn't work, I'll call they name one by one..

Dewi Susanti Siahaan:

speak with low voice, almost whisper, if you think you can make your voice can be heard by only two or three students it is OK. trust me it works.

Clean-up time in the preschool classroom

There is sand all over the floor, paint on the table, and toys scattered about which means your class is having fun learning and playing but now it is time to clean it all up. What should you do?

Give the children a warning and some guidance
A few minutes before clean-up time begins, go around to each child or group of children and give them a heads up that it is almost time to clean up. Remind each group what they will need to do once clean-up time begins. For example, if a group of children are playing in the sand table, tell them that when you announce that it is clean-up time, they will need to shake all the sand off of their hands, then help sweep the sand up off the floor. Give your preschoolers guidance as to what you will be expecting from them when the clean-up time begins.

Use a clean-up song
You can either make-up your own clean-up song or see if another teacher has a clean-up song that you can borrow. After warning your students and giving them guidance that clean-up time is about to begin, wait a few minutes then begin singing the clean-up song. As you sing the song, go around the room and gently guide students back to the messes you want them to help with.

Offer up some praise
As students are helping, let them know that they are such good helpers. If you have a child that isn't helping, redirect the child to an area that needs some help and tell the child that it would mean the world to you if he or she would help his friends.

Be consistent
Make your clean-up routine consistent and don't give up. Your preschoolers will participate more favorably as they become used to the routine and see that you are not going to give up and do it all yourself.

Check your expectations
Preschoolers can do a great job helping to clean up the classroom but there will be areas that you may need to go back and touch up later on. Don't expect a spotless floor or table, instead make clean-up time about encouraging children to participate and do their very best.

Enable success
If you want your preschoolers to be successful in clean-up time then keep your classroom organized in such a manner that they will be able to put things away. Don't let messes get too out of control - if the mess gets too out of hand, preschoolers will be overwhelmed and unable to deal with the clean-up. Remember, preschoolers are still developing their cognitive ability to sort and classify items - clean-up time is a skill they must learn.

Have a mini-lesson
Each day, choose a clean-up skill you would like your students to learn. For example, show them how to use a broom and dust pan to sweep up some dirt, then take turns seeing if they can do it all by themselves.

Have a mini-lesson on where the trash can is and how to carry trash from the table to the can then have the children show you how they can do it all by themselves. Shout "hooray!" for every child.

Make clean-up  a rewarding experience and give preschoolers lots of praise for a job well attempted or well done.

To read more on mini-lessons in the classroom - click here.
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Copyright ©2009 Deborah J. Stewart; All Rights Reserved!

A Clean and Organized Classroom

When your preschool students walk into your classroom what do they see? Try standing on your knees at the door of your classroom and see if your classroom looks inviting, warm, clean, fun, and organized or does your classroom look cluttered, dirty, and chaotic?

Here are some important reasons for keeping your classroom clean:

Health: A clean classroom helps children stay healthy and fights against the spread of germs. A dirty classroom leads to illness and fussy children.

Care: A clean classroom tells your students that you care about their classroom and teaches them to care too. A dirty classroom leads to laziness and a lack of concern for the classroom environment, toys, and equipment.

Mood: A clean classroom simply makes everyone feel better which leads to more positive experience. A dirty classroom leaves everyone feeling frustrated and unhappy.

Impression: A clean classroom makes a good impression about you as a professional. A dirty classroom gives the impression that you may be nice but not very professional.


Here are some important reasons for keeping your classroom organized:

Independence: An organized environment helps children to be more independent. When they know where things belong, they are more able to do things all by themselves.

Behavior: An organized environment helps keep expectations about where to play, rest, put papers away, eat, and so forth which leads to more positive student behavior.

Attention: An organized environment helps teachers spend more time on their students rather than worrying over where things are and where things belong.

Education: An organized environment creates greater opportunities for student learning.

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Copyright ©2009 Deborah J. Stewart; All Rights Reserved!