Ask Dr. BKW - Ideas to celebrate teacher/staff appreciation Week of May 4

The heart of those who impart knowledge while children are at school and/or child development centers are the teachers and staff members who want the best for them becoming productive citizens of society.  Start the week of May 4 has been set aside to celebrate “Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week” to tell everyone know the roles played to enhance and expose children to lifelong experiences.

Here are some ideas to show teachers/staff members how important they are to you and your child.

1.      Donate to a charity in Honor of your Teacher/Staff member,

2.      Give a gift certificate to their favorite store or mall,

3.      Obtain wish list and give classroom supplies,

4.      Plant a tree in Honor of your Teacher/Staff member,

5.      Bake homemade treats and put in decorative container with personal card made by child,

6.      Visit local Farmer’s Market and create a food bouquet,

7.      Cook a cultural dish,

8.      Use social media to send “Thank You” card/message, and

9.      Volunteer in classroom.

Remember, teachers and staff members spend a large amount of time educating and interacting with children in classroom lessons to extracurricular activities.  Whatever type of appreciation gifts opted to go is a small token to let teachers/staff members that they truly have a passion being in the profession of education.  Two words “thank you” will mean so much to teachers/staff members during this week along with at least one of the above listed items.  These acts of kindness remind teachers/staff members why they enter the doors each day and spend countless hours and personal income for children to have what is needed in knowing “I care about YOU!”  Thanks for all YOU have done and continue to do for the children.

Ask Dr. BKW - How to use short-range to long-range skills from data assessment for pre-k children?

The heart of those who impart knowledge while children are at school and/or child development centers are the teachers and staff members who want the best for them becoming productive citizens of society.  Start the week of May 4 has been set aside to celebrate “Teacher/Staff Appreciation Week” to tell everyone know the roles played to enhance and expose children to lifelong experiences.

Here are some ideas to show teachers/staff members how important they are to you and your child.

1.      Donate to a charity in Honor of your Teacher/Staff member,

2.      Give a gift certificate to their favorite store or mall,

3.      Obtain wish list and give classroom supplies,

4.      Plant a tree in Honor of your Teacher/Staff member,

5.      Bake homemade treats and put in decorative container with personal card made by child,

6.      Visit local Farmer’s Market and create a food bouquet,

7.      Cook a cultural dish,

8.      Use social media to send “Thank You” card/message, and

9.      Volunteer in classroom.

Remember, teachers and staff members spend a large amount of time educating and interacting with children in classroom lessons to extracurricular activities.  Whatever type of appreciation gifts opted to go is a small token to let teachers/staff members that they truly have a passion being in the profession of education.  Two words “thank you” will mean so much to teachers/staff members during this week along with at least one of the above listed items.  These acts of kindness remind teachers/staff members why they enter the doors each day and spend countless hours and personal income for children to have what is needed in knowing “I care about YOU!”  Thanks for all YOU have done and continue to do for the children.

Autism Awareness Month - Working with Preschoolers

April is Autism Awareness month a time to inform people and plan fundraising activities for research for quality treatment.  Autism is a disorder that affects one in every 110 children in the United States that more attention must be addressed at younger ages.  Some early indicators that one may have autism is lack of interest in social play with same-age children and imaginative play, lack of eye contact, repeating motions or words and delay in speech development for age.  Review this YouTube click titled, “What is Autism?  Do You Know the Signs? for more information on autism.  Presently there is not cure but there are effective treatments that can begin in the child’s early years.

As a preschool teacher or parents these are some activities that can work with autistic children:

1.      Use a dollhouse and pretend the dolls are going through the daily routine at school (pretend play).

2.      Spray shaving cream on a table and let the child smear it all around (sensory).

3.      Play a board game like “Candy Land” and reward each child for taking turns (taking turns).

4.      Play “I Spy” where both children had to look at the same object (sharing experience).

5.      Pretend to be different animals where children must mimic animal behaviors and sounds (imitation).

When you engage in these and other activities remember to have fun and offer frequent rewards to keep the autistic child engaged.  As you continue to engage in different activities with the child work on phasing out rewards as the desired behaviors are increased.  Continue to research and provide best practices culturally developmentally age appropriate activities.

 

 

Bringing Poetry to Pre-K Children

As we celebrate National Poetry Month with the focus on preschool age children that provides them the opportunity to learn new vocabulary words, ideas and real-life experiences through the eyes of what the poet wants seen in the words heard.  Through repetition of simple poems shared in the classroom as adults they can still recite them such as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “ABC song”.  Poetry can be used for the following reasons with preschoolers:

1.      Expose children to classic and contemporary poetry,

2.      Provide enjoyment in poems in silly words and humor,

3.      Stimulate children’s imagination and write dictation (word-for-word), and

4.      Increase vocabulary.

While looking for poetry that relate and/or reinforce study theme remember they can be described as the following:

1.      Lyric melodic – descriptive poetry that often has a song quality,

2.      Narrative poetry – tells a story or describes an event or happening,

3.      Limerick – a poem with five lines of verse set in a specific rhyming patter usually humorous,

4.      Free verse poetry – does not rhyme, and

5.      Nonsense poetry – often is ridiculous and whimsical.

As you recite the old classic nursery songs with children such as “Here We Go ‘Round the Mulberry Bush”, “London Bridge is Falling Down”, “Three Blind Mice” and so forth you want to encourage children to dictate their own poems.  Remember, when children are dictating their poems write down verbatim, with no editing from you because they are the author.  If you need help in embedding poetry into the study theme, check out these books.

1.      Ghigna, C.  (1995(.  Riddle rhymes.  New York:  Hyperion,

2.      Moore, H. H.  (1997).  A poem a day.  New York:  Scholastic,

3.      Prelusky, J.  (1986).  Read-aloud rhymes for the very young.  New York:  Knopf, and

4.      Roemer, H.  (2004).  Come to my party and other shape poems.  New York:  Henry Holt.

An activity you can do with the children is create a “Poetry Quilt”.  Select the children’s favorite poem and read helping them to think what they would draw, paint and/or use collage materials to tell what the poem means to them.  Provide materials for the children to use in creating their “Poetry Quilt” once completed add words stated by children to quilt pieces. 

The poetry quilt activity can be extended by placing tape recorders throughout the classroom and record children’s conversations.  At the end of the day, listen to the tape with co-teacher then write down the best lines to create class poem. The next day, share with children the wonderful poetry they created while playing in centers and they can create “Class Poetry Quilt”. 

Here are some helpful websites as you continue to plan activities for celebrating National Poetry Month exposing children to poetry throughout the school year.  First, is “The Academy of  American Poets at http://www.poets.org and select “For Educators” link.  Second, is “Famous Poetry Online at http://www.poetry-online.org and select Poetry for Children, then Funny Poetry.  And third, is “Poets House” at http://poetshouse.org.  Click on Collection and then Children’s Room. 

Poetry is one way to help preschoolers express what is going on in the world around them.  Knowledge is powerful.