Christmas Crafts!

I know it's a wee bit early to be getting excited about Christmas, but when you're surrounded by kids who are constantly chatting about Santa and BabyJesus (yep, they run the two words into each other, such is their enthusiasm!), Christmas trees and the hope of snow, it's impossible not be feel so merry!
So here's our Chistmas Crafts!

Snowman Jars

My original plan had been to replicate an project I did when I had some work experience in a Steiner school. We made very similar jars, but instead of doing snowmen, we made a leaf pattern. The snowmen were too sweet to pass up, after I saw the little face here.

Step 1: Organisation!
I put up a poster asking parents to bring in used, clean jam jars. We were soon up to our ears in them, it was great! Then I got some silicone paper. It's just like baking paper, but it's practically clear, not brown. I cut it into strips wide enough to wrap around the jars.
I cut out some orange triangles for noses, and punched a LOT of holes in black paper for 'coal' for the eyes and smiles (the kids could probably do that last step themselves, but I was stuck to time constraints on this one).

Step 2: The kids each took a strip of silicone paper and covered one side in pva glue. Then they arranged little faces using the shapes I cut out. This part was fun, and sticky! All their little fingers were covered in glue and neatly making faces was a challenge! They did a good job though!

Step 3: Wrap the glue-y side of the silicone paper around the jars, and pop a tea-light inside. They're so pretty! I'm making a whole bunch myself, for Christmas decorations!

Christmas Trees

This project takes mere minutes and has great results.

Step 1: Cut out semi-circles from green card.
Step 2: The children decorate the card with markers and stickers.
Step 3: Bend the card into a cone shape and tape together.
Step 4: Stick a paper star on top and a kitchen paper tube on the bottom and voila! Christmas trees!

Gingerbread Men

My Dad is a baker (I know, heaven), and he gave me a big box of undecorated gingerbread men he made. I bought some icing pens, sprinkles and mini Smarties and let the kids go loopy! They really enjoyed this one, probably cos I let them nibble away as we worked. We tried to save some to send home, but I don't know how successful we were. Here's one before he met his untimely end...

We're doing one more Christmas Craft, but I'll post about that one next time. It's time consuming, I'll tell you that much! Feels only right I should devote a whole post to it!

Hope you're enjoying all the Christmas buzz! :)

Winter Fun!

November was a busy month, I didn't get a chance to sit down and write once! We started preparation for our Christmas Play. Early, I know, and the songs are on constant repeat in my head now, but still fun!
I split my sides laughing at the kids dancing away and getting really serious about the whole business.

Here's an update on November's Crafts.

We did some more handprint trees. I think I'm going to do these every season now, and put them together in one big sheet for the kids to take home at the end of the year. It'll be a lovely momento of their time in pre-school!
This time, instead of doing outlines of their hands in crayon, we did handprints with brown paint. The snow flakes came in the form of white finger prints, and we tore up some crepe paper to make the frosty ground. Here's everything you'll need:

And here's how they look when it all comes together!

Another sweet winter project we did was make cloud mobiles. I found this lovely craft on another blog, and altered it slightly. You can find the original here.

We painted cardboard clouds in blue, grey and white, then waited for them to dry.

I cut out a bunch of mittens from felt, in all different colours. It would have been nice for the kids to do this themselves but felt is tricky, and their cutting skills aren't up to it yet.
They did however do the next part themselves, which was to cut twine, (I tied it to the mittens then) and sellotape the twine to the back of the clouds. The final piece was a little copy of our winter poem. I photocopied it on coloured paper and gave them out. Here's the finished things!

I think they look brilliant! Our Winter poem goes like this:

The Winter wind blows,

The Winter wind blows.

Icy fingers, icy toes!

Bright red cheeks and a bright red nose!

It gives me the shivers!

From my head to my toes.

In November, we also learned about shape. I played a game called Hunt the Shape.
Step 1: Present the children with a large paper shape. Name it.
Step 2: Tell the children to close their eyes, then you hide it somewhere in the room (somewhere pretty obvious, like stuck to the wall)
Step 3: Ask one of the children to 'Find the ______', and name the shape again.
Step 4: When the child finds it and brings it back, ask 'Is this a _____ (shape)?', and when the children confirm it is, burst into a round of applause!
Step 5: Repeat with all the children.

When they have the hang of this, present a few shapes at a time, and hide them all together. Then say "Can you find the circle?" I think this one really helps them to identify their shapes, and the praise from the other children really spurs them on!

We also did Shape Collages, matching shapes to their friends. Just some matching and sticking in this activity, but they really enjoyed it.

Then, at the end of the project we coloured in a picture of a Shape Robot. We said "Let's colour in all his squares first" and "Next let's do his triangles!". At the end, we named the robots, just for the craic. There were some gems, like Zia, Buzz and Sean.

So, November was a busy month! And December is looking much the same! We're doing a couple of sweet Christmassy Crafts, and we are having so much fun. I love being a pre-school teacher, the magic of Christmas will never go away!

The Bird Project

So far this year, the Bird Project has been my favourite thing. I had lots of fun planning it, and the kids got really into it. Since doing the project, I have become fascinated by birds! I always knew they were beautiful creatures, but I never truly appreciated why they’re so flippin great!

I decided to do the bird project as my boss was covering hibernation, and usually she does a little on migration too. I took migration and claimed it as my own, and completely took it over for 3 weeks. Don’t worry, my boss was happy out with that! The children must have picked up on how passionate I grew about the topic, because one little boy said to me: “Migration? Or YOURgration?” which I thought was pretty funny.

Circle Time

We started the topic of migration and birds at circle time. We sat on a mat together and I took out some pictures of different birds I had printed off online and laminated. We discussed what we knew about hibernation and then wondered how birds cope with the cold weather and little food. I introduced the topic of migration, and we focussed on two birds- the swallow and the cuckoo. We had a look at this fantastic book:

I found it in my local library and it became the backbone of the project. It’s really neat, ‘cos you can look at these beautiful photographs of the birds and then listen to their songs! The kids loved matching the birds to their songs.

Bird Feeders

After discussing birds that migrate, we had a little look at some birds who stick around at Winter. We had a look at the robin in particular. Then we talked about the importance of feeding the birds at Winter. This inevitably lead to making bird feeders! We did extremely simple ones- just a pipe cleaner with Cheerios threaded on. The kids had a good time, and they were working on their fine motor skills, unbeknown to them!

Paper Birds

Next, we made our own bird decorations. I used a tutorial on Pretty Pointless Things’ blog, the birds were so pretty and they fit into our project perfectly. Here’s the tutorial:

http://pointlessprettythings.blogspot.ie/2011/10/diy-paper-birds.html

And here’s ours!
We added googly eyes and the kids painted them instead of using patterned paper; made them a little more pre-school-y. They hung in our room a little while, and then after the 3 weeks the kids took them home.

Headbands

The next part of our project was devoted to feathers. We discussed birds’ feathers, and how they can keep them dry and help them fly. Then we decided we wanted to do some flying of our own! This was the simplest project, as all we did was glue feathers onto strips of card and tie elastic to the back to keep them on our heads. Here’s mine:

Attractive, right? I wore mine all week; at the shopping centre, in the library, in the restaurant having dinner with my boyfriend... I kid. But I did love it.

Flying!

Once we had our fabulous headbands on, we went to the Big Hall for some excercises. As birds, of course. Here’s our warm-up excercise:

We start off as a little egg, sitting in our nest.

(Sit, curled up small on the mat)

Then- CRACK!- we hatch out, baby birds!

(Burst out of the curled-up-ball, but stay sitting down)

Oh what a long time we’ve spent in that egg, let’s stretch!

(Sit down and stretch out arms and legs)

We can’t fly down to the ground to get some tasty worms, so we’ll have to ask our Mommas to get us some...

(Bounce on haunches, say ‘cheep cheep!’)

Now that we’re big and strong, let’s stretch these wings of ours.

(Stand up and stretch arms. Slowly flap them)

Ooh, they work quite nicely, let’s go for a little fly!

(Start walking around the room, slowly flapping arms up and down)

Wow, this is fun! Let’s see how fast we can fly!

(Run around, flapping arms!)

Now it’s time to make our own nest and lay our own eggs!  

(Return to mat, curl up in an egg shape again)

And finally, a bit of drawing...

When it came to free-time, the kids really enjoyed reading the Birdsong book together, and even took out my laminated photos to draw the birds! I hung their efforts on our wall:

 

I love the blackbird, what a face!

And that’s our bird project! We had so much fun, I hope you enjoyed our project too! :)

My Home Project!

So finally I've gotten around to writing about the My Home project. It's so simple, but My Goodness, the kids absolutely loved it.

Step 1: Preparation

I cut out house shapes on A3 card, and each child was given a Home for their own.
Next, I gave the parents of every child a note, which said something along the lines of:

Dear Parent/ Guardian,
In the coming weeks here at __________, we will be doing a project about our homes. It would be great if you could bring in some family photos for the project. These photos could include parents, grandparents, siblings, extended family, the child themself or even pets! Anyone who is important to your child could be included. One or two photos would be great, but please bring in as many as you like! If it is awkward to bring in photos then please email me some photos at __________, or bring them in on a USB and I will print them off. OR we could take a quick snap of you and your child one morning!
Thanks very much,
Rebecca

Step 2:

The kids painted and decorated their Homes as they wanted.

Step 3:

After the Homes had dried (we pegged ours on the indoor washing line overnight), the children and I chose photos from the selections their parents had brought in. The kids stuck their photos on with pritt-stick, and I made little lables with their names on, which they also stuck on.

Step 4: 

That evening I lamenated each Home. I would really recommend this, even though it wasn't in my original plan. The Homes were much more robust, and they surely needed to be after all the use they've had with us! I cut out the lamenated sheets around the Home, to keep their shape.

Step 5:

The next day we had a circle time session. Each child had their Home in their hands, and we went around the circle introducing our families and having a chat about similarities and differences. When each child had finished I said "Let's give a round of applause for ______'s family!" which encouraged the kids to praise each other and feel happy for each other's acomplishments and individuality.


Here's a picture of my finished Home. Yep, I made one too, and I did it step-by-step with the kids. It was fun, and the kids loved the idea of me having a life outside pre-school!

For the time being I'm keeping all the Homes in pre-school. This way, the children can access their Homes and pictures of their families whenever they like. It's been great to see the kids showing each other their families and asking to hear about each others' families. The parents have also taken a real interest in the project and have popped in to see the project as we moved through it.

My next post will be all about the Bird/ Migration Project- a Ma-hoo-sive success!
Bye for now!

Woo-hoo! First cycle down, new plans!

So, all done with my first 3-week-cycle! Let's see if I met the goals of my 4 learning areas...

My Home

Unfortunately, I only got started on the project this week. Which means that I'll be following this little activity on through the next 2 weeks. But that's okay! The thing with the My Home project is that I needed photographs from each kid, so that took a little while to gather. But fair enough! It's a busy time for parents, September, and I understood that and didn't get all pushy and "OH MY GOD, I'm TRYING to educate your children here, just print off a load of photgraphs, will you?!" as I have seen in other places...
I'll post some pictures and a whole lesson plan for the project next time.

Physical Activities

I covered this in my last post, so as you know, this was a complete success! I mentioned that this activity was carried on into circle time, so let's cover that bit now!

Circle Time

After P.E. in the Hall, we came back to our room and sat in a circle. As I said before, the kids thought of their favourite things during meditation time. In our circle, we got out crayons, paint and paper and made pictures of our favourite things. Here are a few!

"Painting with her friends"

"Playing a Thomas the Tank Engine Game"

"Peppa Pig"

They really dug this, and had fun sharing with the group what their favourite things were. Aside from the 'favourite things' activity, we also did a little bit of 'hibernation', autumn songs, counting as a group at roll time, and our Name Song, which goes like this:

Look at ________, sitting in her chair,

Doesn't she look happy there?

Everybody give a cheer ("Yahoo!")

Just for _______, sitting in her chair.

It's sung to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. At first the kids were really shy about this song, especially when it came to their turn to put in their name, but now they all ask to sing it in the mornings. 

The My Home project is also completed with a circle time activity, but I'll go into that in detail in the lesson plan.

Autumn

We did our Autumn handprint trees (which are now hanging outside the door of our room, so parents have been admiring them!), which I posted pictures of. One of the other teachers did free-painting using Autumn colours, which turned out really nice.
My boss is also covering hibernation with the kids, which we've been doing at circle time/roll call at the start of the day. Here's a picture of our hedgehog who comes out to visit from the nature table, and tell us what he eats and where he goes at winter.

We also went on a little nature walk this week! We just went out to a nearby chestnut tree, to gather conkers and leaves and have a look at all the Autumn colours. The kids loved it. I wish I could post pictures, but obviously, due to privacy and child protection issues, I won't be posting pictures of (or naming) any of the great kids I work with. Here's our collection anyway, which we sorted out when we got back.

And now I'm all ready for my next 3-week-cycle!
I'm going to continue work on the My Home project, and I'm starting our Bird project! I'm really excited about this one! I have activities planned in arts & crafts, circle time and P.E. If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them! It would be great to have a poem or song about birds, or maybe another little nature walk... Any ideas, I'd love to hear them!
Bye for now!

How it's going- autumn crafts and P.E.

Hello!
Just a quick post on how the three-week plan is going. With my first group last week, I covered nearly everything I was hoping to, so that was FAB. I'll just briefly go through two of my learning areas I discussed last week, let you know how things are progressing.

Autumn

This went well! As you saw in the last post, the handprint trees came out great. We also worked a little on the colour orange- identifying it in the environment and working on orange card to give our paintings an Autumn theme (more on our paintings later).
In the large group, at roll time, we also started on hibernation. One of the other pre-school teachers is covering this in more depth, with projects and crafts, but it was nice to all start it together. She brought in a garden ornament of a hedgehog which is now living on the nature table. When the leaves start really falling, the kids are going to make him a cosy little hibernation home!

P.E.

This went really really well! The kids were so interested in doing all their stretches and warm-ups before letting loose. I just did some simple ones; waking-up, reach for the sun, roll your head, windmill arms; all the simple ones.
Then we played a quick game called Lions and Chickens. (I divided the kids into two groups and said "This group will be lions! And what do lions eat?" and the unanimous verdict was 'chickens', so we ran with that. Reason being- given the chance, I'm sure lions would love a juicy chicken). So the kids are in two groups, one of lions and one of chickens (after the first game I let the kids choose what group they'd like to be in).
The lions say "I'm a lion in the jungle and I'm looking for my tea!" and the chickens reply "Please Mr. Lion, don't eat me!", then the chickens run off, and after a few seconds I 'release' the lions! It's basically a game of chase, but it helps the kids with patience and they work in groups too :)
At the end of P.E, after they've had lots of time to release their energy, we do a wind-down, or meditation. It's very simple, but I think I'll evolve it as the year goes on. First we all gather on a mat, get comfortable and close our eyes. Then we do some deep breaths, in through the nose and out through the mouth. Then I start telling a story:

Imagine you have your very own hot air balloon. You climb into the basket and set off into the air. You fly high, high, high above the countryside. You can feel the cool breeze on your face, and it's very quiet and peaceful up in the sky. What can you see?

The kids answer, and meditation becomes a quiet discussion. I ask the kids to think about their favourite thing they've done today/ this week/ ever!

This is carried on into circle time, which I'll talk about in the next post! I'll also update you on the My Home project. Until then, I have just one more tip that I've found to work a treat!
When all the kids are being really noisy or chatty, and it's time to be quiet (such as at meditation or story-time), I say "Hear hear, show me your rabbit ears!" and the kids cup their hands behind their ears and are ready to listen! I Love this one, and the kids are all smiles and giggles, and ready to hear what you have to say!
Bye for now :)

Plans, poems and Autumn leaves.

Week one is done and dusted! The difference between the kids on Day One and this Monday is amazing. They are much more confident, and it's far easier to hold their attention for longer period of time (such as through a Whole Rhyme).

And so, the plans have begun. To start with, we (being myself and the two other pre-school teachers) came up with some broad learning areas to cover this Autumn:

• Practical Life
• The Environment
• All About Me
• Autumn Time
• Shape
• Colours
• Pre-Writing
• Number
• Animals

Then we each came up with a bunch of stuff under these headings; from structured activities (e.g. Matching Mommas to Babies in learning about Animals) to gentle reminders (e.g. Hanging your coat on your own peg, for Practical Life).

And so I've begun gathering ideas to match these themes. I've made up my three week plan and I am already getting stuck in! (If you remember, each of us teachers has a group of 10 kids each week, and we rotate and repeat our plans until all the children have had a go).

My three week plan is quite simple this time, being that it's still early days. I've divided it into 4 basic areas:

• My Home
• Physical Activities
• Circle Time
• Autumn

Some of these will overlap too, extending the learning into all areas of their day. For example, the My Home project involves both an art project and a follow-on at circle time.

Today, I got started on an Autumn craft project. Here's how it went.

1. I used Shirley Hughes' great book, Out and About, to show the kids gorgeous water-colour paintings of a day in the park in Autumn. We discussed how the trees were all different colours, how the children were wrapped up warm, and how the leaves had fallen to the ground. Then I read them a poem from the book; 'Misty'.

Mist in the morning, raw and nippy

Leaves on the pavement, wet and slippy.

Sun on fire behind the trees

Muddy boots, muddy knees.

Shop windows lighted early,

Soaking grass; dewy, pearly.

Red, lemon

Orange and brown

Silently, softly

The leaves float down.

 

The last four lines are my favourite!

2. We each took a brown crayon and a sheet of paper and traced an outline of our hands. Then we shaded these in. These were our tree branches!

3. The next step is the best bit. I put out trays of paint in yellow, brown, orange, red and green. (We had to mix paints to make orange and brown, a whole lesson in itself!). We stuck our thumbs into the paint and then onto our trees- and made leaves from the thumbprints! I have to say, it looked pretty great. Everyone was wearing aprons, so we were all clean, but I was surprised at how much the kids wanted to stay clean! Washing their hands afterwards was very important, they informed me.

Here are our creations!

 

What I love about it is that each child's tree is totally different from the others. Some of the kids really enjoyed mixing the colours, and so their leaves are less defined and more of a blur! One little girl showed me how some of the leaves weren't on the tree because they were 'floating down'.

A simple autumn craft to start off with, but so effective!

Welcomes and Wobblers

Well, today was the Big Day. According to my boss, today is the toughest day of the year. It certainly had it's moments!

Oh God, the homesickness. One little girl couldn't speak she was crying so hard. Another little boy was shaking all over and crying. It would break your heart. </3


But, I was prepared for this sort of thing! Here's how I dealt with it:

1. Emotion labeling. 

I tried to recognise the kids' need to feel these emotions, and not immediately redirect them. So I'd sit/ crouch down beside them and say "I can see you're feeling very sad. The first day of pre-school can be hard, can't it? It can make you feel a bit sad, but that's okay. But this is a really fun place, and you'll be feeling happy soon; what would you like to do?"

2. Redirecting. 

Usually kids in that state won't suddenly stand up and say "Lego", so I found myself making suggestions and drawing their attention to other children and activities in the room. In some cases, this was all that needed to be done, and there were no more tears all day! Yahoo!

3. Ignoring.  

That was a tough one. Sometimes, when there was no getting through to them, I had to step away (just a little bit away) and engage with another child close-by. This would catch the attention of the first child and often they'd wander over and join in. This strategy doesn't always work, and you can tell pretty early on when it's not working and you need to try something else.

4. Helpers. 

Asking the kids to be your 'helpers' can allow them to adapt the role of confident, competent little people who don't feel scared anymore, but who can do Awesome Things, like sweeping and finding the lost toy (hidden in quite an obvious place, natch).

5. Choice. 

This one doesn't usually work if the child has worked themselves up into a state of tears and shivers, but if they're just apprehensive and shy, offering a choice can be perfect. It can give a feeling of "This is a place for me, and I can do what I like to do". If they're Very shy, you could say "How about this?" and give a suggestion, because giving a choice of anything in the room can feel a little overwhelming for some.

Of course, sometimes a kid needs that special person and nothing else will do. No, not Spiderman, but a parent/sibling/favourite carer... And so, once or twice today I had to admit that I was just not cutting it, and ask my boss (who also works in the pre-school room) if she could step in. A lot of the kids already know her (small community) and were comforted pretty quick.

But, I'm proud to say that I became the SAVIOUR (I'm exaggerating) of many children today, and I was able to help them get their groove back and have the craic.

I expect mostly the same reactions from the kids tomorrow. And for the next week. Pre-school is hard when you're new!

One week to go

My first day is drawing near! This Monday I'll be trotting into the pre-school alongside a group of nervous 3 and 4 year olds. I'm so excited to get to know all these new little people with whom I'll be spending the next year. At the same time though, I'm so nervous. What happens if the children are desperately home-sick and nothing I can do will console them? What if they run to their parents at the end of the day and tell them their new teacher is boring? What if the other teachers think my ideas are ridiculous and naive...?

But I can't think like that, I know. No sense wasting energy worrying. So, I've been working on my scrapbook and ideas, trying to be as prepared as I can be. At the open day the other teachers told me that we'll be basing a lot of our activities on the seasons, so I've been thinking of some Autumn crafts and activities.

Aswell as Autumn activites, I've been thinking of some practical life skills that may need to be developed. This may be the first time that many of the children will be part of a group outside their family, and there are certain skills they'll have to learn, like turn-taking, listening, empathy and kindness. So I've been working on some lessons around this too. I've been looking into Aistear; its section on Identity and Belonging is incredibly useful.

Would you like to have a peek inside my journal? :)

This is towards the start of my journal, where I'm keeping my ideas for activities to foster a sense of group belonging and personal identity. The 'My Home' project is taken from a story one of my lecturers told us about a pre-school in Norway (I'd love to visit there, check out their fantastic creches).

(As I do each activity in the pre-school I'll post more detailed lesson plans, as well as how they went and what I might improve in the future)

I thought it might be nice to do a project on birds. I've included stretching activites and physical education lessons, crafts, songs and circle time ideas.

And now, for some reason, the internet won't allow me to upload any more pictures! I'll put up some more pictures from my journal in the coming weeks.

So I'll say goodbye, until The First Day!

Away we go!

Hello!
So, here I am at my very first blog. I've decided to use this slice of the internet to document my journey as a brand new Pre-School teacher, and I am so excited.

I have just finished up with college. Boy howdy, was I glad to shake my head out after all those exams, a dissertation, and countless projects and essays. I got my results recently, and it turns out the hard slog paid off, because I am now the proud owner of a First Class Honours degree in Early Childhood Care and Education!

And it is armed with this knowledge and enthusiasm that I take my first steps into employment. I went for a couple of interviews and managed to bag a great job as a Pre-School Teacher in a village within driving distance of home.


My contract is for 38 weeks, so the plan is to keep this blog going for that time, as I explore the ups-and-downs, rewards and challenges of being a first time Pre-School Teacher.
The kids I'll be working with are between the ages of 3 and 4 years old, and are all Irish kids. There are two other pre-school teachers in the centre with me (and they are such lovely, enthusiastic ladies!), and there are 30 kids in all.

The way it works in this particular pre-school is that I'll have a group of 10 children, with whom I'll go through my lesson plans and activities with, for one week. The other pre-school teachers will each be working from their own lesson plans with a group of 10 kids each, and after the week is up, we rotate our kids and start again! After 3 weeks, it's new lesson plans and activities. I think this will be an interesting way to do things, as we can constantly improve our practice, and get a really good idea of what works and what doesn't.

So! Here's where the blog comes in! I'll be documenting what I'm learning as I go along, as well as all my ideas for lesson plans, activities, my influences and the future!
I get a lot of inspiration from the Irish Early Childhood Curricular Framework, Aistear (it's Irish for 'journey', nice huh?), which you can read all about HERE. It's a pretty great curriculum and worth a read. It has pieces for parents too, which is handy!
I also love the Steiner philosophy and will be working a little with that. You can read more about how Steiner works for pre-schools HERE.
I'm really interested in the Reggio-Emilia school of thought too, but I'm still learning!

I'd love to hear from any readers of this blog; if you come offering advice, suggestions or ideas all the better! For the moment, I'll keep preparing my scrapbook of ideas for when I begin (I'll post some pictures up in my next post). So looking forward to the Big Day of starting Pre-School!
Bye for now!