Hi! It’s Lola from Preschool Wonders. I am so excited to be a guest blogger for
Nicki today. I teach Early Childhood
Special Education/Title 1.
My morning
class is comprised of 3 and 4 year olds.
My afternoon class is made up of 4 and 5 year olds who will be going to
kindergarten the following year. I try
to get my little learners as ready as I can for kindergarten. I refer to CCSS for kindergarten often so I
can at least try to expose my learners to what they will be expected to know
the next year.
As you can imagine (and probably not any different than a
regular ed. class) my sweeties are all over the map with skill level. I have one favorite activity that I do on the
first day of school. It’s pretty simple,
and depending on what you want to add it can be useful for the remainder of the
school year. I have my students decorate
placemats that are pulled out during snack time. If you don’t have a snack time, you could
pull it out just as a learning/personal reference sheet.
I do this first thing, since my kids don't
get to school at the same time on the first day (buses run late, etc). I have
my little ones decorate them while we are waiting for everyone to arrive. I give them a piece of construction paper with their name and
birthday on it and lots of fun stuff to glue on (like tissue paper squares,
construction paper pieces. shape stickers, number stickers, etc). I laminate
them and use them at snack time throughout the year.
While they are eating
snack I can do a quick assessment of one or two kids a day on shape, color,
letters in name, etc. I encourage them to trace their names with their fingers
while they are waiting for their snack or while they are waiting for their friends to
finish. This year I am going to add
little dots and arrows to help them know where to start the letter and what
direction to go while tracing. They love the art activity on the first day of
school and it keeps them busy while I am helping late arrivers get settled in.
I then can use them the rest of the year. :)
Here is a picture of one I just put together as an
example. I like to have my sweeties tear
the tissue/construction paper to add a fine motor element, as well {not an easy
feat for most!}
I made some items that you can give your learners
to decorate their learning/placemats.
Head over to my blog to download them, if you are
interested!
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