Nature's Gift To Early Childhood

It's Saturday morning, my eyes are searching over the grassy, green field that sweeps our back field. I am thrown back by the beauty of nature and all that it has to offer. As we are deep into spring and headed for the dog days of summer, what are you doing in your classroom to promote such beauty and grace?

The early childhood classroom is much like the grassy field that envelops my eyes this morning. Or at least it should be. It should be open for possibilities, free to express sound, room for seeds to be sown and learning to be draped over each and every child just as the Laurel Oaks are canopied with new life.

Early childhood is the start of something beautiful. It's fresh and new, it's pliable, it's moldable, it's the chance to shape a world. However, in most cases it is not any of these things.

Take for instance, the habit of television in an early childhood classroom, the strict schedule of routines that really aren't child-initiated, but more teacher-directed for their purpose, the closed opportunities such as color this pre-drawn tree green because all trees are green, or the one-child-at-a-time table session. Oh this one is my favorite. You know, the one where each child has a tree ditto in front of them and they are told to not touch it, do not touch the paint, do not touch anything while the teacher holds the paint brush for each of them and paints inside the lines of the tree. After a long while, she proceeds to the next child and so on. Oh my goodness, I know I would have been the child to get up running from the classroom as soon as the door opened yelling, "Save me before my adult life is crushed by the closed opportunities that wait before me!".

Why is it that we can't get passed the controlled nature of teaching? Why is it that teachers can't let-it-go? Why are they so stuffy?

Many times it is out of shear laziness. Now I am being honest, it's my down-fall most days. I can't help with that problem, but sometimes it is out of a lack of knowledge. Many teachers in the early childhood field are given a quick set of trainings required by their state then thrown overboard into the classroom without a life preserver. Man overboard! That I can help with.

I want you to imagine a world with no limits, no boundaries, no one telling us NO. The joy of living each and everyday open to possibilities, the feeling of I'm safe, the urgency of learning, the excitement of a story. This should be your early childhood classroom. Each day a child should know that they will walk through your door and learn something new, feel safe and comforted, have anticipation to hear the story you're going to read, and know that if they are told "no" it's because of their safety and not because they can't paint today.

As the winds blows through the field and the sun peaks through with a new day, allow yourself to blow with the flow and take a peak at the something new a child will learn from you each and everyday. It's easy, so go ahead and release!

Until next time...go teach the children!
Priscilla

My 8 Bare Feet: You Can Now Subscribe By Email

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Snoring Is Boring Unless You're My Friend Bear

Recently, I was asked to be a featured blogger for ABC and 123 A Learning Cooperative and I have to say that I was flattered. Now, for those of you that do this all the time, it's probably not that big of a deal to you, but for me...I was super excited! I was asked to share about reading, which is right up my path of teaching.

I love working with books in a preschool classroom. When I was an actual teacher in a preschool classroom, I used a book-of-the-month method and it just worked beautifully. My children learned all about the books I featured, the attributes of the books (front, back, title, author, illustrator, etc), and I want to believe they learned to have a love of books through this process.

One fall, I decided to do our book of the month featuring Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson and illustrated by Jane Chapman. This is one of my favorite books of all time to read preschool children. There are so many learning opportunities in the book and as the series grew, so did my ideas.

First the book is a rhyming book and we know that phonological awareness and onset and rime is vital to the success of a child reading. If they can begin to put the symbols together to form words, decode and then change the rime to make more words, they will read.

"In a cave in the woods,

in his deep, dark lair,

through the long, cold winter,

sleeps a great brown bear."

I have always thought that I have a knack for making something out of nothing or something small. I challenge you to think about this paragraph and how it can be expanded into greater literacy knowledge.

Emergent Literacy Standards (Florida Voluntary Prekindergarten Education Standards)

• first thing we notice is that it rhymes: demonstrates beginning phonological awareness
• the lair isn't just a lair, it's a deep, dark lair: uses descriptive words
• the use of a synonym: cave is the same as lair

These are just a few of the literacy skills that can be implemented by using the book. As an early childhood teacher (any teacher for that matter) you should never just look at book and read it page by page without really picking the words of the page apart. You should always be thinking, "How can I use the words and pictures on this page to extend the learning potential?".

Page after page the repetitive nature of the book suggests that the bear snores on...this use enables the children to predict text and begin to coral read as a group. Pretty soon they can read the book in its entirety. The key is repetition. And the key to great repetition is creativity. So on to the fun stuff we go.

As I read this book time and time again in my class of three-year-olds, we started exploring the different elements happening. We figured out by the pages in the book that it was winter time. And from there it became a question of what type of animals sleep (hibernate) in the winter? How long do they hibernate? What are all of his friends doing up partying? Why is the rabbit called a hare?

These are inquisitive questions that little minds need to know. So you teach them and you explore with them and you ask their thoughts and opinions.

We worked hard through the week painting our cave or lair (a very expensive box) and we prepared for our bears to enter their deep sleep (I rhymed!).

As the week came to an end we had to put our bears asleep for the winter. Each of the children brought in a bear from home, we labeled them with their names (because all bears have names), we snapped a photo of a moment in time and we carefully put them down to sleep.

Three months later (no kidding), the bears came out of hibernation in the middle of night and they made a mess in our classroom (I can't believe that I didn't capture this moment with film, but I didn't!) with paint, play dough, blocks, there was even one sitting in the rocking chair doing circle time! The oohs and awes on their faces were too much to BEAR.

When you think about reading a book, don't just read the page, read the story that the page tells. Go beyond the words and bring the story to life as we did. Children learn by doing; their learning is three-dimensional. Don't bore them with flat words, flat pictures, and flat tone. Deep, dark lair should be DEEP, DARK LAIR. "Mouse squeaks, "Too damp, too dank, too dark."", should be "too damp, too dank, too dark" (itty, bitty voice).

Overall the book shares about friendship, consideration, and problem-solving. Bear goes from mad to sad to happy. Emotions are a big part of early childhood, use this to talk about feelings and how we can deal with those feelings even at a young age.

In the end, bear is awake and as spring roles around Bear Wants More. So off I go to plan another Bear adventure...

Below is a unit that I created when I facilitated a workshop about lesson planning. I used Bear Snores On as a part of the unit and inspiration for activities.
http://i832.photobucket.com/albums/zz249/family4jones/FromBlahandBoringtoLearningandSoaringslideshow_008.jpg

I hope that you enjoy reading about my Bear adventure. Although Bear Snores On is not part of my Barefoot Books, I hope that you will add it to your collection. There is a series of Bear books, so happy reading my friends.

Preschool Library Barefoot Additions

Looking to spruce up or add to your preschool library? What better way to do it, than to join my Barefoot Books team as an Ambassador.

When your preschool or school joins Barefoot Books, you can begin adding a beautiful collection of books to your library at a fraction of the cost.  Here are a few perks to going Barefoot!

• earn 20-40% commission on qualifying sales (personal orders and orders placed my customers whom you refer to Barefoot Books)
• build your team and earn 2-8% of the qualifying sales volume of team members, three tiers down.
• place a stock order and receive free shipping and 50% discount on orders of $500 or more
• gain loyalty points which can be used as payment on future purchases of Barefoot Books products
• receive free access to your own website marketplace, online marketing tools, Ambassador-only forums, training resources and more

There is no better time to join Barefoot Books. As a preschool or school, you can stock up with stock orders and pay only $250 for $500 in retail value and get free shipping. Plus, you can promote fundraisers for your school getting parents/grandparents to shop your marketplace. You earn commission and points! Take a stock order and display it for an in-house store for parents to browse and purchase.

Join my team and start your own successful opportunity of giving children a love of reading.

It's Almost Time to Go Barefoot!

As you probably have already discovered, I have went Barefoot! With summer coming around the corner, why not?

In the world of blogging, you never know when you are going to come across something that really peaks your curosity and I did so a few weeks ago. As I was scrolling through, reading about, and checking out other preschool blogs, I came across a button that looked sort of familiar, but I wasn't quite sure. So, of course I clicked on it!

Well, as I read along about the company, I was like "Hey, this is what I am looking for. Something to bring in some extra cash and I love children's books, why not?". I researched it a little more and over the Valentine moment of love, I signed up to become an Ambassador for Barefoot.

I just feel in love with the books. I couldn't help myself.

As an early childhood educator, you have to love children's books. And they can't be just any ole' book. They have to mean something, catch the visual eye, and frankly you should be able to compose a unit/lesson plan from one!

If you are an early childhood educator and are looking to add beautiful, meaningful books to your library, you are in the right place. You can join me in trying to promote literacy in early childhood classrooms and give each and every child a love of reading.

If you are interested in becoming an Ambassador or fundraising opportunities, contact me and I will be happy to answer any questions you have. If I don't have the exact answer, I have great team leadership that would love to get those questions answered as well. That's the great thing about this company, quality support and a team of great story tellers.

Now go read to your children and if no one is looking...do it in your bare feet...

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Not Your Average Lunch Tray

Last night my friend, sidekick, coworker facilitated a workshop on Totally Terrific Trays based on all learning domains. She has been gathering and gathering supplies to make any one's tray totally terrific play! Keeping preschoolers interested and focused is a task for all of us, but making learning fun, interesting and fantastic will spark interest, curiosity, and inventiveness like nobody business!

Trays are wonderful because they not only allow for play, but they also teach self control, spacial awareness, and you can cover as many standards as your heart desire.

Organization is key and in the following photos, you will see just how simple it is to organize materials that makes tray play a sensation!

Setting these trays up for play takes skill, organization, and pre-planning. Don't think on Monday you're going pull materials and set these up. Tray play should be well planned and pre-planned, if possible weeks in advance. For those teachable moments where the children have inspired you, and there will be many, plan to gather the materials as quick as possible and then set those trays up as soon as possible to ensure you do not lose that moment of learning that has peeked their curiosity.

As Janie says, you are the facilitator and the children are the participates. Give them directions for the play, but do not show them what to do. Allow their imagination and approaches to learning rule the tray. They may find even more ways to play in their tray and they could be even better than your ideas! Children are curious by nature and some of the ways that they come up with play is awesome. That's the power of learning.

In these next photos you are going to see some play at work by big people.

Here she is matching the alphabet pasta with the card. Notice the spoons? Twelve for $1 at the Dollar Tree! Too cute.

Leaving the grid blank allows for creativity. They can also use markers to write on the laminated material incorporating writing skills into this math activity. Use a magic eraser to remove marker from laminated material; it's magic plus it promotes independence by the children.

Fine motor is so important for early childhood and using tongs and tweezers is a great way to develop those skills.

Leaf Man is one of our favorite books. The kids go crazy over this book! Find books that you can build units upon, take field trips with, and go beyond imagination with.

Magnetic letters and cookie sheets are essential in a preschool classroom. Cheap, but fully effective.

You can see just how easy it is to set tray play up in your classroom. Stay organized, be open to learning yourself, allow the children to navigate the trays and you will find yourself and your children open to so many possibilities.

Here's a thought...the week before ask your children what type of tray play they would like to have the following week. Chart their responses and get to work on THEIR ideas. Don't forget to recycle, recycle, recycle because as you can see you will need lots of storage. Don't throw away anything that can hold a pom-pom!

Thanks Janie for a wonderful night of learning, as always awesome job.