Welcome to All Together Now

Now that I have taken the plunge and left the preschool classroom to dedicate all of my time to training, consulting and teaching adults, I have decided to start this blog in order to share much of what I have learned teaching in inclusive preschool classrooms for more than 18 years. 

Visual Daily Schedule

As the school year begins, I would normally be going over my checklist of things to prepare for the classroom. That list includes updating any Boardmaker visuals I need for Morning Meeting, my visual schedule, steps for hand washing, snack, and lining up. I then need to take a bunch of digital pictures of all of the classroom spaces and materials in order to make a class planning board and put visuals of materials on the shelves and boxes where each material belongs. This will help the kids be more independent in cleaning up and keeping materials where they belong.

This year, I was going to make a new "rules" chart with just the following three: We take care of ourselves. We take care of each other. We take care of our world. I can't remember where I saw this last year, but I think it encompasses everything I want to teach in preschool in order to get kids ready to move on to Kindergarten next year. Early in the first week or two, we would do an activity at meeting coming up with ideas that show examples of what these "rules" look like in real life.

Then, there are the lists. I like to have my class lists in alphabetical order by first name, and another one in birthday order, and yet another by last name. I use these lists to make the sign in/out sheets for each day's attendance, data sheets for participation at meeting and small groups, and for the classroom birthday chart. 

Check-in Flip Chart

I also make a check-in board for the kids. Each day, they go to the Veltex® board and look for the card with their name. They flip their name over to sow their picture. Later, at Morning Meeting, when we are trying to figure out who is missing form the class, the kids learn that this board is a good place to get clues. 

Another must at the beginning of the year is to update our class-wide social stories that I use the first week. They include what happens when we visit the school library,  he gym, and how we walk in the hallways, and specific expectation on the playground. I also use a few stories already developed from the Center for Social Emotional Foundations for Early Learning, which includes Tucker the Turtle, I Can Be a Superfriend, and What We Do in Circle (though, I change the word "Circle" to "Meeting"). 

Those are the big things. There is always getting the parent paperwork ready for Home Visits, and readying the whole classroom for the open house right before the first day of preschool. And picking and choosing books for the the first few weeks. Teach Preschool has some great ideas on using books to teach different areas of the classroom. 

It makes me a little sad that I won't be doing these things this year, but I am happier for it in that I have some time to share these ideas with more people by posting it here. 

Have a wonderful start to the beginning of the year.