How To Be A Good Preschool Teacher

Becoming a preschool teacher isn’t for everyone. Some people go into it thinking it’s an easy job and then they are in shock to find out it’s not as easy as they thought it was. Realistically, this type of job just comes naturally for some people if they have a gift working with this age group. There are ways however to improve being a good preschool teacher and making your classroom run more smoothly.

The beginning of the school year is always the most challenging since you have to earn the respect of your students and their parents. There may be a lot of crying and potty accidents due to being scared and nervous and unfamiliar with who you are as a teacher. The most important job being a preschool teacher is get on their level and make them curious about you and what you have to offer them like all the fun toys in the classroom, books, puppets etc. Make sure your classroom is inviting and laid back. If you have a high stressed and over stimulating classroom this will cause uneasiness and an out of control environment.

Be sure to have a fun activity laid out on each table when they come in on their first day of preschool. At one table have play dough with play dough toys. At another table have crayons, markers, scissors etc., 3rd table can have puzzles and the 4th table can have manipulatives like miniature blocks, gears etc. This raises their curiosity and will soon want to explore the room as well.

When you are ready to begin a morning circle time, encourage your children to be special helpers and start cleaning up the toys on the tables and any other toys that were played with throughout the room. At this point they can learn where things go in the classroom. What I do is I do a clean up train. I have the children line up in a line and we walk around the room seeing what needs to be put away. When this is finished have the children find their name cards at the table (your assistant can have these already laid out after everything was put away from the tables.) This teaches them name recognition and a sense of accomplishment. When the children are seated teach them to fold their hands on the table and keep their feet on the floor. When they hear their name called they get to practice raising their hand and saying “HERE”! They love this and it makes them feel important and so much like a big kid! They are not too young for this.