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.

After attendance is accomplished you can sing each child’s name and have them go over to circle time rug. This is what I sing/say “I like the way that so and so is sitting go find a color on the floor.” Since I have a rug with colored squares this is what I sing, you can change it to whatever type of rug you have.

During circle time you can do a good morning song, sing about shapes and opposites, and sing the days of the week. I sing it to the tune of 10 little Indians like, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 7 days in a week today is …..Say the current day, teach month, date and year! They feel so proud when they learn these. After the days of the week you can talk about the weather by using a weather bear with different types of clothing and outdoor attire. Have the children shake their silly’s out by doing any silly type of song then read a quick and fun story.

When circle time is finished you can pick your start student (morning helper) and line leaders. Then go on a group bathroom break to get a nice break from the classroom for a brief time. Every moment of everyday or morning can be a learning experience for the child.

After bathroom break have the children sit back on the learning carpet and then you can go over the lesson for the morning whether it be numbers and letters etc. Breaking up these circle times is good for short attention spans which preschoolers have an attention span up to 15 minutes tops. After the morning lesson they can take their worksheet back over to where they were sitting for morning attendance since they name cards should still be at the tables.

When they are finished with their learning sheets, have them choose an area to play in during free play. Housekeeping area, block area, etc. You can also do your art project for the morning during free play doing 4 children at a time to take away the stress of art time, especially if it’s a messy project like painting. Free play should be no longer than 25 minutes.

After free play, sing some sort of clean up song for the children to put the toys away. A five minute prior to singing the song gives the children a heads up. Encourage the children to put away as many toys as they can. They love this and see it as a game. When they are finished, have them sit on the circle time rug. Tell them to look through their pretend binoculars and look around the room to see if the room is clean and if there were any toys that they missed. They love this since when they spy toys still laying around the room they feel like heroes.

This is a good time to do poems/finger plays and then get them ready to wash hands for snack time. Programs longer than 2 hours require a snack time.

Do a group bathroom break and then take the children outside or to the gym or do some sort of gross motor activity since this is very important in preschool development.

At the end of the morning I may do a story and music and movement then do stickers for their sticker charts. If they are full day children then they will transition from lunch time over to nap then afternoon enrichment!

A good preschool teacher always cleans up their messes and makes sure their room is in tip top shape just like you would want your home to be!