Teaching Preschool - How to Get Preschoolers to LISTEN

Fall is just around the corner and all of us are getting ready for our new group of children. Teaching preschool means you are their first teacher and they have no expectations or experiences of what school is all about.

I believe that the sooner you set teach your preschoolers how to pay attention is with a rhyme that they can easily learn and know the expectation when they hear it.

Even better is that they begin to complete the rhyme when you start it and give you their attention quickly.

This idea is similar to one I have used but works even quicker! One of my readers sent it in for all to try.

123 Eyes on Me

When you start teaching your class and the children are not listening just say, "123. They will look at you and wonder what you are doing.

Say to them, when I say 123, I would like you children to say, "eyes on me".
They love it when I say this to them.

They love to answer back and it helps remind them to listen.

I get more done in the classroom setting because if it does start to get out of hand, I will just say 123 - eyes on me .

Once you start doing this they will automatically stop. It works every time! Most important--don't move on until they are quiet.

The whole point is to teach them politely to listen and they will mirror it back to you.


If you like this teaching preschool idea, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.mypreschoolplan.com/p/ar.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Gross Motor Activities for Preschool - Balance & Coordination

June is almost here and it is always fun to think of outside fun with my preschoolers. Here are a couple of gross motor activities for preschool that your children will love.

The focus of these is for balance and coordination. You can modify these to the age level of your students. While the main focus is developing gross motor skills you can add other elements to these. For example, try counting to see how long someone can stay on the tight rope or say letters of the alphabet.


CIRCUS TIGHT ROPE

You will need two pieces of string or long strips of masking tape (about 6 feet or 1.8 meters long).
Create a circus tight rope on the ground with the string. Next show them
how to walk on this by placing one foot in front of the other.
Then have them try. (You will probably need to hold their hand
the first few times until they get the idea of balancing.)
***An alternative for younger children is to put the two strings about 4 inches apart and ask them to walk carefully between the lines without stepping on the edges. Great fun, concentration, balance, etc.

WATER BALLOON TOSS
Fill balloons with water and give them to the toddlers. Gently play catch with the water balloons. You can fill them with varying amounts of water to show how some are lighter than others.

***One variation is to draw targets on the sidewalk with chalk and have them toss the balloons at the targets. You could put a letter or number in the targets and then ask them to try to hit a particular letter or number.
Good for eye-hand coordination and gross motor skills.

Providing hands on ways to learn and connecting concepts with everyday life and their environments are my favorite ways of teaching preschoolers.


If you like these ideas, you'll love the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

Check them out:

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

Enjoy and remember to send in any ideas you wish to share and I will post them here.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html