Mother Goose Time asked bloggers to write on the following topics this month...
Week 1 - Mission and Vision
- Why have you decided to dedicate your time and energy to teaching young
children? There has never been a question in my mind that I wanted to be a teacher. I can even remember finding something I wrote in 6th grade, that stated "I hope some day I can be an Elementary School Teacher." After going to school for Elementary Education, I learned that my heart belonged in Early Childhood Education. I have also learned that in order to run my own preschool and succeed at preparing young minds for Kindergarten, I would need to focus on one age group (ages 3-5). I desire to run a preschool, therefore we fill our days with engaging activities. Teaching can be hard work, but it makes both the kids and my days rich with excitement!
- What are your guiding values in how you work with children? I believe each child is unique, and that education is "caught" not "taught." I challenge each and every child every day because I know that at any time their minds may open up and soak up what they are being presented with. I always remind myself that if a child is capable of learning an entire language from birth to the age of 2 or 3, then they are capable of anything! I also like to remind myself that it is my job to prepare the kids in my care for a lifetime of values, morals, and education. Helping children to grow into productive citizens, friends, neighbors and future parents themselves is the most important and rewarding job there is!
- How does Mother Goose Time align with your values and support your mission? Mother Goose aligns with my values because it provides us with DAILY activities that meet the age appropriate needs of each child. One of the most exciting moments for me when purchasing Mother Goose Time was when they created their "More Math and Literacy Workbooks." It is my belief that the children in my care should pick up a writing utensil daily. Whether it be a free writing/drawing activity or a workbook activity, daily writing has proven to me that children can more than exceed the skills needed for Kindergarten readiness. I also LOVE that Mother Goose provides us with DAILY investigation stations that promote a play-based atmosphere! Through their play the children grow exponentially with their social/emotional, cognitive, and physical skills!
Week 2 -
Professionalism and Learning
- How do you continue to challenge yourself and grow as an educator? Many people know from being a part of my preschool that I am almost always working on some sort of new project to improve our environment. Last year my main focus was to improve our dramatic play area. This summer I have been focused on implementing an outdoor classroom to promote active play (see bottom of this post). In addition to this, I attend more than 40 hours worth of training each year, when only 16 hours are required of me. The trainings sometime help with giving me a fresh perspective on things, and help me see where I fit in amongst other people who have the same job as me.
- How does using Mother Goose Time curriculum help you learn and try new
things? Mother Goose is more valuable than gold to me simply because of the ideas they provide! I could go on Pinterest everyday to research for a few activities, but I don't have the time and it just simply wouldn't compare! In addition to this, just from purely teaching Mother Goose Time for 8 years now I have learned an IMMEASURABLE amount about teaching school readiness skills, child development, and realistic expectations of each age group.
- What trainings, accreditation or programs have you participated in that
have also been helpful? I am a part of Parent Aware, which is a provider rated program. Mother Goose Time is an approved curriculum through Parent Aware.
- Any book recommendations? If teaching Mother Goose Time I recommend reading Mother Goose Time's "Research Foundation" and "Curriculum Framework." If parenting and/or teaching I recommend David Walsh's book titled, "No!"
Week 3 -
Marketing
- What do you believe are the 3 most important things you do for children? I provide them with a loving, safe, and fair consistent environment! I also provide a listening ear, and I teach!
- How do you communicate this to others? My motto at the beginning of my contract states...Be safe, have fun, and learn! I am confident the parents know from my actions how much I love and adore their children.
- How is Mother Goose Time helping you achieve these goals? Mother Goose Time is helping me achieve these goals because it shows I am professional in my approach. Writing curriculum has never, and never will be a strength of mine. Teaching is my strength! I leave the writing to the Mother Goose Time crew. Parents appreciate knowing that I am teaching a curriculum that is Parent Aware approved and exceeds MN standards. I think if I were writing my own curriculum, parents would always wonder if I was meeting state standards or not.
Week 4 - Finances.
- How do you decide what to spend money on for the
education of the children in your care? Don't take advice from me when it comes to budgeting. I am not in debt, but I certainly spend more than the average person on my preschool. Getting a new learning tool excites me, just as much as the kids!
- How do you communicate this to others? I let the parents know when we get something new that is somewhat big, but for the most part I just hope parents recognize how much I put in to their child's classroom.
- How is Mother Goose Time helping you achieve these goals? Mother Goose Time is helping with the cost of supplies by providing us with new monthly manipulatives! These manipulatives were new this year, and so much fun to have!
Now on to our most recent lesson...
On Monday we all returned from a week long vacation. I wanted to give the kids an opportunity to get back into the swing of things, so I only had them work on their monthly scrapbook page. They had fun playing with their friends the rest of the day. I decided to conclude our unit on Nature Detectives, and begin our unit on Fables and Folktales on Tuesday! I will be gone on vacation again the first week of August, so beginning this unit earlier than most will put me almost right back in line when I return.
I am always so happy to have Mother Goose Time write the newsletter for us each month!
This month Mother Goose provided us with a new Baseline Assessment Kit. This is a great tool for me to use as I prepare to reassess the children again this month and complete another segment in their portfolios!
This is the breakdown for the month of August...
This month we received a new storybook of all the Fables and Folktales we will be learning about and an audio CD to go along with it!
During circle time I took out the August calendar and circled all of our upcoming days off. I did my best to explain to the kids that we would have this week together and then be off for vacation again the first week of August.
On Tuesday we learned about the story "The Lion and the Mouse." We discussed a lot of ways we can help one another. We learned that no matter our size, we can help and make a positive difference in our environment! Here our the kids responses to the daily topic question, "What do you do to help others?" (BTW - I LOVE the daily topic questions we will explore and answer this month!!!!)
We did a pattern with our bodies...we held our hands up like claws and said "Lion," then we crouched down low and said "Mouse." We repeated the movements to the lion/mouse AB pattern over and over.
Then we sang, "The Lion and the Mouse" to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell."
The lion and the mouse,
the lion and the mouse.
They helped each other out.
The lion and the mouse.
(Pat thighs.)
The lion caught the mouse,
the lion caught the mouse.
But he didn't eat her up.
The lion caught the mouse.
(Open and close hands.)
The mouse chewed the rope,
the mouse chewed the rope.
She let the lion out.
The mouse chewed the rope.
(Open and close fingers.)
I showed the kids our new thematic poster for the month...
Mother Goose provided us with these four paper magnifying glasses to go along with our new theme poster. The kids gave me a thumbs-up when they found the picture on the poster. Then they were asked to use positional words to describe where each object was located (between, beside, above, etc.)
On the back of each magnifying glass there was a question or activity that the kids could complete pertaining to each picture found on the poster.
Mother Goose provided the kids with the following supplies for the kids to make a lion and a mouse stick puppet!
Mother Goose provided us with new name tags for the kids to practice writing their names on...
We put all the name tags in a pillowcase and I pretended we caught all the names. I asked the kids to tell me a time when they caught something (like when the lion caught the mouse, or when the hunter caught the lion). The kids took turns pulling out a name tag from the pillowcase. They were asked to identify whose name was on the name tag, the letters in the name, and the sound each letter makes.
The kids worked on a "Find the Hidden Numbers" activity in their math workbook...
I love seeing friends helping friends!
The kids worked on the following page in their literacy workbook as well...
I read the picture-book "The Lion and the Mouse." This book has no words!
On a sepearate note....I am so EXCITED to show all of you our new OUTDOOR CLASSROOM! Promoting active play is necessary for all ages, and I am feeling so grateful that we could purchase these new toys for our preschool! The kids are LOVING them!
The wrist ribbons from Lakeshore are some of the kids favorites!
On Friday our new weighted bowling set was delivered! This is almost just like the real thing! So fun!
