Problem Solving in Preschool/Pre-K

Do you ever get annoyed with the children who "tattle tale" on each other for unnecessary reasons? I know I do! Something we decided to try was a "Talk It Out" area for the students who needed to work on solving their own problems instead of always coming to the teacher. There are posters listed in this area with good problem solving questions such as "Is your body okay?" or "What can I do to make you feel better?" This will really minimize the amount of excessive tattle tales and maximize the amount of good social skills the students will develop!

I recommend that this area be presented to the students a few weeks into the school year. Also, 2 teachers should model the language and behavior that should be done in the Talk It Out spot. After the teachers model it, let the students practice modelling it too! Guide them to use good language. This helps the students understand the purpose of talking it out with a friend.

Examples of good questions to model for the students ask:
"Is your body okay?"
"Are your feelings okay?"
"What can I do to make you feel better? A hug? A handshake? A high-five? A silly face?"

Scarecrow Incentive

My co-teacher and I discovered that our students were having problems with cleaning up after center time in our classroom. We play the clean up song several times, but kids were continuing to play instead of clean up! So, we decided to give the students an incentive. Since we are talking about fall right now, we told the students that if they could clean up as soon as the clean up song comes on, they could earn a piece the scare crow. Once the entire scarecrow is complete, they will earn a special party (dance party, costume party, ice cream party, etc.). The students understand that they can earn a piece of the scarecrow each day if they can clean up their centers by the time we have played the clean up song twice. As you can see, they still need to earn the hands and feet!

After fall is over, we were thinking about doing this with a snowman in the winter and then maybe a flower (with flower petals) in the spring!

Preschool Fall Reading Activity

We have been talking about the season fall and we recently went to a pumpkin patch/farm for a field trip. While we were there, we saw scarecrows and discussed what their purpose is. When were back at school, we read the book The Little Old Lady Who Wasn't Afraid of Anything. In the story, the Old Lady goes through the woods and encounters a pair of shoes that go "clomp clomp," a shirt that goes "wiggle wiggle," and more things appear until she has seen all the different parts of a scarecrow. In the end, she builds her own scarecrow with those materials and so did we! As we read the story, we pulled all the objects out of a box and then later that day built the scarecrow!