Preschool Experiences

This last semester of school I had the opportunity to take a class in the BYU preschool. I can't tell you how blessed I feel to have been a part of the preschool. I learned much more than I could possibly explain, but I will try :)

Let me explain how the preschool was set up. We teachers would get there about an hour before the kids arrived. We would spend about a half hour discussing what was happening that day, who was in charge of what, and what to look for that day. Then the rest of the time we spent setting up our centers and activities for the kids.

When the kids arrived we had center time for about forty five minutes. The kids could pick any of the activites that we had avaliable for them or they could play on the computers or listen to books on tape. Some of the centers I was a part of were block building, fishing for magnet numbers and letters, the doctors office at the dramatic play area, and my own cutting centers (which I will explain later)

To transition from center time to a large group activity we cleaned up our activities and then moved to the carpet to sing and dance to some of their favorite songs. These songs were often very embarassing (especially when you know there are other college students watching you in the booth haha) but doing these dances and crazy moves helped me to loosen up and get rid of some of my inhibition :) I really have noticed how much inhibition I have given up because of being in the preschool. Acting like a dork in front of people does not scare me as much now :)

For large group time on the carpet, the teacher would read a story and then we would carry out an activity that related to the story in some way. We called this an interactive lit. One day I was in charge of this interactive lit. I brought in one of my favorite books from when I was a kid called Never Mail an Elephant. After reading the story to the class, I talked to them about addresses, and letters and other things related to mail. Then I had the children fill in letters, kinda like a mad lib, and we sent their letters home in the mail.

Recess was always after the large group activity, and the kids loved running outside and getting out some of their energy. Snack was always after recess and those kids eat good! haha

To wind down the day we read books at the carpet until their parents arrived. It was so sweet to see them with their parents. They would run up to them and give them the biggest hugs and just hold on while they told them about their day at preschool :) it was seriously the sweetest thing :)

After all the children had left, as teachers we would meet again to discuss the day. With the kids we were always assessing each kids letter and number recognition and we would keep track of that information in the assessment book. With that we would talk about how the activities went to give the other teachers feedback. We also shared cute and funny stories of our experiences with the kids :)

ok now for some of my favorite pictures with the kids :)

This was during my first week with the kids. We were sorting all of our shoes according to different characteristics.

The kids were learning a lot about doctors because many of them were getting their kindergarten shots. Yes I'm on the X-ray machine that we built. I loved getting down and playing with the kids. Here my doctors are telling me all about my "broken foot" :)

For this activity the kids were pretending they had chicken pox. They had to wear gloves so they wouldn't scratch themselves and then had to try and pick up little toys without their hands.

This is the whole class sitting at the carpet during a large group activity. This day we had a nurse come in to tell the class about the tools she uses while all of the little kids drew pictures to take notes :)

This was one of the centers I planned. For two weeks I worked on cutting activities with the kids to improve their cutting skills. This day the kids were cutting out jewels and crowns for them to wear. Other days we cute out flowers out of paper plates, snake mobils, and shapes to make their own mosaics.

I love what's going on in this picture. We were making a zoo out of blocks and our animal toys, but the little boy and I are talking about the letters he's recognizing on the wall. :)

These are just some of the cool experiences I was a part of at the preschool:

• I helped some girls that were being bossed around by another girl to stand up for themselves and use what we called their "big girl voices" to handle their bully problem.
• One kid who always played alone or on the computers during center time began to share his toys and play with other kids in the preschool which he had never done before.
• I helped a little boy get over his fear of riding the tricycles after he had a scary experience with a bike at home. This same kid taught another little girl who was scared of the tricycles to get over her fear and try riding.

These may seem like little things, but in this time of a child's life, these experiences are huge!

I feel so blessed for the chance I had to be apart of these growing experiences. These experiences help these small kids to be a little more self-reliant. We teachers are only with them for so long, but the lessons we teach rather academic or life lessons, will stay with them and will bless their lives.

I loved seeing these children grow and learn in just the seven short weeks I was with them. These children were learning not only letter and number recognition, but they were learning life skills that will help them in the rest of their schooling. We taught children how to treat others, how to stand up for themselves, how to tell others what you want from them, and how to look out for and be concerned for others around you.

I miss them already. Each of these kids have taught me so much about loving and caring for others. I'm so excited to be in the early childhood education program in the fall as I will have more opportunites to work with kids. I love what I've chosen to do with my life :)

love always, karina