environmental print

in my afternoon class i am trying to add environmental print around the room.  a mom ask if these were supposed to be healthy food choices.  the other teacher answered no, these were supposed to be items they would recognize the print.  most kids know PopTarts.  sometimes when we are playing in dramatic play we will ask the children to "read" the boxes on the wall.  we then let them know that they are indeed "reading".  i am trying to come up with additional ways to add environmental print to the classroom.  i would love it if those of you out there would leave some comments with ideas on how to expand this literacy connection.

Another great resources

Peggy's Pictures

if you are like me and work with children that may need visual supports a good friend and wonderful teacher where i work has this awesome site that is full of picture cue cards and other techniques to help children with language needs.  i personally feel all young children can benifit from using visual supports.  sometimes as teachers we forget that very young children can't read yet.  we need classrooms that are print rich, but we also need to provide children with the picture that represents the word.  i am also a firm believer that it is best to borrow from those that have gone before you and have created wonderful teaching tools.  this is just such a resource.  a special thank you goes out to  Peggy for being willing to share her hard work and creativity with other teachers.  i hope you will add more visual supports and other teaching tools to your site.

Added Pictures click here on the title to see them! The title is the link!

just wanted to let you all know that i added a flickr slideshow to the blog.  i hope you will join me in adding pictures of your great ideas for the classroom.  you can email me the pictures and i will add them to the slideshow.  or just email me the pictures and a description and i will post them in the main body of the blog.  the pictures i added are of a science tree we made with the kids in the classroom.  hope you enjoy!

Welcome and Intent

if you have stumbled across this site you are probably a preschool professional looking for new ideas. or maybe you have great ideas to share with others in the field. one of the things i have found is as educators we are lost in the world of our classrooms and long to have the opportunity to communicate, share and pick the brains of our peers. due to the nature of our profession we get very little time out of our classrooms to accomplish this task. with the advancement of technology we can create communities where we can reach out to other like-minded professionals who have little time, immense creativity and the need for conversation with someone over the age of five!

this is my small attempt to create a playground for preschool educators. a place where you can swing high on ideas, share your see-saw journey with others who work with behaviorally challenged children, slide through a difficult day with someone who has already "been there and done that", jump rope through the intricate maze of working with children with special needs, climb the monkey bars of creating challenging activities for gifted children or just relaxing under a shade tree sharing lemonade and cookies with other friends who want to day dream about having the best classroom for all children regardless of age, ability, socio-economic level, geographic area, cultural backgrounds or parents (who may or may not want to play in your sandbox).

my dream is to create a place where we can share lesson plans, themes, links to other resources, articles and research, templates and pictures of our best ideas and accomplishments. although the playground is small now, i hope soon we can create a wondrous world were we all play together in this incredible playground called early childhood education.

for the safety and integrity of this blog, all comments will be moderated. please leave comments, suggest links, books, articles, submit lesson plans, send pictures to add to the slide show and just hang out and discuss the latest research and policy. but......be safe, be kind and be responsible in your submissions. i will not accept any submission of any kind that have pictures of children in them. it is a strange world and as professionals we have to do everything we can to protect the children and preserve their confidentiality.

with all that being said, let's start building this wonderful preschool playground for us all to enjoy!

sincerely,

carole dawn arrendale, mba, m.ed.

p.s. i know i am typing all in lower case. i know better, but it makes typing so much faster and easier! thanks for understanding.