Curbing "Preschoolitis": Surviving the Last Few Weeks & Preparing for the Next Big Step...Kindergarten!

As we wrap up our school year, we find ourselves exhausted, and overwhelmed with huge to do lists, IEP meetings, and transition planning.  The students are catching our stress and anxiety as they hear whispers of next fall's kindergarten or their more typical preschool.  That, along with spring fever and countdowns till summer, are bound to create some behavior and classroom ‘yuck’.  Much like seniors getting ready to leave the nest with senioritis, our preschoolers go through similar anxieties and growing pains.  I truly believe there is a real thing called preschoolitis!

Although our students may not have mastered all the preschool curriculum and objectives, they are getting bored with the day to day routines and finding a need to push the limits just to see what will happen.  They may also be feeling a little anxiety and betrayal.  

“What! I finally figured out how this preschool thing works and now mom, dad, and my teachers are talking about me moving to a new classroom.  I like my friends and teachers here! Why are they going to leave me?.”  

Over the years I have realized this scenario is even more real for our kiddos with emotional disturbances and those who have a hard time building relationships. Which are also the kids who often struggle with routines and acting appropriately—inevitably creating a lot of behavior toward the end of the year and maybe even seeing the return of past behaviors.

Does all this make you feel a little doomed? No worries...we have plan!  

Let’s focus on the positive!  I like to remind myself this time of the year that I only have a few more weeks with this group of students so it is important for me to be present and available to teach them and make as big of an impact as I can before I send them on their way. 

With that, I also have to start implementing some strategies for transition success. I used to think that meant preparing social stories and photo books of the children's next setting.  Although I still do that, I don’t typically show the student these books. I give them to their parents to share with them in August just before entering their new program.  Three months can seem like an eternity for our kiddos with all these anxious thoughts “When am I going on to meet that new teacher everyone is talking about? What will happen there? Will I like it?" and many more.

So instead of sharing the transition books with the kids at this point, I start teaching them in a manner similar to what they will experience in kindergarten (or typical preschool).  Much like a well-respected colleague of mine, Jill Koertner, shared with me, "With every modification, visual, prompt, and support we put in place for these kids, we have to have a plan for taking it out of their programming for generalization and success.”

 

So goodbye to intense step-by-step visual schedules, cube chairs, and teacher supported play. Hello to class schedules, criss-cross applesauce sitting, peer play time and so much more.  

Okay so you are probably thinking...Has Lindy lost her mind?!  (Well, that is debatable.) However as for the changes in our classroom this time of the year, they are a work in progress and the kids get a slow transition to them with modeling and training involved.  This is what they have been working toward all year, if not two to three years depending on their programming.  

NOTE: The new routine and expectations are specific for our afternoon class as the morning friends will all come back to us next year. 

So let’s take a peek into the new routine.  First off, the kids work through a class schedule. Below you can see what it looked like before and what it looks like now.  Before it was for the teachers to follow. Now it has pictures added for the kids to follow too.  

It should be noted that some of the students still have their own individual schedules. However when we can, we have all the students transition as a whole group using typical transition items and cues.  For example, a song leads us to opening group time or the passing out of art materials leads us to whole group art.  So inevitably, there are less icons and transition match ups. 

This is a pretty traditional wall schedule that one student uses.  

He is a student that will return next year.  He requires some one-on-one training time so as you see on his schedule he will leave small groups to get some individual practice and independent work.  These times are strategically placed in his schedule as he is not able to handle our large group as long as his peers.

 

This is a first-then schedule that is used with one of our students.  

He has some pretty significant behavior despite the changes we have made in our routine to create novelty and prevent boredom.  So he works through the same schedule as the class schedule but with an additional ‘then’ choice time after his work.  He has a specific area in the classroom for ‘then’ time where he chooses an item out of this bag.

This is a paint stick schedule for another student who is ready for the new schedule but needs his own personal way of seeing how much work he has to do until preferred times like outdoors and free play.

I am not sure that you can really see the differences in our new schedule just by looking at the class schedule and individual schedules so I want to share exactly what is different.  First, art is no longer a small group activity. Instead, I demonstrate what we will be doing for art during circle time. Then, the kids go to their table spots to complete their art work, similar to how they will do desk work in kindergarten.  That being said, each student has a specific chair and school supply box they have to get before sitting down. 

They are also working on raising their hand if they need help or more materials, as well as, cleaning up their area and turning their work in when they are finished.

Also with our new schedule, the kids have two learning centers rather than four meaning that there are more kids in each small group. (It's 4 kids and 1 adult versus 2 kids and one adult).  The two centers are math and literacy. The students do math and literacy activities similar to my last two posts but just with more classmates in their group. 

Math is done on the floor.

Literacy is done at the table with follow-up free reading time in the library center.  

After math and literacy small groups, students have the opportunity for free play time. This is where we as staff step back and really watch to see if the kids have picked up the social, play, and communication skills we have taught them throughout the year.  Can the kids maintain play with friends?  Are they able to share? Engage in functional play? And pick up after themselves?

 

That being said, it is definitely not a free-for-all.  There are systems in place to help the kids be successful.   They have to choose where they want to play using one of two play charts.

The teachers present these charts to the kids at the end of the literacy and math centers.  There are two so the kids at math don’t pick from the same centers as the kids at the literacy center.  Then the kids put their picture on the center sign designating where they want to play. 

There are signs like this at each center so the kids know how many kids can play at each center.  We try to have the kids change centers at least 3 times during our 30 minute free time block so they can experience playing with a variety of things with a variety of friends.

The last big change to prepare our kiddos for the next big step is removing the cube chairs from large group time.  That being said, if we need them they are still available.  For example, if one kid just needs a little defined space he can use his chair or if the whole class is a little out of sorts we can go back to the chairs as we use these visuals. 

So there you have it...a revamp to the afternoon session that curbs preschoolitis and prepares our kids for the next step.  As you strive to survive the last few weeks of school be thinking about what supports you have added throughout the year that the kids are ready to remove or modify to a less intense support.

 

Don’t feel like you have to remove everything. After all your students are in your program for a reason. The supports and modifications you have in place for them may still be needed.  We all have supports and modifications that make our lives easier and more successful.  Just be thinking about what changes might create more novelty and challenge your students in a good way.

As you close out the year remember these are the last few weeks you have with this group of children make them GREAT!!!!  And if you need a little incentive...there is always CHOCOLATE!! :) 

(This is little reminder is in our staff bathroom!)

Celebrating Easter in an Early Childhood Classroom

For the past few weeks we have added a little challenge to our literacy center. I am a firm believer that students need a combination of structure and novelty. Think about yourself... if you do the same thing every day, you are bound to get a little restless and when students get restless out come the behaviors!

So here is the change. First, we added a small table to the space. 

Next, we added this work system schedule specific for the literacy center. 

It works similarly to the math system I showed you last week. The students read a story at their level from the leveled boxes in the bench seat.

Note: I purchase boxes that are half-sized at home depot so I can easily offer five levels of instruction. (Typically, level one has more interactive materials and requires a larger box for storage.)

The teacher then reads a theme book. The theme book is usually a repetitive story that works on concepts like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. For example, during our healthy choices unit it was a book entitled Healthy Foods from A to Z and during our Valentine's unit it was 10 Little Valentines.

These are all stories I make on Boardmaker and have posted on Boardmaker Share. The reason they are Boardmaker stories is because after the students read the theme book each day, they have the opportunity to make one page in the story as a mini book.  This allows the student to have the whole concept book to take home and share with his/her family at the end of the unit.

You may be asking, "Wow, how do you manage that!?"  Well, it is actually quite simple with a little work system put in place for staff. 

This little container holds the pages that need to be done in the back. It has a tab for each of the students so as they finish a page we just file it behind their name. By the end of the theme, the whole book is in order behind the student's tab and just simply needs a few staples before going home! 

The book featured in this picture is Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom, What’s Behind the Numbered Room? It was part of our Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom theme and can be accessed on Boardmaker Achieve.

So here is a sneak peek into what our Easter story will look like!

This is the large version that will be read each day to the children during small group.
And here are a few pics of the smaller student version so you can see the entire story.

Note:  If you make class books on Boardmaker, you can easily adjust the size of the story to one page of the story fitting on each 8 ½ by 11 page or shrink it down so 2 or 4 pages fit on the page. All you do is select all the Boardmaker buttons you made and then hit control function to make the whole set bigger or smaller.

Also note that the egg stamp we used for this project is actually a holiday bingo dauber. 

My grandmother has gotten me a few of them on her bingo outings. And WOW!... do we love them! No mess but a lot of fun. Don’t have themed bingo daubers or an awesome grandma to get you some☺?  You can also use Easter stamps from Wal-Mart.

With Easter right around the corner, don’t forget to check out some of our previous Easter posts.

• Not So Typical Easter Egg Hunt Ideas!
• What’s in the Egg?
• Where did Bunny land?

How to Build a Math Center in an Early Childhood Special Education Classroom

Building from last week's post on our social center, today I'm going to show you how those skills and activities can be used on a higher level at the math center. 

In our classroom, the social center is used for our morning friends who are just starting to learn pre-academic skills and increase attention spans, time on tasks, and appropriate social interactions. I plan 5 to 6 social games and activities for our students to play at the social center for 10 to 12 minutes. These activities are done on the floor in a specific place in the classroom.

For math, I plan 2 to 3 activities for a 12 to 15 minute small group time that is completed at a small round table. My paras do math at a table so the students are one step closer to the in-seat desk work typical of kindergarten. 

Math activities are designed for my older and higher skill-level kids in the afternoon session. Most of them will be headed to kindergarten or a more typical preschool classroom in the fall so it is important that we have a plan for increasing demands and supporting generalization of skills. 

That being said, we do have a few students in our afternoon program that need more support to complete math small group activities.  In those cases, the students may do a shortened math center followed by a preferred ‘then’ activity such as a reinforcement like iPad time or sensory play. 

On other occasions, we may incorporate functional errands or independent tasks and layered grouping to support active engagement specific to the level of each student. I will get into examples of those at a later date. For now, I would like you to see math firsthand via another great video of my boys and me reenacting math small group.  They are getting good at it if I must say so myself [. . . Okay, I am a little biased! ;)].  



You may have noticed in the video that I incorporated differentiated instruction as my two year old and six year old are clearly not at the same level. For example in Activity #1, I attempted to have EJ read the color words on each page and had Payton simply follow along in his book. Then when it was time to color, I had EJ attempt to find the correct page number and Payton simply find the color yellow to color the dinosaur. My expectation for Payton was simply to color in the space and for EJ the demand was to color the whole dinosaur inside the lines. 

Please note the difference in expectations can inhibit the boys from finishing the activity at the same time so it is important for me to plan accordingly. For instance, Payton may be asked to reread the story with me while EJ finishes or maybe he works on naming colors with the crayons in his box. Whatever the case may be, it is important to keep kids engaged and limit wait time because wait time invites students to get off task and act out.

Here is a closer look at Activity #1. 

It is a dinosaur book printed from kidssoup.com. If you are just starting out with collecting materials and activities for students, kidsoup is a great resource! Especially if you plan to go the thematic route that our classroom has chosen! I feel like by using thematic units, I keep myself accountable. Our themes change every two to three weeks so it keeps me on my toes. I have to change out activities at least every two to three weeks. 

One last point to notice with activity one, I placed the crayons for each student in small pencil boxes that snap. It's great fine motor practice for them and a great way to support structure as when the student is finished the crayons must be put away. You may have also noticed in the video, I have all my materials at my fingertips by placing them on the floor beside me. By having them there rather than on the table, the kids know what they need to focus on in each moment. One way you can keep all your materials close to eliminate wait time but also help students know what they need to be working on when is by using a plastic drawer system with wheels from Wal-Mart.

This system also provides a visual for the students so they know how much work they have to do. You can actually number the drawers and add an "all done" icon to the front after completing each one to support understanding of how much work.

Which leads me to Activity #2, it also has two levels. Payton was simply sorting while EJ was graphing. (Its worksheet appearance makes it a  great precursor to kindergarten!) Note:  We put the graph in a page protector to save on copying as it is used several times throughout our dinosaur unit.

Notice that the boys could understand how many they had to graph or sort by feeling inside the cave. This helps them understand how much work they have to do and ultimately decreases anxiety and unwanted behavior. If needed, I also have the ability to change the amount of work that needs to be done by adding or removing a few dinosaurs from the cave.

Moving on to Activity #3, it is not leveled by work but rather by the questions I asked. For example, I instructed Payton to find the purple dinosaurs and EJ to determine which color had the most dinosaurs. The great thing about Activity #3 is that it incorporates working together as a team. As much as my boys didn’t love giving each other a high five at the end, the activity lent itself to a “Good job, WE did it!”

So there you have it, one day in the life of kids at small group math! Leading me to a good point....to encourage consistency but also spruce routines up with a little novelty, I plan different math games for each day of the week and then we rotate through them throughout each unit. 

Above you saw activities for Mondays during our dinosaur unit. Below you will see a few other examples from the rest of the week. Each one leveled for student success. Keep in mind each day during our dinosaur unit, we color a page in our dinosaur big and small book so that the book is complete by the end of the unit.  We then followed coloring up with these activities specific to the day of the week.


Dinosaur Bone Count & Addition

The kids count out dinosaur bones (spray-painted dog treats) for each plate. Note the plate is a plastic plate allowing us to add dry erase marker marks to support one-to-one correspondence. Also, I incorporated the plastic plates with three divisions for kiddos that are ready for simple addition with objects. This idea was another great one provided by KidsSoup! 

Dinosaur Listening

The students work on listening to the description of each dinosaur to uncover it behind the eggs. As needed, we use the aided-language board for visual support. (This activity is also from kidssoup!)

Triceratops Play

This game was printed from Mailbox Magazine. Students roll a color die and a number die. Depending on the student's level, either the color word or color and number die or dot die to see what part of triceratops to color each body part.

Hopefully, these activities got your wheels turning! The whole idea is that kids learn best with hands-on activities. It is important to change it up for them but still provide the structure and visuals needed for success. It is important to instruct all children at a level that is just above their mastery level so they stay challenged and engaged without frustration or distraction.

That is the tricky part especially when we have a classroom with student's at all levels. There is definitely a science to it all! I am still working on perfecting it. However, I know I am getting closer.  And WOW.... does it change how students participate, interact and learn when we use a balance of creativity and differentiated instruction to support active engagement by all students!!!

Recently, we added this visual to do just that. 

It provides the students with three different activities and shows them exactly how much work they have to do before getting preferred time at sensory. (It should be shared that sensory is also math-based as the students have to dig for a center amount of items, numbers, or shapes for these wood puzzles. 

Notice the pieces to the puzzle all have Velcro to support a completed task and tell the kids how much time they get to spend at sensory. I will share more about that next week in my post about our sensory table but for now I do want to share a little bit about our "How Many?" jar! 

Click the below video to see how the "How Many?" jar engages all learners every day at math.



Best wishes and Happy Math Planning until next time ...

Lindy :)