Preschool Graduation

A graduation ceremony is a very nice way to say goodbye and pass along good wishes for the next year of school. Preschool graduation is no different in that aspect. It is a fun way to celebrate a milestone in your child's life. While it is also a somewhat "serious" occasion, for preschoolers, this ceremony should include more fun than solemnity.

If your child is attending a preschool, your part in the festivities will be simple. You will simply make sure that all friends and relatives you would like to be there on the big day receive invitations in time to make plans. Of course there may some cost involved regarding purchasing a gown and cap for your child. Depending on the school your child attends, you may also be asked to contribute a food or beverage item to the reception following the preschool graduation ceremony. But, for the most part, your biggest responsibility will be getting your child there on time.

You may be one of the many parents who opt to do homeschooling these days. This is does not mean that your child cannot enjoy a special day of marking the completion of preschool. Parents of homeschoolers take great pride and joy in acknowledging their child's accomplishments, just as parents of children schooled in the traditional way. You can still have a preschool graduation ceremony for your child, although it will take a bit more work on your part.

There are many sites on the internet offering everything you will need for your child's big day. You can buy everything from caps and gowns to themed party supplies for the reception. These sets also include invitations matching the theme you have chosen. However, if you have a printer and some colored ink, you can always print these out yourself.

A preschool graduation would not be complete without a diploma. This, too, is something else you can do right from your printer. These can be printed out plain for you to write your child's name on, or the name can be printed right on the diploma using one of many fancy fonts. You can easily produce a special certificate for a special child.

If you are homeschooling your child, and know some other local parents who are also doing this, you might consider inviting them and their children to be a part of the preschool graduation. The ceremony can turn into a very festive occasion for everyone.

Activities for Autistic Children

Q. Please can you offer some activity-based suggestions and PE/games options for autistic children that they can do at home or at school. Looking at two age groups here 7 - 10 and 11-16.

A. Parents, teachers, and other caregivers often get so caught up in educating and providing structure to the lives of autistic children that they forget that, above all, he or she is a child. Like any other child in his or her age group, your autistic child wants to have fun. While some activities may not be suitable for those suffering from autism, there are a number of fun games to play with autistic children, many of which can get them involved with others or help them further develop motor or social skills while just focusing on having a good time.

Autistic children in the elementary school age range can benefit greatly from song. Even children who do not verbally communicate with words can learn to hum along or play simple instruments, such as tambourines or whistles. Using sounds that are repetitive and with educational lyricshelps autistic children learn school lessons but also gives them an outlet for some of the sensory stimulation they need, such as yelling. Play follow the leader with the instruments to help the children focus their attention and improve socialization skills.

Depending on how mature your child is, he or she may also not only be able to participate in regular childhood games, but greatly benefit from them as well. These activities, including tag and other games, can be learned more easily than you think. Stick with games in which the autistic child is not forced to have close physical contact with other children, as this may be hurtful for autistic individuals. Also, remember to play to your child's strengths or what he or she wishes to learn. If he or she has a problem with yelling inappropriately, for example, encouraging him or her to be involved with a game of hide and seek may help curb this behavior.

Autistic children often wish to be included in games with non-autistic peers, and so this may help with the learning process. At home, focus on games that involve closer contact with trusted family members. For example, make it a game to get across the room without touching the floor. Perhaps the only route in some instances is to be carried. Remember that each child is different developmentally, so stay in tune with how challenging the activities should be.

As your child matures, he or she may want to be involved with organized sports. This should be encouraged, but choose your sport carefully. Golf, baseball, and other sports that do not involve strong personal sensory stimulation may be better for your child than something like tackle football. However, be open to all possibilities. Be sure the team's coach understands your child's disability and is willing to work with him or her.

At this later developmental stage, also continue encouraging learning activities. Sensory games work well to further teach these children, and as they mature emphasize the importance of appropriate behavior as you are playing these games. Using things like water balloons in games your child already enjoys is often as fun for children with autism. Also realize that an autistic individual has trouble seeing things from another's point of view. Therefore, they may be less likely to enjoy games in which something must be kept a secret from another person (like go-fish).

Overall, you and your child need to grow together. Remember that although he or she has many special needs, sometimes your child needs to simply be a kid as well. Encourage play along with work, and realize that games and activities for autistic children may fulfil two key elements, socialization skills for life and learning to enjoy playing with their peers.

Elementary School Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection and analysis is very important in today's elementary classroom. It is a resource that is seldom used, but can be vital in creating a successful year for the teacher and students. The development of your data collection materials is critical to the implementation. When deciding on what to use for data collection, begin with and end in sight.

What will you expect the students to learn by the end of the school year? You need an assessment that will show learning throughout the year, not just for a short time period. A master teacher begins the school year with an assessment that will show what the students know at several interval points in the year. I start off with a multiple choice test that encompasses sample questions from every learning unit in that subject. This cross section of questions should hit the most important standards you must teach within the academics that year.

After reviewing the results, great teachers will know what to cover more in-depth (as the students have not yet been introduced to the topic) and what lesson plans can be briefly skimmed (based on the results of mastery from the test). Readminister the test every quarter or semester of the school year to gauge growth in the basic skills areas. You can also drive your curriculum based on what still needs to be mastered.

By using an easy resource to check for understanding and skills known (and not known), you are able to tailor your school year more readily to meet the needs of your students!

Preschool Lesson Plans - A Helpful Place to Go For Resources and Ideas

Preschool Lesson Plans are a great idea for any preschool educator or homeschooler of a preschooler. There are many free sites online to get many resources and I find these helpful as well. However I find it's great to have a curriculum to go by to ensure you are covering a wide variety of subjects. The preschool years are a vital time of learning.

Many professionals say for instance that before the age of 6 is a great time to learn a new language because the brain is like a sponge at this age. After age 6 it is harder. It makes sense to me that the same would apply in many subjects.

Take preschool social studies for example. I know I would not come up with something on my own in that field, but if you had a curriculum it would automatically be covered. Or say, if someone they knew is going on a trip somewhere you could find themes or ideas pertaining to that place they are visiting. And again, there are lesson plans you can find online as well and I find they supplement the book or curriculum you are using very nicely.

Preschool art? Oh my goodness, where do you go, what do you do? I know they children LOVE gluing and cutting with safety scissors and they can spend hours just doing that but what if you want a little more? Or say they LOVE dinosaurs, then you could find dinosaur arts and crafts for them to do. You could also incorporate science lessons using dinosaurs. If you had a theme of dinosaurs that cover all subjects I know many a little boy that would LOVE to learn all about them in various subjects.

You could even go all out and get a preschool bulletin board on dinosaurs for a week or month and incorporate dinosaurs in everything you teach them.

So as you can see, there are many ideas on preschool lesson plans and I find that without lesson plans we can't ensure the children are getting a variety of subjects in all areas.

5 Preschool Activities For Grandparents Day

As with most holidays, school will use Grandparents Day as a special activity for the class. This can be especially true of preschool, where there is as much focus on social activity and every day life as there is on learning the functionalities of reading, writing, and arithmetic. However, with so many different holidays to plan activities and crafts for, you may be out of ideas for Grandparents Day. Have no fear; there is always something new and different to try.

If your preschool has a high level of parental involvement, you may have your preschoolers create family trees. While these don’t have to be long and detailed, they can trace the immediate family and the grandparents. It can also be made creative, actually drawing a tree with branches that reach to each family member.

You can also have your students create Grandparents Day “gift bags”. Make the bag as much a part of the gift as what it contains by having your students color paper lunch bags. Then, fill it with a hand-crafted greeting card for the holiday and perhaps things like a colored picture or a couple of pieces of candy.

One fun idea, if you have the time and patience, is to have the children put on a show. They could act out a scene depicting children showing respect and thanks to the elderly or even sing to their grandparents. Having these respected members of society visit the classroom could be a very special event and could make the elderly feel useful. At the same time, perhaps the children’s grandparents could visit and tell stories from their youth, read books, or even just answer questions about the “olden days”.

With signed permission slips, you may plan a field trip to a nursing home, where the children can greet the lonely elderly and wish them a happy Grandparents Day at a time when there is no one else to bring such a pleasant message to their lives.

Or, you could simply plan an arts and crafts activity that will create a cute gift for the childrens' grandparents on this special holiday.

Homeschool Preschool Curriculum - Which One Should I Choose?

One of the most difficult aspects of homeschooling preschool is deciding what homeschool preschool curriculum to use.  Before looking at the many programs on the market, think about your family's needs.  How much time do have to spend preparing for lessons and teaching your child?  How much money do you want to spend?  Is your child ready for structured, formal lessons?  What type of activities does your child enjoy?

If you have a busy schedule or have multiple children to teach, you may want to use a program that has a pre-planned schedule, and requires little preparation and teaching time.  Consider using a more traditional program like A beka or Horizons, that comes with lesson plans and workbooks.  Rod and Staff sells a set of preschool workbooks that are christian-based and easy to use.

Little Hands to Heaven also comes with a pre planned schedule.  This Christian program teaches essential preschool skills using 33 units that are centered around stories from the Bible.  Although the program is structured, it is flexible enough to be used with children of multiple ages at the same time.

If your preschooler enjoys reading, consider using a literature-based homeschool preschool curriculum.  Programs like Sonlight, Winter Promise and Five in a Row center their lessons around classic children's literature.  As you read to and discuss stories with your children, they learn everything they need to know for preschool and beyond.

So what do you do with the wiggly ones?  Lapbooks!  Hands of a Child and Homeschool Share provide hands-on lapbooking activities you can use to teach those kinesthetic learners we all love.  If your child still doesn't want to participate, skip the lessons!

Preschoolers can learn everything they need to know by helping us with household chores and errands.  Talk to your child about numbers, patterns, shapes, and letters and their sounds.  Read picture books and make up your own stories.  Make cards and pictures for loved ones.  Take trips to the zoo and library story times.

Real-life interaction is the best curriculum for your preschooler.  Everything else is just a supplement. 

Improving Comprehension With Closure Activities

One of the most important parts of the any lesson is the how it ends. Teachers need to have some type of closure activity at the end of each lesson if they are truly interested in improving comprehension amongst their students.

Improving comprehension with closure activities doesn't have to be difficult. Closure activities can be any short and simple activity that reinforces the lesson's objective(s).

For example, in a lesson on the "causes of World War II", I may simply have the students create 1 test question and 1 test answer for each of the causes learned from that day's lesson. If there is time, I even have the students exchange their questions with each other.

This simple closure activity took very little time, gave the students a chance reinforce the objectives of that day's lesson, and gave the teacher an opportunity to see if those objectives were met.

Here are five more simple closure activities that help in improving comprehension:

1. Have students keep a learning log. At the end of class have them write something that they learned (or found interesting) from class that day.

2. When running short on time simply have students pair and share the answer to a couple of questions based on the lesson's objective.

3. Have the students draw a picture that somehow shows that the lesson's objective was met.

4. Write a letter. As a social studies teacher this is one of my favorites. I often have students write a short letter to the person we were studying.

5. Write a journal entry. Similar to having to students write a letter, this closure activity also allows the students to be creative and add their own flare to the assignment.

Each of the above closure activities are quite simple and each can be adjusted depending on the time remaining at the end of the class. It is very easy for teachers to skip this part of the lesson, especially when they always feel so pressed for time. However, if teachers are truly interested in improving comprehension they will not skip this all-important piece of the lesson.