My preschool kids are misbehaving in class - what should I do? Part 2

 

In my last post I have been talking about the importance of routines, procedures and rules in your classes and also about how one size doesn't fit all when it comes to consequences. Check out the first part here

So let's come to the third point, I was talking about. All the consequences of the world will not help if you don't follow through.
This is the biggest mistake I see especially new teachers make. And believe me I was the queen in this field! 
When we are young and take on our first classes we want to be the teacher we never had.
We tell ourselves we will be cool, we will be fun, everyone will love us, we will be like friends.
The problem with this is ... the children have enough friends their own age. They don't need you to be their friend. They need you to be their guide!

"But I don't want to be the mean one, I don't want to give out consequences, they won't like me if I do"

I totally get that! This is exactly what I thought. But here's the deal: 
How seriously are you taking your friends? Is what they say always a top priority and something to have to listen to? Or is it more like, thanks my friend and then I'll decide what I want to do? Because after all you are my friend, you will understand and not get mad...

The teachers who had the biggest problems with behaviour in their classrooms were those who were reluctant to follow through and tried to be friends with the kids. I was one of them. Until I had a class that almost made me quit my job as a teacher. I dreaded coming to school. I hated every minute of it. I counted the seconds until the class would be over ... and when I asked the kids who were the most disruptive why they were acting like this, the kids themselves told me that they really liked me, but that I was too nice!
Now that blew my mind. A little child would tell me I was too nice and that I would have to set boundaries, because that's what they wanted. Wow!

That day changed everything for me. I was not able to turn that class around, but at least I didn't leave my job to find a new profession, but rather I was determined to not let this happen again.
And believe me, it was not easy. I felt very bad the first times I gave out consequences. It didn't feel like being myself. I felt like they will hate me. Until I understood that it was far from true. The kids absolutely loved my classes and kept on asking the parents and fellow teachers when the next English lesson would be. And they would make a sad face if it was next week. 
The secret is to not be too nice, but also not too strict (easier said then done!), but above all to be fair!

So those are the three points you should have a look at to see if you are having those things figured out.

Now let me share what we do in our school with children who chose a wrong behavior to meet their needs. We don't give stickers to those who are behaving well (yes that might work short term, but I'm not here for the short term results, I want the kids to learn for life).
We also don't give kids red cards for bad behaviours (yep, short term success in most cases - but again ... in the end not really helpful long-term). We also don't send kids out of the room (that will more likely make the child wanting to take revenge later on, plus it will not help their development of coping skills for the future).

I know not everyone has this luxury but in our classrooms we have 2 nice and cozy armchairs (childsize from IKEA). Whenever a child made a poor choice, the teachers talk to the child and explain to him or her that it looks like they are not ready for learning at the moment and explain why the behaviour they showed was not correct and see with him / her what they could have done better. They then get to sit in the armchair and think about what just happened and when they have calmed down, they can join the class again. This happens in their native language as they need to understand what's going on. But as soon as this part is talked about, switch back into English.

You may think that this sounds like the silent staircase, but it's not the same. First off, the armchairs are in the middle of the classroom (plus they are comfy armchairs, not a wooden staircase!). The children don't get excluded physically. They are there, they are watching. But with this, it's them who decide whether and when they feel calmer and ready to join again. They are not told by anyone when the teacher thinks they can come back again, but they are the ones who are learning to listen to their feelings and when it's time to come back.
 
This approach takes a little while to implement as kids are usually used to something else and it takes some skills to notice when one is calm enough again to join. But the outcome is astonishing in the end.

If you have kids who are too excited to join, you can try a calm down corner with things like glitter bottles (or those snowballs that you shake and the snow is falling slowly to the ground) or play-dough, or even a couple of books. We also have a pile of used paper that kids can crumble up if they are frustrated ...

It takes some trial and error to see what works in your class.
These methods can still work if you are a teacher who has to go from one classroom to another. Maybe you can ask if you can leave a pillow to sit on in the class (or carry a small one with you). Or they can find any other spot that is more or less comfy.

There are seriously tons of methods out there and as I said before, not one size fits all. So you may have to vary the approaches depending on each child. But the ones we are using now are the ones I personally had the most long term success with. 


Keep one thing in your mind though ... if it's one or two kids who are making bad choices, it's most likely connected to the individual child and you should try to find out what's going on.
But if the majority of the class is acting up, it's on you and you have to see where you are going wrong and how you trigger this kind of behaviour they are displaying. Examples could be boring classes, no clear instructions, no following through among many other possibilities.

My preschool kids are misbehaving in class - what should I do? Part 1

 

You will probably wonder what an armchair (even if it's a cozy one!) has to do with dealing with wrong behaviour choices of your kids in class. A lot! But before we get there, let's talk a little about 3 things that you need to pay attention to before any consequence can be given. 

I think behaviour issues are the number one question I get asked all the time by my trainees.
I'm by no means a behaviour expert, there are tons of other people out there just focusing on this.
Plus this topic is so vast that I usually hold workshops that last several days to talk in detail about everything. So this really is just an attempt to talk about the most common things related to behaviour management that I have learned during my past 20 years in the industry ...

1. Rules, procedures and routines ... without them, you are dead!

When I was a beginner teacher I thought that I'm an English teacher, and all I have to do is to go into the classroom, teach some English and play games and just let the kids have fun, the rest will come alone. - Nope, actually nopedy nope ...

Remember you have small human beings in front of you who probably are completely new to the school setting and have no idea how to behave there. At home they are allowed to run and shout for joy and go crazy, whereas that's not acceptable in a classroom. They have to be taught how to do this. 
You also have to keep in mind that for probably quite a few kids, they haven't been with a bigger amount of other kids before and hence are intimidated by this as well. 

Once a girl came to me and told me she was scared of the other kids even though they didn't do anything (it was a pretty quiet class actually and I was surprised to hear her say that).
The more I talked to her the more I found out that she was scared of the other kids simply because they were new to her and she wasn't able to predict what they may do. 

So rules and routines, give a feeling of security and reassurance to kids.
They also help to create smoother transitions between activities and therefore give fewer opportunities for disruptions to occur (Burden 2003, Docking 2002)

Take your time especially at the beginning of the year to implement the rules, procedures and routines. I often have teachers tell me that they don't have time for this, they are there to teach English. Whereas actually you DON'T have the time to NOT teach them this first, because you will lose so much time during the entire school year reacting to behaviours as opposed to actually teaching!
Teaching those three things at the beginning (and constantly reminding them throughout all the year!!) is an example of proactive vs reactive classroom management.

Little tip on the side:
- Fewer rules, more routines and procedures!

2. One size absolutely does not fit all. 

Rules have consequences. No rule will help you if you don't follow up with consequences if they are not followed. The kids will learn quickly that you don't follow up, won't take you seriously and therefore do whatever they want. And it's hard (not impossible, but hard!) to make them change their minds about you later on.

Most schools use one method for the entire class, such as clip charts (there are quite a few studies out there now that show that those are actually not a good idea to use, but that's another story).
Our school used one of those for years before we changed the approach. "Bad students" got red points, "good students" got pink points and the "neutral" ones stayed on green. 

The problem with this was that some kids royally didn't care about having red points! So even if you gave out the consequence in that sense, it didn't do anything. Some kids actually started laughing ...
Some kids didn't care to be sent to the principals office, some didn't care if you told them you will call their parents, you see? So apparently there was something going very wrong! 

Everything started to shift when I let go of such systems but rather tried to find out what makes each of my kids "tick". Some kids needed positive reinforcement, some kids needed reminders, some kids were overwhelmed, some kids were tired, someone's dog died ... there are all those different reasons as to why a child starts to act up. And most often, when you learn the story behind their behavior, you don't want to punish them in any way anymore but rather help them to deal with the situation. Sometimes a child just needs a hug and we give them a red point as a punishment because he didn't know yet how to communicate his need.

Yes, it will take a while, but your job is to find out the reason for the behaviour or else it will never stop. If you have an attention seeker (I prefer to say that they have the need to connect, rather than seeking attention as it has such a negative connotation), they will be happy to receive a red point or other consequence, because "bad attention is better than none!"

So here is what you should do to find out what may trigger certain behaviours in a child (and if the child doesn't want to tell you directly). Carry a paper with you at all times. Whenever you see a child doing something you don't want them to do you write down (immediately, not later, because you will forget about tiny details later) what the behavior was and what happened right before this behavior occurred. When you do this consistently, after a few days you should be able to see a pattern. With this new information you will be a lot more equipped to help your student!


In the next post I'll talk more about consequences, so keep your eyes peeled!

Why my projects in class aren't pinterest worthy and neither should yours be....

 If you are anything like me you check pinterest out for activities that you can integrate into your classroom. How often did I come across crafty ideas that looked so super awesome on the pics but when I made them...a complete disaster. 

Either because I had to do half of the work myself (pre-cutting things for 25 kids... Not fun! Or glueing / rearranging things later because the kids weren't able to do it the way it looks like in the pic...) 

When I was at the beginning of my teaching career and didn't know any better - actually that lasted for a decade or longer... I always thought I need to come up with the most amazing projects that the kids can proudly show to their parents and so the parents would be in awe of the wonderful things their kids were doing in class. Even if it meant that I'd have to do half the work. 

Now with time - more experience as a teacher but above all becoming a mum myself - I noticed that parents don't want to see fancy things from school. 

Actually, the prettier the things were my own kids brought home - and I knew it wasn't them who made it all - the more I felt kind of like cheated. 

I'm not interested in what the teacher can do. I want to see what my child can do. So why do you give me an arts project that's half done by my child and half by you? 

And if I'm completely honest... When the time comes to sort out drawings and crafts my kids did (what to keep and what goes into the bin, because as much as I would love to keep it all I'm not living in a castle with 37 bedrooms), then those crafts and drawings are the first that go into the bin. Even if the others were not as pretty maybe but at least they were done by my child. 

As a teacher I'm keeping things simple now. 

1. Because I know now that parents don't care about pretty or not. They care about their kids enjoying your lessons and that things are done by the hands of their kids. 

2. We are not helping a child's self esteem by giving them tasks to do that they can't handle yet. 

All they learn is that they can't do things yet and someone else can do it better. Or they learn that what they do is not good enough. Stay developmentally appropriate! 

So this is why in my pictures, you will not find any fancy things. And while they may not be as attractive or appealing to the eye when you research activities, I can assure you that those are activities preschool kids are able to do either on their own or with just a tiny bit of help or preparation.

What to do when a child cries when coming to my classes?

Now the above picture is not quite something we'd like to see, isn't it? But truth is, when you are teaching very young learners you will come across children who will have a hard time to come to your class.

I know it's easy to feel like you are not doing your job right or that the child doesn't like you when that happens. That's at least how I felt most of the time at the beginning of my teaching career.
But it's important that you don't take his or her behaviour personally! In most cases it has nothing to do with you or your classes.

There are actually different causes as to why the child may cry, and you have very little to do with them. 

Separation anxiety 

Separation anxiety is a very common and natural cause. You have to remember that those little munchkins that come to your class may have never been away from their family until then (and especially after covid, lock downs, parents who work from home etc). All they know are their grown ups and friends and that's about it. It is very scary to suddenly be left alone with a stranger and other kids who are strangers, too (and maybe many of them). On top of all that, they don't even speak my language here! Is there actually a reason not to cry?

There are a few things though that you can do as a teacher to help the child to get more at ease. 

First off, make sure everything is ok with the parents!! 

Sometimes the parents have more problems letting go of their children than actually the children going into class (I'm a teacher and know how it should be done and yet, I had a hard time letting go! I think every mum can relate). The kids feel that. If you have a mum who takes 5 hours to say goodbye to their child or who lingers around, this will make the child believe that the mum doesn't trust this place so why should I? 

- Work upfront with the parents. Explain to them that they have to talk to the child and tell them what's going to happen before they come to class (and no, not 5 minutes beforehand, but a few days beforehand). What I found very helpful was to send a letter home before class starts (with a picture of myself and the classroom) so that the parents can show it to the child BEFORE they actually come to class.
The letter is for the parents to inform them how things will work (when to be there, what to bring, what topic we will be working on etc and also a few tips on how to make things easier on their child.
I also like to include a little welcome card and a set of stickers for the child (and by the way, hey did you know, there is more of such stuff in our class, it's going to be fun!).)

- Educate the parents! Tell them it's better to have a short goodbye and also to maybe engage in certain routines before coming to class so that the child is more prepared. 

Make the parents feel that their child is in good hands with you (see letter above). If they are not at ease with you, their child won't be either. Explain that crying may happen and that it is a very normal thing, but don't worry, usually as soon as the door closes the crying stops because there is so much to discover!
So even if your child cries and you feel like you want to give one more hug, or two or three ... you actually make it harder on the child to transition into the classroom fun. Keep it short and sweet.

Another mistake I've seen parents make is that they sneak off without saying goodbye.
Yes, maybe your child might be interested in all the new stuff and you may be happy that they are not crying (yet) and just sneak off, but imagine how the child feels when it turns around and the grown up is gone - just like that. No warning, just dropped off and I don't even know when or if they will come back and now they didn't even say bye! If that's not a reason to start crying ...

This is also something I'd prepare the parents for before coming to class beforehand.

Loveys or something from home

- I'd also allow the kids to bring their loveys. It makes it a lot easier on them if they have something familiar with them. If not their lovey, it can be something like a tissue or whatever reminds them of home and they can come back to whenever they feel like they miss home.

Meet them at the door

- As for my part, I'm always making sure that I meet the parents and the kids at the entrance to greet them. I go down to the child's eye level and while I'm all for immersion classes - yes, I do speak in their native language at the welcome to make them feel reassured. I make sure that they know that if they need something they can talk to me and I will understand. That takes away part of the anxiety.

Visible schedule 

- In the class I have a schedule pinned to the wall with pictures so the kids can see what will happen today and when it's time for their grown-ups to come pick them up again. Those pictures rarely change as we want to build a routine that makes the kids feel like they are in a predictable environment and feel more at ease about what's to come. It lessens the anxiety and also behaviour problems in the long run.

So basically there would always be the circle time at the beginning, that never changes (however the activities within the circle time change more or less. There will be different songs, different words to learn etc), the circle time will always be followed up by a game, which will always be followed up by an activity, etc.
However the kind of games and activities obviously vary. If I ever have to change my routine, I would explain it to the kids in the previous lesson and tell them that "next time, we will go and have the lesson outside, so we will have to walk together to the garden and there we will xyz". 

Distraction, distraction, distraction

- I personally found that distracting the child helps best when children that age cry. I'll give you one example of what my daughter's teacher did when she had her first day of school.

She started crying at the door when I told her goodbye and the teacher went down to eye level with her, took her hand and said oh wow look at those soft hands. And she started to stroke her hand and kept on stroking it, telling her how soft her hand is, while slowly getting up from her knees, and slowly leading her away to the inner classroom. That was my sign to wave goodbye and turn around and leave. My daughter was so confused about all this, that she totally forgot to continue crying and apparently she didn't cry again after I left. I just thought that was completely brilliant and I'll have to try that next year in my own classes!

An example of my classroom would be that I would give the child a hug (if they allow me), or hold their hand (if they allow me) or I simply go down to their eye level and ask them questions totally unrelated such as "what did you eat for lunch today? Oh wow, spaghetti? Those are my favourite!!! Did it have tomato sauce? ... and while talking, leading them away into the classroom where I can show them toys they can play with.

If you have a little classroom pet (anything from an ant farm, to snails to mice, guinea pigs ...) , that would work great. You can lead the child there to watch the pet, feed it, pad it ... I presume most of us don't have one, but it does work great (I used to have some snails for the kids to watch and they absolutely loved it) . But the point is ... distraction!

What are you doing in your classroom to help the little ones on the first days of English lessons?

Ice cream for our little ESL learners

I don't know how things are in your country, but here in France it's superhot right now and all my kids are asking for is ice cream!

No better time than now to teach the different flavors.
If you can, prepare a little corner for dramatic play. My kids absolutely love to serve ice cream cones, tea and cakes and keep on asking "what do you want" or "Do you want vanilla or strawberry?"

To make teaching the flavors easier, here are a set of flashcards and coloring page to help you on the way.

Ice Cream Freebie

And here are a couple of songs that may help your kids to retain the vocab ...

Ice cream song by Maple Leaf Learning
Ice cream song by Bounce Control 

How to deal with a child that doesn't want to participate in my ESL classroom?

 

When we teach ESL to very young learners we may come across a little one who refuses to participate in the lessons.

Now we have to keep in mind, when they are about 3 years old, there may be a lot going on for them. It may be the first time they are away from their grown ups, it may be the first time they are in a bigger group of children ... this can be very impressive for our students.

Naturally some may be a bit reluctant to participate because they feel impressed by the whole setting and they feel shy, preferring to observe what's going on first before they even consider taking part in anything.

There are a few things you can do to help to make the children that come to your class feel more secure. 

Greet them at the door

The first thing is to build a relationship and trust with the children. Greeting them at the door with a big smile, tell them how great it is to see them today and if you have time ask them a few questions like how their weekend went etc.

Have a schedule

I always have a schedule next to the door that shows pictures of what we are going to do today (circle time, book time, activity time, etc). It helps them feel more at ease to know what's coming and when the grown ups will come back to pick them up again.

Generally my schedule stays the same to make sure that I have a good routine and the children know what to expect when they come into my classroom. I'd just change the activities within the schedule. So for example I'd have "book time" always at the same time, all I'm changing obviously is the title of the book. "Activity time" will always be at the same time, I just change the kind of activity (one time it's colouring, one time painting, one time crafts etc). If I change anything ( for example going outside to the park), I'd explain to them in the lesson before that next time we will do xyz, so that the children can anticipate and be prepared for the change mentally.

Don't push

I personally don't push a child to participate in a class. I feel that it just makes them more anxious and their brain is unlikely to retain more vocabulary, leave alone that they won't enjoy the class and that may spiral down to more reluctant behaviour in the future.

Use a puppet

Have you ever used a puppet and were surprised about how shy kids suddenly speak and want to come close to the puppet ? Kids may be reluctant to speak to you or their classmates, but they would speak to the puppet and tell them their whole life story!

Allow them to bring their lovey

I allow very young learners to bring their lovey that can participate in the class with them. Especially with shy kids, it can be a mean of communication if they refuse to speak - kind of like with the puppet. Instead of asking if the child knows what "this thing is", you could ask the lovey if they know. 

Respect their personality

Sometimes a children doesn't want to participate simply because they are shy.

Being shy is nothing bad and nothing that has to be corrected and shouldn't be. It's not ok to make a child believe that their personality is a "mistake". It only leads to low self esteem and low self confidence. Instead you should recognize their personality.

When I see a child is shy and she prefers to observe, I absolutely let her do so. I may invite them here and there to join, but if they don't want to, that's fine - as long as they don't disturb the other kids in the classroom.

Chiara's story

Many many moons ago, when I was still in my first years of teaching, I came across this one girl who taught me something very important for the rest of my teaching life.

I taught a small group in a language center. The kids were between 3 and 5 years old and her brother was in the same group. She was 3 and he was 5.

He was having the time of his life whereas his sister would just sit on a bench next to the wall, observing everything. Never spoke a word, never participated in anything, no singing, no dancing, no playing, no activities, nothing. 

I would have started to doubt myself if there hadnt been her brother who (according to mum) absolutely loved the classes and can't wait to come back the next week. So after a few weeks of this I kind of gave up on her (I know I know, I was still young and didn't know any better!) and I told the mother that maybe it's better for her to find another teacher. Maybe she doesn't like me, maybe she just didn't "click with me", I didn't know what to do with her and I felt bad for the mum to pay for classes that don't have any benefits for her daughter. Not only didn't she seem to learn anything but she also didn't seem to enjoy anything. She didn't smile once when she was in my class.

The mum refused, she said her daughter is enjoying the class and she would like to try a couple of more weeks and if then still nothing changes, we would talk again. Ok, no problem.

That night she went home and started speaking English to her family. During the family dinner she would tell her family that "this is a plate, this is a fork, this is an apple". The mum called me the next day and asked me what I had done to unblock the situation. I would have loved to take credit but I honestly couldn't tell her because I didn't do anything! My only explanation was that she maybe overheard our discussion at the door and understood that if she doesnt show that she is learning anything, she will not come back to the classroom. And since she really liked the class, she was ready to overcome her shyness.

After this event she still preferred sitting and observing, but she very slowly started to participate in one activity here and there, then two (always sitting next to me) and finally she would participate in the whole lesson. All I did was giving her the space she needed, not forcing her into anything (but once in a while a little nudge to say hey, wanna join? - but even that I didn't do a lot to not make them feel bad about having to say no nonstop).

So basically, she was sitting there all this time, needing the space - but still paying attention very closely.

Have you every heard of sensory overload?

Some children may not participate in your class because of sensory overload. And there are quite a few things you can do to help them.

Prepare the environment accordingly

1. Avoid essential oils or any particular smells (even perfume) in your classroom 

2. Speak in a calm voice

3. avoid fluorescent light 

4. avoid too much decoration on the walls or anywhere really (I know we all love to put posters and designs and lots of colours and stuff on the walls and while it looks fantastic it may actually not help children at all with their concentration and their focus)

5. prepare a quite space in your classroom where the child can retreat to (a place that is organized, no mess, no 500 things around them, calm light .. you get the idea)

6. brain breaks (have breaks where children can move - personally I like to have them stretch and do a couple of yoga poses here and there as well as breathing exercises) 

So now that we have talked about ways to deal with children who don't want to participate, let's talk about how to deal with the rest of the class! 

You may have kids in your class that notice that someone isn't participating and they will ask you why he or she can sit there and why they have to do xyz.

My experience generally is that kids wonder why one child is not participating. So I would explain to them honestly that sometimes someone needs time to have a look first and that's ok. It has nothing to do with them not liking the others or not liking the class, they still like you and they still like learning , but they do it in a different way. In my experience, when you tell them the truth they don't wonder much longer and continue with their own lives. But you have to make sure that the other child will still be included in one way or the other and not make him or her look like an outsider.

Even if a child is sitting and observing, it shouldn't make the other kids want to do the same - if your lessons are interesting. No child can resist a good game, a good song or a good story just because another child is sitting there observing. And chances are that  even the observing child may feel a little itch to wanting to participate in an activity here or there as well ;).

Umbrella activity for the very young ESL learners

An easy to do activity for the weather topic that my kids absolutely loved are the umbrellas. It worked especially well with the 2 to 4 year olds. And the good thing is that you don't need plenty of stuff.

All you need are - white muffin paper cups,

- straws and

- crayons

- (and some glitter for those who are courageous and don't mind having to clean half the room later ).

- Oh and clear glue.

Each child picks a straw of their favourite colour. Cut them short.

Let the kids colour the papers as they like. Add some glitter (optional). Stickers are not working that well as it gets harder to crush the paper.

Hold the straw to the middle of the paper and crush it in your palm to make the shape of an umbrella. Put clear glue (I had to put quite a lot to make sure it holds) and let it dry over night. A nice activity that the kids can take home to show their grown ups!

 

Curriculum for ESL preschool classes

The school year in France is finished and it's time to work on the curriculum for the next year. A lot thinking about what worked last year, what could be done better, what when where how why ... a cup of coffee and my desk was a mess with notes ...

So here I'd like to share our curriculum for our very young learners with you.

Our school year is divided into 5 periods. Each period is between 6-7.5 weeks long. After each period the kids have 2 weeks of holidays.

For our class of 3-year-olds we don't start our ESL classes like the rest of the school in the 1st period, but we start in the 2nd.
This is to ease the children into the new environment, getting used to school, other children, teachers, being away from mummy and daddy for probably the first time ... and not overwhelm them with teachers who don't speak their language which may make them feel uncomfortable and insecure. 

So we like to give the smallest of our school 7 weeks to adapt to the new environment first. In our experience this has led to (a lot!) less behaviour problems in the English classes and the kids feeling more at ease in general to be ready to receive a new language mentally.

The kids in our school have English classes twice per week, each time around 2 hours.

Curriculum for our 3-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks
no classes

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations
Week 2 - 3.5: Feelings 
Week 3.5 - 4: Colours (red, blue, yellow)
Week 5-6: Myself: the body

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Myself: the face
Week 3-4: Clothes
Week 5-6: Family (make sure to relate to old topics to repeat vocab such as my my is wearing a yellow dress)
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: the weather (introducing a weather chart into the morning routine)
Week 3-4: Spring 
Week 5-6: Fruits
Week 7: Vegetables

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1: vegetables
Week 2-3: farm animals (what do they eat? The horse is eating a carrot and an apple)
Week 4-5: number 1-5 (relate to old topics such as how many brothers and sisters do you have, how many cows do you see etc)
Week 6-7: Toys
half a week for end of the year party

Edit:

Curriculum for our 4-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks

Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations

Week 2: Feelings (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Zoo animals
Week 5: Who lives where? (rep zoo and farm animals, classifying)
Week 6-7: Transportation (how do we get to the zoo?)
half a week for reviews

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1-2: Colours (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Number 1-10 (connect with old topics from last year: I see six apples)
Week 5-6: Cooking and baking

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Family (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Jobs
Week 5-6: Winter
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: Arctic animals
Week 3-4: Sports
Week 5-6: Toys
Week 7: Project of teacher's choice

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1: Picnic
Week 2-3: Ocean animals
Week 4-5: ice cream flavours
Week 6-7: Summer
half a week for end of the year party

Curriculum for our 5-year-olds

Period 1 - 7.5 weeks

Week 1: Ground rules, setting the stage, routines and expectations
Week 2-3: At the doctor (rep parts of the body)
Week 4-7.5: Senses (touch, small, feel, hear, see)

Period 2 - 6 weeks
Week 1-2: Colours (repeat old, add new)
Week 3-4: Autumn / Fall
Week 5-6: Pumpkins & apples (life cycle, expression how the apple looks, tastes etc)

Period 3 - 6.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Hobbies
Week 3-4: Circus
Week 5-6: Rooms of the house
half a week for repetition

Period 4 - 7 weeks
Week 1-2: Furniture
Week 3-4: Up in the sky (clouds, sun, birds, balloon, kite, plane, bird)
Week 5-6: air animals (eagle, butterfly, bat, bee, fly ...)
Week 7: Project of teacher's choice

Period 5: 7.5 weeks
Week 1-2: Numbers 1-20
Week 3-4: Space
Week 5: Space Project
Week 6-7: On the airplane
half a week for end of the year party

Friendship book - a keepsake for your students (and yourself)

A few days ago I looked through the Instagram account of a shop I really like. It sells wonderful educational things and I often discover new stuff for my own kids there.
This time a book caught my attention as it reminded me of my own childhood: a friendship book.

I didn't know they still existed. Or maybe they do. Maybe they are just not "a thing" here in France where I live now and that's why I've never seen them anymore.
In any case, I got thrown back into my old memories and how fun it was to swap those books, write in them, get creative and receive my own book back. 

Even now I'd sometimes take out those books and reread them and wonder how much we had all grown. Sometimes I would remember old friends, wondering what they may be doing now. Sometimes memories of things we had done together came back...
Anyway, a precious keepsake for forever.

The same day later a colleague sent me a message about how she will jump in for another colleague and teach her English class for the entire morning. I thought this calls for project work, center activities and other fun stuff. Right away my mind wondered back to this book.
Wouldn't it be great to create such a book together and be able to keep it forever to remember your friends and classmates?

How is it done?

Normally you have an entire year to pass your own book around and give it to your friends. By the end of the year you'd have it all completed. But for this activity we don't really have this much time, plus it may also depend on how many kids you have in your group or class. We have between 24 and 28 and I doubt the parents would be happy to provide 28 pictures of their child for everyone.

So here is what we do. Every child gets a page to fill out. Notice that the pages are created in a way that you can use them with preschool kids who can simply draw their answer - or have their grownup help with filling everything out - or kids who start to write can do so and draw at the same time to keep things fun.

Then the kids give their pages to you, the teacher, who makes copies and binds everything together in a book. Once it's all done, the kids can take their copy back home.

Download the file here