Preschool Teachers-Whats New in Year 2011?

Sometimes when one is a preschool teacher for so long, it is easy to fall into a comfy routine that you have built over the years. Since this is something I try not to do, each year I try to change up something in the room, or how we do something. You may remember last year I had done the course on learning centers, so I reorganized some of our centers.

I still continue to incorporate many games, crafts, and other activities that I have done over the years as these are always new and fun to a new group of children. Sure I add in some new and take out some old, but there are some things I will love forever.

So, what did I do this year? It's nothing too drastic, but it will be a change.

We have lots of different manipulative activities that we put out on the tables for the children to take advantage of during our free time. Each day we had picked some activities from the shelves and put them out on the tables. These activities changed everyday throughout the year.
Well, this year I have decided to let the shelves remain open all year and allow the children to decide which activity they would like to do. They would take the activity out, go to the table, and when finished put it away on the shelf.


Now, I know to some this doesn't sound like a big deal, but for us, who have never done this before, we are hoping it works well.


I wanted to give the children more of a choice of what they can do during free time. I also want to give them a sense of responsibility for taking care of the games and returning them when they are finished.

I plan to introduce this concept to my three-year-olds on Thursday. Lord, give me patience:).

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