Table of Contents
This guide for new preschool teachers will help ensure that your preschool curriculum has all of the essential building blocks to prepare the children for today’s modern world. Whether this is your first year teaching and you’re wanting to ensure you have a solid footing to step into the classroom or perhaps you’re a veteran wanting to update and modernize your curriculum, this will work as a vital checklist of basics to include, concerns to watch for, and places to go for supplies.
It is important to remember that this is just one source of information and ideas and that no one source is ever sufficient when crafting a plan for a child’s education, no matter what some advertisers may wish for you to believe. After reading this guide, teachers should begin collecting materials and creating lesson plans by discussing with their colleagues, doing further research and keeping this guide nearby to ensure no key elements are forgotten.
What is Preschool?
Preschool is not a single year of education and it does not start at the same age all around the world. Preschool generally can start anywhere from age 3 to about 7 years old at the latest. Preschool goes by many names in different locations and ages such as Pre-K, Kindergarten, Early Child Education, Nursery School, and many others.
Some cultures may choose to start around age 3 such as in China, Germany, or the United States, others tend to begin around age 4 or 5 such as the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, or Australia while still others don’t begin until 6 or even 7 years old such as Finland, Sweden and Estonia.
The reason for this vast difference in start dates is generally based on many factors, but some reasons include how much free time the parents have to educate children at home, the importance placed on children having unstructured free time, and the perceived quality and importance of structured education systems in the country.
While no one approach is perfect, the information in this guide for new preschool teachers can be used to help children reach their milestones whether they are at home being educated by a parent or in a formalized schooling system.
Developmental Milestones for Preschool Brains
Children are developing rapidly during this age group and there is a wide variance of typical development that teachers and parents may notice in their children. However, it is important to keep in mind the key developmental milestones to be watching for and when a child may be falling behind.
When a child seems to be falling behind in an area, teachers or parents will want to keep other staff and parents informed so that decisions can be made on whether the child needs additional learning support. Research shows that interventions made early on in a child’s life are far more likely to make a lasting impact than later on in life. (Slavin et al.) Because of this, preschool teachers should keep a clear record of concerning behaviors not as a disciplinary chart, but as a way to note patterns of concerning behavior.
This information can be overwhelming for new teachers, but the main thing a new teacher can look out for is when a child seems to be dramatically behind all the other students in a specific activity such as speaking, controlling their body, and basic learning tasks. While variance between children is absolutely not a concern and should be celebrated rather than standardized, if a child is really struggling and unable to keep up, parents and learning support staff really must be informed so that the struggles don’t get worse and worse.
While new students may not have all of the skills below totally mastered, teachers can use this list to decide on which skills their students need to work on. By the time students leave preschool at 6 or 7, they should ideally have completed these milestones below:
Preschool Physical Developmental Milestones
- Able to walk and run without regularly bumping into things or people.
- Able to jump, even hopping on one leg.
- Able to hold a pen, pencil, or marker and make basic shapes.
- Able to use child-safe scissors to cut out shapes and follow dotted lines.
- Able to write the most basic letters/characters individually and in simple words.
- Able to dress themselves, do buttons, zippers, and tie their shoes.
- Able to eat by themselves without making huge messes.
- Able to use the bathroom by themselves.
- Able to clean up messes, spills, and put their things away.
- Able to sit properly in a chair.
Preschool Mental Developmental Milestones
- Able to identify colors and numbers.
- Able to identify common animals.
- Able to count to at least 100.
- Able to tell greater from lesser numbers.
- Able to understand and tell the time and date.
- Able to understand emotions and actions connected to each.
- Able to recall stories and tell simple ones themselves.
- Able to read simple words and even easy stories.
- Able to stay in their assigned seat for at least short periods of time.
- Able to speak in clear sentences to communicate their needs.
Preschool Social Developmental Milestones
- Able to make friends.
- Able to understand how others are feeling.
- Able to communicate with familiar adults and politely greet unfamiliar adults.
- Able to understand stranger danger.
- Able to understand appropriate touch for themselves and others.
- Able to use good manners such as saying please and thank you.
- Able to give authorities their parents’ names, addresses, and phone numbers.
Instructional Methods for Preschool Brains
After deciding what needs to be taught, the next step is deciding in what way instruction should be given. There is no one specific way to organize preschool and the methods employed vary drastically between countries and classrooms. This guide for new preschool teachers will simply give you the basics to have thought out and planned before going in on day one.
In addition to this, it is important to keep instructional methods varied as research shows that a variety of teaching styles is more effective at keeping students engaged and giving information than simply expecting students to sit in rows and listen to lectures. (Maksimenko et al., 2018). This means that it doesn’t matter if your first attempt is not perfect. Continue to experiment and try new things to see what is most effective in your context and with your students.
Preschool Seating Styles
The most common way of seating preschool students is by having them at multiple large group tables. This allows them to have a surface to write on, partners and groups to work with, but also their own chair to help them learn to stay in their assigned place.
Having students at tables is often the best way to do activities where students need to write in books, use blocks or beads for math or science activities, or do arts and crafts. However, it is important to not get into a rut and expect such young children to be able to stay in one spot for more than 20 to 30 minutes maximum.
When at table groups, teachers should help students to learn how to stay in their seat, not bump into their neighbors, and keep all four legs of the chair on the ground to teach them safety and respect for the teacher and others. While patience will be necessary as this will be something most students have not mastered at this age, it is important to not simply let children get up and run around the room as this is unsafe and doesn’t set them up well for further education where they will not have this option.
If students need to stand briefly, they may sometimes be allowed, but they should be instructed to stand directly behind their chair and hold onto it to give them a physical reminder of their spot. This may not always be an option for them, however, if they’re not done with their activity and are simply stalling because they are bored.
Teachers should regularly get students up to do physical activities to reset their brains and keep them from getting bored. This can include mini yoga sessions, dances, or simon says style games.
For other more extended time activities, it may be better to get the children into a circle on the floor. This can be a perfect setup for watching videos, listening to lectures, and reading books. While students still need to sit in a somewhat organized fashion, there should be a little more leeway when in reading circles.
Teachers should focus on having students respect other students’ personal space, staying in a general circle shape, but allow children to lounge, sit, or stand as their body needs as long as they are not hitting or blocking the view of other students. This time should feel more relaxing for students than the more structured table time where they need to be in place to participate in the activity.
Free structure around the room may also be appropriate during some activities where students are doing dances, or games that don’t require them to be in a specific spot. This can be good for students to spread out, find a place they feel comfortable, and not disrupt others.
There are a large number of other organizational structures that could be employed depending on the space and classroom furniture available, but the important thing to remember is that some of the key developmental milestones are sitting properly, and remaining in their assigned seat, so whichever style teachers choose, there should be a variety and there should be times where students have a specific place they need to remain for a period of time to teach them patience and respect.
In preschool, not every minute of class time needs to be fully rigidly structured and much research suggests that learning through play can be far more effective in helping children to learn than only employing strict formal teaching. (Ashari et al.) Giving students some educational materials such as books, molding clay, blocks, legos or others and allowing them to work with them at their own pace may help students differentiate their own needs and learn in a style that works for them.
While students need to learn to work within a structure, there are extremes of both approaches. Both teaching within a structure and allowing students to learn at their own pace and be creative are vital to developing a well rounded student.
Preschool Quieting Techniques
One of the trickiest things in preschool is transitioning between activities. Especially when going from a more wild and fun game back to a quiet and organized table activity, it may take quite a bit of time to get students into place and quietly ready for the next task.
There are several common quieting techniques that teachers can use, and it is generally best to just ask other staff members which they use so that approaches can be common and familiar to ease transition between classes. Some of the most common are chants where teachers call something out and students respond either verbally or with a physical action.
An example of this is where the teacher calls out “1, 2, 3. Eyes on me!” and students respond by saying “1, 2. Eyes on you!” and look quietly at the teacher. It can be fun and effective to try and make it a fun chant as well, such as calling out a magic spell “Hocus Pocus!” and students respond by saying “Everybody Focus!” and pretend to be transfixed by a hypnotic spell.
Really, the calls and responses can be anything the children respond well to and should be decided by the teacher’s creativity, the class’s personality, and the school’s general practices. There are other nonverbal approaches such as ringing a bell or even flicking the lights on and off, but it’s important to make sure there aren’t any kids with epilepsy before trying anything with the lights.
Generally the verbal calls will be the most effective and useful as teachers in future classrooms will verbally quiet their students and this is the approach even used in adult settings, though without the response chants of course! There is plenty of time to teach them other styles and techniques, so just have fun with it and see what works best over the first few days of class.
It is important to note that these techniques will of course have to be initially taught to students. This can be one of the first activities taught to students to help them learn the proper responses to the different quieting techniques.
Teachers should not fret or consider themselves failures if students take a while to quiet down as this is something they are still learning! It also is absolutely not a waste of class time to wait for students to all be following instructions before moving on.
If students are not paying attention or distracting others, they will not be able to learn the other subject content. Spending a good amount of class time on these quieting techniques early on will also set the class up for a much easier time later on in the year when it is more important to be getting down to business to get them ready for the more rigid structure in grade school.
How to Involve Parents in Preschool
As a preschool teacher, parents are likely to want to be heavily involved in the education process either by just staying informed of what is going on at school or by asking what they should be doing at home to help their children get ahead or complete homework. While homework is often discouraged for children so young, some schools or parents may expect it.
Regardless of the homework policy, it is important to find healthy and time efficient ways to involve parents in their child’s education as they can play a key role in helping students reach their developmental milestones or be a huge hassle that takes up a lot of the teacher’s time. The best approach is to not wait for parents to come to you, but to be a proactive communicator to give them a sense of security that you’re on top of things and have nothing to hide.
This could take many forms from a weekly or even short daily email that updates them on what went on, regular parent meetings in person or on zoom, or even a social media type app that allows parents to connect with the classroom in a more direct way. There are pros and cons to each of these approaches though, so it is important to consider what approach you will take as changing approaches midyear could get parents worried or angry from confusion.
Emails are one of the most traditional and easy ways for a teacher to keep parents informed, but they often become cumbersome or lead to miscommunication. While it might not seem that big of a deal to send a quick email each day, it is important to remember that one email regularly turns into two, or three, or several dozen as parents ask clarifying questions.
It can take quite a bit of time to craft a truly informative email and it may require the teacher to take pictures of materials to include so that parents know which books or supplies they should be using. So while this option may initially seem like the least hassle, it may also end up requiring a lot of time replying and clarifying.
Having a regular Zoom meeting or in person check in may seem faster and more convenient as it gives the teacher a chance to quickly say everything and show off materials directly the parents who can then quickly ask questions, many of which might be the same question other parents had, which could save a lot of time from the email format where the teacher would have to answer each parent individually. However, parents often have busy schedules and this may cause some parents to constantly be asking for additional meeting times that suit their schedule better.
It may also be a bit intimidating or exhausting for the teacher to have another meeting with parents directly after teaching, even if this only happens once a week or even once a month. However, while an email might be more comfortable, doing a face to face chat will often reduce the number of questions and amount of time required to answer them all.
The last option is using a preschool parent connection app such as Class Dojo or Seesaw which can be a bit of a best of both worlds situation. These types of apps work a lot like a private social media platform where teachers can share updates, photos and videos with parents and allow them to constantly keep up to date with what is going on in the classroom.
To some, this approach may seem very natural and straightforward if they already are posting their personal life on their personal social media, but to others, especially those who are less tech savvy, this approach may end up being more trouble than it is worth. If used well, it can make teachers look like superstars who are completely on top of their game which can impress parents and prevent a lot of worry and questions.
However, if not used well, these apps may end up simply frustrating parents who may need help using them themselves or may expect more frequent updates that the teacher can feasibly do. So while this tech driven approach may be the highest quality in many ways, it can also be the most work when teachers are not already pretty comfortable with technology or social media.
It is also important to know your schools photo and privacy policies, but since this is a closed ecosystem designed specifically for schools, there is often a fine way to share updates and keep parents constantly in the loop about how best to help their children.
Preschool Staff Allocation
While most teachers won’t have any say in how staff are allocated in a school, if school administrators are reading this guide for new preschool teachers, it is absolutely vital that there is more than one adult in any preschool room. One teacher is simply not sufficient to be organizing students, preparing activities, and directly teaching.
Preschoolers have to go to the bathroom often and sometimes make messes that have to be cleaned up. They sometimes need to be taken aside for a talking-to, and they will always need regular reminders about their behavior even while the teacher is focusing on others.
Having some form of pair teacher, assistant teacher, or even just a teacher’s aid is far far far more vital when considering budget than any teaching materials, supplies, or technology. While there may be classes that technically function with a single teacher, the amount of efficiency and progress students will be able to make with a second adult is invaluable. It is also simply a safety measure that keeps students and teachers both honest and prevents a lot of legal headaches that could arise.
Bringing It All Together
While all of the information in this guide for new preschool teachers might be overwhelming, it’s important to remember that preschool is one of the longest periods of education often lasting from age 3 to age 6 or 7. There is no need to rush or panic when teaching preschoolers but instead just try to make noticeable progress each month.
Rather than focusing on content that they need, it is generally better to focus on skills they will need such as good behavior, following instructions, creativity, and social skills. If one of them still can’t name a tiger or cut along dotted lines by the end of preschool, it really isn’t the end of the world.
Just remember to inform parents and learning support staff of any child that is falling behind and then get back to your list of developmental milestones and try to help as many children check off as many as possible before they move on from your class. While the list may seem long, it’s important to remember that many of the skills can be learned simultaneously.
For example, imagine an activity where students draw circles in different colors on a piece of paper at their table group and then are asked to count how many circles they drew before getting up and moving one seat to the right to count how many circles their table mate drew. Then they can say who drew more circles and who drew less of various colors as the teacher calls out different colors. This works on so many different objectives at once from drawing shapes, counting, colors, staying in their place, moving without bumping into others, and understanding greater than and less than.
Another fun activity could be splitting the class into two different groups and having one group read or be read a story about one animal while the other teacher does the same for another group with another book. If there is only one teacher, read the story quietly to one group while the others do a quiet table activity and then switch. After both groups have had a story read to them, pair the students into pairs with one student from each group. Then they can tell the story they heard either using a digital copy of the book on a tablet or the teacher can project the pages for everyone to see and turn the pages. This works on milestones such as animals, colors, taking turns, understanding and telling stories, along with having an opportunity to teach social skills with the morals from the stories themselves.
Try to always do activities that work on multiple skills at once rather than just one skill in isolation. Additionally, remember that not all students have to complete everything fully each time as you can’t always wait for everyone to finish when you have a class of 20-30 students.
Instead, try to give most students the time to finish and have some fun activities that can work as filler for quick students. These extra activities should be really fun and tempting for students so that it seems like a reward which will encourage students to finish their work as quickly as possible so that they can do the fun activity. It could be anything the students seem to like from free play with blocks out of their chair to reading to tablet time if the class has such technology.
Conclusion
As a preschool teacher, it is important to remember that you’re never alone. Unless you’re opening a brand new school, there will be other teachers with you who have taught students the same age or near that can give you ideas to help you get started until you feel comfortable to begin branching out with your own ideas.
In addition to this guide for new preschool teachers, There are also many online sources you can use including simply Googling or searching YouTube for “Fun Preschool Activities”, so don’t worry! There’s never been so much support and materials so readily available.
Focus on helping students slowly reach milestones and check them off one by one. This will help give you a clear measure to see progress and keep you motivated. You certainly won’t always check off every box for every child in this guide, but just do your best and take each day as it comes.
Want more like this? Make Lab to Class a part of your weekly professional development schedule by subscribing to updates below.
References
Ashari, Zakiah Mohamad, et al. “The Effectiveness Of Learning Through Play Module On The Understanding Of Number Concept Among Preschool Children .” Journal of Education and Practice, vol. 4, no. 27, 2013.
Maksimenko, V., Hramov, A., Grubov, V., Nedaivozov, V., Makarov, V. and Pisarchik, A., 2018. Nonlinear effect of biological feedback on brain attentional state. Nonlinear Dynamics, 95(3), pp.1923-1939.
Slavin, Robert E., et al. “Neverstreaming: Prevention and Early Intervention as an alternative to special education.” Journal of Learning Disabilities, vol. 24, no. 6, 1991, pp. 373–378, https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949102400608.
