Preparations

[clynnd]

With school starting in a month or so, who is preparing for the new school year?

I'm no longer teaching as I just had my second child at the end of May and cannot afford daycare for 2 kids on a childcare employees' salary, but this was always one of my favorite times of year. Getting ready to say good-bye to my "big kids" as they went off to Kindergarten was sad, but I always looked forward to the new group coming up.

One suggestion for the beginning of the year is to clear out all of the shelves in your classroom. Only put one or two sets of items in each center. Once the children master how to use and take care of those, add another set or 2. Over time, the centers fill up and the children learn how to use and care for the materials and equipment in the classroom. Having everything out on the shelves from the start makes it overwhelming for some kids and they avoid certain centers altogether because they don't know where to start. For others, they simply go and dump everything out and then it's tough to get them to clean it all back up. By slowly introducing new items and rotating out old ones, the centers become more exciting and more managable.

I always had to explain this to new management and to the parents so they understood that I was not denying the kids access to the "fun stuff" but that I was teaching them how to care for the classroom and the materials in it.

Good luck to all the teachers in centers, preschools, and in-home programs in your preparations for this upcoming school year. I'd love to hear what others do to prepare. Please share your tips & tricks to starting the new school year out right!