6 Creative Tips to Help Preschoolers Adjust to The Classroom
As we move into the second month of the school year, students are settling into their routine and starting to love their teachers, peers, and learning. With all of the positives of the first month of Preschool, come a few inevitable challenges. We have all been through so much this year and the reality of COVID has affected everyone, even the littlest students. Most preschoolers have spent half, or more, of their lives quarantined or socially distanced, in a time when cognitive and social development is crucial. So it comes as no surprise that there are some new patterns that have not presented themselves in previous years.
Below are some trends we’ve seen in Preschoolers after a month in the classroom:
Learning to trust direction given from people other than a parent or guardian
Feeling more anxious at drop-off (from students and caretakers)
Experiencing anxiety when using a bathroom that isn’t familiar
Needing more guidance when it comes to structures such as lines, circle time, etc.
Requiring more encouragement to share and take turns
Patience and creativity are key, so we are here to offer some strategies to make this transition a little easier.
What can teachers do to help set students up for success?
Tackle ongoing issues with creativity
Offer gloves to children who don't like messy activities or have sensory sensitivity. If a child cries every morning, create a welcome song. Have activities to grab attention and redirect from goodbyes upon arrival.
Refer to a routine
Create consistency in your classroom and follow a daily routine. Children like to know what happens next. It helps to have a visual schedule with times, words, and pictures.
Go with it
At times it is impossible to follow your lesson plan for the day. Children tend to be interested in other things at any time. Be flexible and willing to follow their plan. If it's crawling and hiding, crawl and hide with them!
What can parents and guardians do at home to make the transition to life at school a bit easier?
Put procedures on display
As teachers help students transition from class to class each day, you can help from home. Place a picture schedule of your nightly routine along with a close pin that your little learner can move as your nightly routine is underway. This schedule could include, potty time, bath time, family time, teeth brushing time etc. This will allow your little learner to understand that transitions happen everywhere and make it easier to understand.
Act out expected behaviors
It’s important to be intentional about teaching our little ones how to follow rules. One way to support this at home is to ask your child’s teacher about classroom rules or structures that you can help them practice at home. Allowing kids the opportunity to role play classroom structures with you can help them feel more secure when they’re asked to follow those rules at school.
Foster discussions about rules and procedures
Talk to your little learner about their day and discuss upcoming events like fire drills, participating in class, walking up the stairs on the "safe side", etc. This helps to reinforce the expectations set in place in the classroom.
We know that this transition can be difficult to navigate. It’s okay if your kiddo cries at drop-off. It’s okay if YOU cry at drop-off! It’s okay if circle-time is harder to organize. It’s okay if you don’t complete your scheduled lesson plan. Just take a breath. We are all in this together. Drop-offs will get easier, tears will go away, play will happen, and learning is inevitable. With patience, empathy, and creative strategies Preschoolers will continue growing and developing, they just need a little extra support.
By: Phillip Locke, Director of Preschool & Summer Programs | Sherri Pekks, Program Administrative Manager
