The Easy Way to Santitize Your Classroom Toys

Sanitizing doesn't always mean elbow grease....

Need a better way to sanitize small classroom toys such as small Lego's and various manipulatives? All you need is an empty dishwasher, a capful of bleach with dish washer detergent and a nifty net bag.
Simply place all your small classroom toys in the bag, tie it off and run it like you're washing dishes.
It cleans and sanitizes them instantly! Every small nook and cranny!
This is great when we are trying to keep our kids healthy during cold and flu season.
Happy sanitizing!

Frugal Cleaning Tips For The Preschool Teacher

Look Teacher! I drew you a picture on the wall!

After a successful day in the preschool classroom you are sure to give yourself a pat on the back. Then, there it is! The reason why the children were giggling behind the book case...a lovely but not so practical wall mural of crayon and marker scribbles.
Has this ever happened to you? Don't hide it behind that poster! We have teacher tips that will clean up lots of messes without using harsh chemical.

Removing Permanent Marker and Crayon:

Zap marker stains away!

Materials Needed: Tooth paste(not the gel), clean damp cloth, soap
What It Cleans: This cleans painted walls, wood, and porcelain.
The Procedure: Buff a bit of toothpaste over the marker and let it set a few minutes. Then wipe it off with a soapy damp cloth.

How to Make Your Own Baby Wipes For The Kids:
Materials Needed: Paper towels (Viva works the best), A round plastic container with a seal-able lid, a sharp serrated knife, cups of boiled water, 2TSPS of baby shampoo or baby wash (smells divine, doesn't it?), 1 TSP baby oil.
The Procedure: Cut paper towels in half with your knife and remove the cardboard tubing. After the boiled water is room temp. mix all your liquid ingredients and place in the plastic container. Now sit the paper towels in the solution and let is set for ten minutes....then place the lid on and flip it to set for another ten minutes. Hum-dee-dum-dee-dum....
Voila!: Sit it right side up and be sure to pull from the center of the roll to get your wipees. Always keep it sealed tightly to prevent dry out. Just save the next roll for next time you make a new batch! Tre' Frugal!
What It Cleans: Great for outdoor adventures,the messy lunch bunch, and sticky little hands everywhere!

More Crayon Removing Tips:
Mayonnaise- Circular motions and wipe off!
Baby Oil- Buff and wipe.
Baking Soda- Make a paste with water and buff.
Shaving Cream- Generously apply to marks and wipe vigorously.
Hand Lotion- Buff on, buff off.
Hairspray- Works great on walls! Apply with a heavy hand and wipe off.
Baby Wipes- Buff in circular motions.

Have you ever had art disasters in your classroom?

The Back To School Checklist For New Teachers

There are so many things to think about besides posting up bulletin boards, cubby tags and tying shoes. But what? We remember those first time teacher jitters. This back to school checklist really helped me. I was sure to ask veteran teachers for tips and tricks....and then came up with a few of my own. Enjoy!

The Back to School Checklist for New Teachers! 
10 Needful Tips From the Pros:
1. Get a list of all the children and parents names. Keep a cheat sheet in a cabinet but work on memorizing all the names as soon as possible!

2. Buy a few stacks of thank you cards from a dollar store. Send them out within the first two weeks of school thanking them for allowing yo to share in their child's life.
3. Set up simple, non- messy materials on tables when children enter the room for the first few weeks of school. Kids will need something to fun and engaging to play with and parents feel better leaving if children are engaged in play.
4. Think of some fun, even unconventional props you could use to get the children's attention during transitions or clean up times. A train whistle, kazoo, a silly flashlight, etc. After children become used to the schedule they can sense when activities will end or begin.
5. How will children be lining up or sitting at circle times? Don't assume all the little ones will know what to do. Colored tape is your friend until kids know the routine.
6. Give everyone a classroom tour. I do it as a group. We walk around the room and I tell them where everything is, what it's for, and go over a bit of rules. Keep it simple...the kids won't remember everything but it establishes respect for the materials and learning areas.
7. Be sure to tell them where the bathroom is! It is the most forgotten room! If you are fortunate to have one in your classroom be sure to decorate it with friendly pictures!

8. Keep the Classroom simple. Brimming baskets full of Lego's and sensory tables full of water looks inviting but isn't always practical until the children are familiar with the room and routine. I put out the toys, but half a basket full...Full baskets and such are for after we have mastered clean up times. If the children are doing well with materials...you can always add more to the shelves or baskets later.
9. Be sure to a knowledge kids feelings. Puppets work great in this area. I usually present a special puppet  at circle time and  let the children know he is a bit scared  and nervous his first day of school. I'll ask the children to help him feel comfortable by being his friend. They quickly relate to him and have ideas to help.
10. Don't forget to put the parents at ease! Have a nice letter or present a first day of  hand out of what the kids will be doing. The first day is very special. Letting them know you make play dough together or build sand castles puts parents at ease. Try to have special anecdotal their child did for pick up times to share with them!

Did we leave out anything? Let us know what works for you!

15 Great Things to Do With Kids and Coffee Fitlers

"I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living." 

~John D. Rockefeller

We are always looking for economical ways to use what we have around the house. Keeping costs low with little ones on the go has always been and issue.
Here are some great ways to utilize coffee filters for projects, clean up, or any other creative way we could think of!

15 Great Uses for Coffee Filters:
1. Start using them as a kiddie's disposable "snack bowl" for popcorn, chips, crackers, etc.
2. Hold your tacos or burritos. Coffee filters make convenient wrappers for messy foods.
3. A great way for kids to weigh chopped foods. Place chopped ingredients in a coffee filter on a kitchen scale.
4. Clean off muddy kids shoes or apply shoe polish with them. Simply ball up a lint-free coffee filter.

5. Use them as a spoon rest while cooking with kids and clean up small counter or table spills.
6. Have kids use them to hold dry ingredients when baking or when cutting a piece of fruit or veggies. It definitely saves on having extra bowls to wash.
7. Kids can use them to sprout seeds. Simply dampen the coffee filter, place seeds inside, fold it and place it into a plastic baggie until they sprout.
8. Kids can clean windows, mirrors, and chrome. Coffee filters are lint-free so they'll leave windows sparkling and streak free.
9. When doing potting projects with kids you can stop the soil from leaking out of a plant pot. Line a plant pot with a coffee filter to prevent the soil from going through the drainage holes.
10. Put baking soda into a coffee filter and tie it off with a rubber band. Insert into Shoes or a closet to absorb or prevent odors.
11. Use coffee filters as blotting paper for pressed flower projects.
Kids can place the flowers between two coffee filters and put the coffee filters in a phone book.
12. Use them to remove kids fingernail polish when out of cotton balls.
13. Prevent the kids Popsicles from dripping. Poke one or two holes as needed in a coffee filter.
14. Put a few in a plate and put your fried bacon, french fries, chicken fingers, etc on them. It soaks out all the grease and is cheaper than paper towels.
15. Kids can make beautiful artwork by water coloring directly onto them or cutting them into snowflakes!

Teaching Accountability in Early Childhood Education

EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY AND NOBODY

There were four people - Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it.
Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it but Nobody did.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job.
Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody would not do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when actually Nobody asked Anybody.

Sigh.
I remember reading this little story along time ago. When I became a director I made a copy and posted in the staff room. Humor always was a handy rubber sword to get a point across.
Teaching young children accountability really requires personal awareness on my part. When I am organized and aware of what my values are for the classroom and the children the preschool curriculum not only falls into place but everything seems to run much smoother. Like a well oiled machine.
Who would have thought children so young could care, work together, and take incentive to be accountable just because they were shown how?
We all have our moments of course, but the Somebody that could have been Anybody definitely has an opportunity to take part in what Everybody once thought Nobody was capable of.
Teamwork.

Successful Clean Up Times and Transitions In Early Childhood Education

"The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain."  ~Colin Wilson

Ah…The dreaded clean up time.
That part of the day where most preschoolers all have to go to the bathroom, start missing their parents and mysteriously need comforting or simply disappear all together. The pendulum of moods defiantly swings, doesn’t it?
In early childhood setting there are many thing a teacher can to make this transition time smooth. The first thing is to defiantly plan for transitions and clean up times as you would a circle time or any other aspect of preschool curriculum.
Here are some fun and easy tips how to prepare your preschoolers for clean up:
* Sing a song or play a special CD to let the children know there are 5 more minutes until clean up time.
*Let them know at the AM circle time you have a game to play just before clean up time.

*Have a helper of the day ring a bell or blow a kazoo to start clean up.
*Every one help-including the teacher. Hand the children toys as you go and applaud all there efforts and mention each child by name as they work.
*As you finish look around the room as a class when you are done and comment on how you think your room looks. Clap as a class when you are done.
I have always seen some very sad frowns eventually turn upside down during this time....

Here are some of my successful clean up time transitional attention getters:
*Dead Ants
When you need the kids attention fast- call out “DEAD ANTS!” All the children should drop to the floor (including you) with your legs up and slightly twitching.
Oh…Explain this to the kids first or you will feel pretty silly on the floor by yourself….lol.
*Freeze
This is the most simplistic and I think nearly everyone does it but kids love to freeze like statues. Works every time.


What are some of favorite and successful ones that have worked for you?

The Honorable Mention: Successful Clean Up Times with Kids

 “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
~Henry Ford

Kids look up all the time. Why? They’re little doesn't mean "small"...just ask a Hersey's Kiss.
How do I know this?
I, myself…am vertically challenged. Petite…...ahem. But, I am a giant among the wee ones so please don’t break the news to them.
There are so many things I could be doing in the room that would be quicker, more convenient, and more efficiently done if I had done them all by myself….but I have a certain culture I wish to create in my classroom.
Teamwork.
Culture is like a seed. You must be take care in what you plant…because it can take over, like beautiful flowers or like thorny thistles.
We have small wash cloths, squirt bottles, and brooms for clean up times. The children use them often and were shown with care how to use them properly.
Parents were surprises when they first saw a clean up station set up in a preschool class. They initially thought the children weren’t allowed to touch it. When they saw children working with the materials they said.....
“Wow, so how do they know which of the clean up materials to choose? Option A, B, C or D?” They joked.
“As long as they use the materials together with purpose, they can choose all of the above” I laughed.

The Honorable Mention: Another Nation

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."
~ Don Marquis

It’s so easy to put things off when you’re working with kids. It’s even easier doing things yourself rather than having kids do it. I’m talking about ‘Clean Up Time’.
Even coming back from winter breaks or vacations….kids get ‘Clean Up Time Amnesia’. Comes with the territory, people- I stopped getting upset and frustrated long ago….I simply removed many of the materials in their environment that had lots of little parts…removed lots of 'clutter' they were normally good about cleaning up. Put in some new fresh play dough, moved around some furniture…you know, till we eased back into our routine.
I often think of an old Chinese Proverb when I feel like throwing in the proverbial towel, "He who stands still in life walks backwards". I got that out of a fortune cookie when I was ten...I remember it to this day.
As For Don Marquis, he has a good point. Any form of 'art' is in the eye of the beholder...some art is messy, confused and muddled. People that come from the nation of ‘Procrastination’(I suppose we all have at one time or another).....well, let's just say, we can choose to live someplace else.

*Thanks to my friend Andrea Wright for this quote.

Successful Clean Up Times in Early Childhood Education

"If your house is really a mess and a stranger comes to the door, greet him with, “Who could have done this? We have no enemies.” – Phyllis Diller
 
I really enjoy working in a neat organized space when I comes to the learning environment. All the family day cares I had an opportunity to work at in Vallejo, California were neat, clean and inviting. I have a tremendous amount of respect for family care providers in general. Not only are the entrepreneurs, but are part of the backbone of this nations economy. Licenced family childcare providers assist families to earn more than $100 billion dollars annually (National Woman's Law Center).
It's quite a job keeping things orderly with little ones, let alone multi aged groups. Family day cares usually have infants, toddlers and preschoolers together in the mornings. It is also possible school aged children come in the afternoons. For me, the key was the transitions....you know...that awkward time where everyone is in-between activities.
"Just before" outside time, or "just before" lunch.....that is when we would have a clean up.
This is what I like to do....

The Warning: 5 minutes before clean up I would tell them we will be cleaning up in 5 minutes...(This eventually begins to give them some sense of what 5 minutes feels like).
If I see the room is really...a-hem...overwheming..I will tidy up a little for a head start.

Clean up time: I'll sing a song or we can ring a bell to get their attention, I begin handing toys to children and asking for help, "Please help, where does this block go...ask Amy, I think she knows...I am working just as hard as they are and keeping their attention and focus on task.
I also use a broom to sweep Lego's, puzzles, etc. in small piles for the children to gather. It saves your back in the long run, have the children hold the dustpan for you to scoop up the toys.
We always clap and cheer for a job well done...I like to give Hi-fives.
We usually put the infants and very small toddlers in the playpens during clean up with some favorite toys. Then they can come out and play again. We know they will take the toys out, but the most important thing is keeping our room tidy.