Teachers have many options when it comes to resources for their classrooms these resources end up being the teacher essentials. These teacher essentials become the foundation of the class environment, with them the class is complete. These teacher essentials will help improve the quality of your teaching and classroom management. Four teacher essentials will be your mainstay: circle time calendar, visual schedule, cozy area, and literacy.
Daily Classroom Schedule
Children thrive with a daily classroom schedule and having visuals help aid the routine can be just what your classroom needs. Most teachers might think just having the same routine and schedule every day is enough for their students. Some children need visual aids to help them feel secure about their school day. Some children need to see the daily schedule in smaller chunks of time to help ease anxiety and fear. Visual schedules can build consistency and add more ownership for the student with their daily choices. For those with special needs, the visual schedules can help prepare the student for what will happen next. Sometimes a file folder with a visual schedule can help provide the same level of security while in various environments of the school, such as, outside, in an activity room, or field trip.
Circle Time Calendar
Having a circle time calendar is a great resource for the morning meeting. There are many skills that children work on during circle time: weather, numbers, days of the week, and social skills. This activity helps promote attention, listening, and language skills for kindergarten. The circle time calendar can teach about the weather and patterns for the week. Some other skills that can also be introduced in circle time are graphing and record keeping. Asking simple questions like what is your favorite food? Or graphing a favorite animal helps introduce skills needed for the future. Circle time is the most structured learning time of the day. What might seem to be just another circle time might just be what the children need to build these vital skills for years to come.
Calm Down Corner in classroom
Most classrooms are equipped with toys, tools, and furniture. However; there is an area in every class that should be a calm down corner in classroom. This area should be separate from the main activities but in line with supervision. This is a safe place for children to take breaks or calm their emotions. Some items might include sensory bottles, sensory bean bags, books about emotions, yoga cards, and pillows.
Sensory Bottles help give a child’s mind a vacation that naturally tends to redirect their brain and reset emotions.
Yoga and other movement activities help by having your mind focus on the movements and stability than emotions.
When we use breathing to calm down we allow our heartbeat to slow down to help us feel calmer.
Alphabet for Classroom
What would a classroom be without an alphabet for classroom activities? Most classrooms have words in print to help showcase that objects have words associated with them. Preschool classes might not need the alphabet displayed in alphabetical order. The flip chart in a literacy center can teach the alphabet with objects that start with that letter to gain more meaning. The flip chart helps children work on the letters that might have more importance to themselves. The alphabet for classroom can also be used with letter writing practice.
These teacher essentials will help build the foundation for your classroom. As a teacher, you lay a foundation of expectations for your students. These resources can help establish that foundation without the teaching component for the daily unvoiced needs of each student. Some teacher essentials are only known once you have them that’s when you know they are a need, not a want.
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This product will help lay the foundation of your classroom management. Think of it as the invisible foundational layer of your classroom setup. When a classroom runs like a well-oiled machine; these layers are the foundation and why the class flows seamlessly. When a class does not have this foundation there is chaos and lack of control.
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Related Resources:
Calm Down Strategies Post: This blog post details the Calm Down Corner kit product; also included in the Teacher Essentials Bundle.
Teacher Tips Post: Whether you are a seasoned teacher or brand new to teaching this post is for you. Learn some teacher tips and save yourself some frustration and heartache. I have learned these tips from the past ten years of experience. Take some or all of the tips to help transform your classroom environment.
Teacher Tools Post: This post goes through my favorite tool must-haves for teaching. These tools can save you time, stay organized, and be prepared for the daily grind.
Teaching Emotions Post: Teaching emotions is the foundation for emotional regulation in children. This post talks about the tools you can use and why teaching emotions is most important topics to teach. Teaching emotions to young children is a daily task and should be done in real-time for authentic learning. When we teach emotions we give children independence and ownership of their feelings.
