Pre-school teaching can be an interesting, challenging and also rewarding experience. A lot of research studies have brought out some innovative methodologies that can help enhance productivity in pre-school teaching. Here are a few research based reading and writing activities you can try in your pre-school to enhance the learning in the kids.
Story telling
Listening to stories followed by discussions on them is an important activity in pre-schools. In early childhood learning, stories have an important place. Tiny children have very short attention spans and hence stories that are short and conversational can work the best for them. Typically stories that last for 5 to 10 minutes can be told in classes followed by discussions. Some useful aids that teachers can use to heighten the effect of stories are nursery rhymes, books with pictures, animal drawings, and bright colored objects. These activities can help children focus on the lessons and learn many things at once.
Good quality books
Pre-schools must have access to high quality books that are prepared on the basis of research. Teachers can read these books for the entire class or in small groups of children. The books that ably reflect the children’s language, culture, and identity can prove to be highly effective inputs. On a daily basis, children at the pre-school need to be engaged with stories and informational texts. These activities can promote the vocabulary and comprehension skills in kids.
Speaking with inflection
While reading for children, teachers must speak with inflection. This can help convey the meaning quickly and effectively. Teachers may either stop to ask questions at different points or can read an entire passage at once. This can also help the children enjoy the natural rhythm of the language of the book. After reading out the story or lesson, the children must be encouraged to ask questions and engage in useful discussions that can reinforce the learning. Focusing on the sounds and parts of language and the meaning of the book following the reading are very useful activities.
Student response cards
During group discussions, using student response cards can be a good strategy to consolidate the learning. The story can be retold using pictures and objects. These teaching aids can help engage the children with the lessons and enhance their learning of the stories. The other useful strategy is providing background and contextual information regarding the story or lessons you read in the class so that you can promote the skills like decoding, vocabulary building and comprehension further. These activities can also be accompanied by videos, experiments, presentation by guest speakers and field trips.
Pre-school management
Most pre-school running entrepreneurs are into this field as they have developed a liking for it. When you run a pre-school, you need to take care of a lot of things at once. This will demand your time and effort. Invest in a good childcare subsidy software that can help streamline the child care subsidy process and leave you with enough time to focus on the development of children.
