Page 38 - Demo

You know how hard it is to get a group of preschoolers to be calm and quiet for circle time. Next time, instead of demanding silence, try playing the Silence Game(everyone closes their eyes and mouths and keeps their bodies totally still so that the class can listen for the very quiet sounds in the room). By being quiet, children will be rewarded with the opportunity to learn about small sounds all around them.Pay attention to your words. Are you using %u201cbest%u201d %u201cgreatest%u201d %u201cfabulous%u201d and %u201cawesome%u201d over and over and over, or are you focusing on the children%u2019s learning accomplishments? You might want to say, %u201cThank you for sweeping up that mud. You have made our classroom look very nice.%u201d or %u201cYou have really learned a lot this week!%u201dDoes it seem a little cold not to praise children? Actually the trick is not to interrupt a child%u2019s concentration with praise. If a child is not asking for feedback, a careful teacher will want to leave her alone. If a child asks for praise, you can be positive and brief, but not gushy. You might want to say something like: %u201cYou should be proud of your hard work!%u201dAlways be on the lookout for ways to help the children work together. %u201cSarah, you seem to really enjoy making snacks for our class. Will you help Sam wash the apples and grapes?%u201dTry to plan learning activities so that children can tell, on their own, if they have made a mistake. Say that you want to help a student to learn her colors. You might give her a set of little cards with different colors on them, and a set of blocks that match the colors on the cards. If you plan this lesson so that the colors on the cards match the blocks exactly, she will not need you to tell her whether or not she has made a mistake. She will be able to tell immediately and can make corrections on her own.LEARNING CAN BECOME ITS OWN REWARD.Here%u2019s howIDEA638