Coaching toddlers

  THE PRINCIPLES BEHIND MY LESSON PLAN FOR A GROUP OF EIGHT TODDLERS My lesson plans are a tool to help the kids and me to have a good day.  When children are busy developing their skills, they are happy and so am I.  It should never be something to stress about.  I made it clear to myself years ago, the children under my care here and now are my priority at all time.  I plan during nap but nap is not always quiet.  If a child needs my attention I drop whatever I'm doing and give attention to him or her.  If they are quiet during the day I might start to sit at the table and plan or prepare an art project but if the atmosphere of the classroom gets hectic I invite them to cut with me at the table or draw with me,  or dropping everything and march with them instead of running, whatever I think that might help to channel their energy and engage them with me. If I didn't  have time to make a lesson plan, I improvise or do again what worked yesterday or the week before.  There are

  Art and craft for toddlers Nowadays there is a lot of positive talks about process art and some negative ones about craft.  I think they are learning opportunities for toddlers in both.  I was told that teacher shouldn't demonstrate how to do a project because it kills the creativity of  children and make them feel bad about their skills.  I don't think it's true with the toddlers.  Most of them are mostly interested or not in the process anyway.    I like to show them the finish product and if they are not interested it's ok.  For example when we did our hand print polar bear, i show them mine first.  The older ones were interested and the younger not at all.  We did an icy lanscape first.  I gave them a blue construction paper and 3 light blue ones, with glue and paint brush.  When they were done I gave them 1 or 2 snowflake stickers.  They were all different and they were all perfect for the polar bear back ground. The polar bear itself was more a craft but the ove

  Language and Literacy  activities for toddlers  Language and Literacy is divided in 5 categories: Literacy, Receptive Language, Expressive language,Print concepts and Phonological awareness. Literacy  Literacy is simply a book I choose for the week.  It is usually a story, often seasonal but I am always on the look for clues from the children to cultivate their interests or respond to their needs.  I use the book to inspire me for the other activities.   For example, the first week of January, we read : " Flip and Flop"  , a story about 2 penguins and we did different activities to go with it, like "Feed the penguin"  https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/feed-penguin.html for fine motor, playing "boomba" like the two characters in the story, for relationships with peers or gross motor... Here is the lesson plan I wrote about Penguins, Arctic Fox and Snowy Owl :  https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/first-week-of-january.html Receptive L

  Fine Motor Activities for toddlers I read somewhere that today's  children have poor fine motor skills which makes them having a hard time to learn to hold a pen and learn how to write.  So I make sure that I provide such activities every day.  I have paper scraps and scissors under easy access and it is always a hit when I get them out. I have also tweezers that we use with plastic bugs or cotton balls, pompoms etc.  The pictures above are from my Arctic animals lesson plan:

(   ARCTIC  One week lesson plan for toddlers MONDAY  Language and Literacy (Literacy) Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear?, by Bill Martin Jr./ Eric Carle Fine Motor  Cutting 3 pieces of light blue paper for the art project  Art Icy landscape  (First step of the Hand Print Polar Bear) https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/hand-print-polar-bear.html Cognition (Engagement in Learning) Letting the children spreading the glue themself during the art project. https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/cognitive-activities-for-toddlers.html Social  and Emotional  (Sense of self) Asking each child, during the day:"What is your favorite book?" and read it. https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/social-and-emotional- Gross Motor "Penguin song" from the learning station. Click below for the lyrics: https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/penguin-song.html TUESDAY   Language and Literacy  (Receptive Language) "Polar bear, polar bear jump up an

 Arctic Animals  One week lesson plan for toddlers Monday Language and Literacy  (Literacy) Flip and Flop by Dawn Apperley  https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/communication-activities-for-toddlers.html Fine motor Cuting fishes drawn on strips of paper to feed the penguin tomorrow  https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/fine-motor-activities.html Art Penguin  Cognition   (Counting and Cardinality) Couting penguins If you want to know more about my cognitive activities, click the link below: https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/01/cognitive-activities-for-toddlers.html If you are intimidated about drawing I encourage you to give this penguin a try, click on the link below for clear instructions:  https://coachingtoddlers.blogspot.com/2021/02/how-to-draw-penguin.html Social and Emotional  (Sense of self) Bringing each child to the mirror with a wet wipes and asking them to wash their face themself after eating. Click the link below for more information about my Soc