I really need some help!! Play based curriculum

[MuckeyBusiness]

I started a new job in september and it is a play based curriculum center. We follow naeyc and we are a licensed center. Art is normally here are the materials and the paper now do what you want with it... we never have anything pre cut out. The kids learn best through play and i completley agree with that but i guess i've never applied it as much as i need to here. At previous centers i have always done the center thing with math and matching things and all that at one table and art at another table which was a lot of pre cut stuff but they can put it where they want and literacy with letters and numbers and they had to match the letters and numbers and actually practice writing and what not and for some reason i feel like i can't do any of that here. I don't know if it's just cause i'm so overwhelmed so nervous to try those things i've done at previous centers or what. If i am making sense at all someone please respond but i feel like i'm the dumbest teacher in the world and have no clue what to do in this setting to get the kids how to learn to write and learn their letters and numbers and all that good stuff. Please help i am so overwhelmed and I hope this makes sense!!!

[Blue]

Muckey, your post sounds like you are nervous.

I think we have discussed Creative Curriculum before. It sounds like this center is following creative to the letter. My best suggestion to you is to read a few posts regarding creative curriculum, and study the examples of activities.

I guess the best advice I can give you is to make sure all materials are generic and open ended. When I start the year, I put out plain paper and pencils. Each day I vary the materials until the children have experienced all media. Then, I combine materials that I put out. After they have learned how to glue, I would put out glue and collage materials. Keep it simple.

What do you need help with? I have a head full of ideas, and I will be glad to share.

[SpecialPreskoo]

http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/

http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/...urriculum.html

http://play-basedclassroom.blogspot....lay-based.html

There you a start..

Hope that helps!

[WaProvider]

Muckey, you will be ok. Listen to what the kids are saying. The good thing about play based is that you are relieved of some of the work, because the children do the planning for you. If you are having trouble planning.....try post planning (where you put out general lesson plans "today in the art center we will have paper and pencils and tomorrow we will have paper and markers" and then you keep track of who likes the center and what they are talking about and what they need to complete the work). Wow! That was such an exciting sentence I totally gave up on punctuation....sorry.

Those websites specialpreskoo gave you are great. you can do this! And if you need topics filled out or how to actually log or make lesson plans....Blue and I love to help! We just need to know what you need help with......

[Blue]

Wa is right. We love to help. Between us we have done it or heard of it.

[MuckeyBusiness]

that makes me feel good to hear So do you guys think most of what i've learned in previous centers i just need to forget? change my mindset?

[Blue]

No, don't forget the stuff, just make it creative. I was the supervisor for college ECE students for a year. My job was to make sure they did their classroom projects correctly. One student came in with drawing paper and colored pencils. Not very creative for an ECE student. I helped her problem solve and she came up with a variety of paper and several kinds of writing instruments. It is still not great project. But, it is acceptable as a creative project.

Sometimes making an activity creative is simply adding more choices. Remember, children learn best by discovering the answers for themselves. Think about your chem and bio classes, and all those experiments. You learned by doing. So do the children.

Give us some themes, etc, and we will try to help them become creative.

[Grammy Teacher]

Originally Posted by MuckeyBusiness

I started a new job in september and it is a play based curriculum center. We follow naeyc and we are a licensed center. Art is normally here are the materials and the paper now do what you want with it... we never have anything pre cut out. The kids learn best through play and i completley agree with that but i guess i've never applied it as much as i need to here. At previous centers i have always done the center thing with math and matching things and all that at one table and art at another table which was a lot of pre cut stuff but they can put it where they want and literacy with letters and numbers and they had to match the letters and numbers and actually practice writing and what not and for some reason i feel like i can't do any of that here. I don't know if it's just cause i'm so overwhelmed so nervous to try those things i've done at previous centers or what. If i am making sense at all someone please respond but i feel like i'm the dumbest teacher in the world and have no clue what to do in this setting to get the kids how to learn to write and learn their letters and numbers and all that good stuff. Please help i am so overwhelmed and I hope this makes sense!!!

After you get the hang of it, you will find it's much easier. We are basically a play-based center, but are given a lot of freedom to deviate from it if we wish.
When I did a play-based classroom, I "added" real-life things to the kitchen area and let them use their imaginations, things like rocks, boots, "real" pots and pans, magazines, boxes, wrapping paper/tape, etc.
I did the same for the block/truck areas and really still do it all that way. Let them play and figure things out. It's fun!
As for art/projects, I put things on the table and they could choose to do them...or not.
I will say that it was so much easier than sitting down a group of 10 children and telling them what to make!
I also found that the years I did it this way, they did not learn their letters and numbers as quickly or as well. That's why I went back to group teaching them at the table so that they are formally exposed to the things they need to enter Kindergarten.
Good luck!

[WaProvider]

I agree Grammy, the years I spent doing play based, or similarily emergent curriculum were wonderfully less stressful. I also saw that if we were solely a program that learned through play we would have possibly been outputting less quickly. I did end up adding back in the formality of a circle time, and the ZooPhonics song....but for the bulk of our 10 hour day together we were emergent.

[MuckeyBusiness]

When you have done a play based classroom what would your large group/circle time look like? I'm also starting to learn I need to save my busy classroom work that I need to get done and actually sit and interact with the kids. That's a lot harder then I thought it'd be