“Remote learning” definitely has advantages and disadvantages! While I love the idea of preparing lessons from the comfort of my recliner in my comfy clothes- it’s really hard to see how the lessons are going with the kids. Teachers make adjustments to lessons as we go based on the needs of the kids. I can challenge them more or simplify the lesson as it is presented…but that is very difficult to do without actually being with the kids seeing how things are going. I NEED your feedback!
Please comment below on how things went this week. Use some/all of the questions to give me some feedback on how things went.
Lessons Presented this week: counting silverware, locating front/back/spine/first word in a book, hide and seek numbers, strawberry counting book, sock ball game, and pigeon drawing.
- What lessons did you have to simplify for your child?
- What lessons needed an extra challenge for your child?
- What lesson was fun / uninteresting for your child?
- Were you able to do the lessons? What stopped / motivated you?
- Did you have the materials at home that you needed for the lessons? What adaptations did you make?
- Was it helpful to have a routine for the day?
- Were the screen time games helpful?
- What can I do to make this an easier transition for you/your child?
- How are you feeling about being “Ms. Bass” this week? 🙂
Any comments are appreciated, and will be used to make future lessons!
Adam loved counting silverware, he first claimed he couldn’t count that high but got through it with some motivation. He loved the sock ball game and drawing the pigeons as well. Photos coming soon! He even wanted to spell their names out on the sheet! He had a little trouble getting motivated to draw the strawberries for his number so after a little while, I had him write out the numbers that he’s having trouble writing in the correct direction. The screen time games were a bit helpful, we had trouble with counting the beads so I downloaded some other apps and got a subscription to education.com and we’ve been using their games + worksheets daily. Routine hasn’t been too much of an issue since Adam has been excited to work on new “homework” and receiving “stars” for an ice cream party at the end of the week. It’s been fun! Adam wants to say: he got a booboo and has a “I’m a princess” bandage on! 🙂 thanks for all your help Ms. Bass!
Thank you for the feedback! I am glad to hear Adam is doing well with his homework! I love the pictures you’ve uploaded.
Please tell Adam I am sorry to hear about his boo boo and I have a boo boo too- no princess band aids tho- 🙁
I cut my finger trying out some new soup recipe that flopped! I’ll stick with canned soup from now on! LOL
Hello Ms. Bass , first and foremost I must give you props for being able to keep up with 16 kids and getting them where they are at today in learning thank you so much for being an amazing teacher ❤️. I am trying to go on with some of the lessons with Omar he is loving seeing your videos of the lessons you want him to do and he loved counting with curious George he also loves playing hide and seek with his siblings. As for the routine just trying to get him seated in one spot is a Hassel 😆. Looking forward for more daily routines they are really helpful.
Zahretelula,
Keeping kids in one spot is DIFFICULT-especially all 16 of them! From my experiences in the classroom, the routine is KEY to controlling the chaos! A simple, developmentally appropriate routine with very clear expectations for all kids makes easy for kids to know what they are doing and what the expectations are. At home it will be a little different than school, but routine will save you too! It’s kind of like juggling – everyone has a mind of their own…and you run the circus!
Kids in our classroom have molded well to our expectations. I just told Ms. Aldafaii last week that we were “on”- a fully functioning classroom family. Kids knew what the expectations were and what behaviors are acceptable and what was not. They were so good at it, they reminded their friends when they weren’t doing the right thing–they only needed me to present lessons!
Right now parents, you are experiencing my “beginning of the school year chaos”. The time of the year that I admittedly HATE! Kids are unsure of the expectations you have of them and are trying to figure out the chaos that is happening! My best suggestion is to sit as a family and make a schedule of the day. Let kids have input and draw little picture symbols beside the words you agree on (Preschoolers can’t read words, but they can read picture symbols). Hang that schedule up on the wall (use painters tape- it won’t ruin your painted walls) and follow/enforce it. When you have to make adjustments to the schedule, talk about it with everyone at breakfast so kids know what is changing in advance. Helpful?
Hi ms bass what you mentioned we do most of it with huda on a daily basis. She is smart and bright child, we always do book reading and she answers back all the questions I ask her and she does all the letters on her own capital and lower case and we do the numbers also on our own from 1-20. I actually need something advanced for her. At times I see her teaching her what I’m doing with my son 1st grade and that is something she’s interested in. Like his site words and math we do adding or subtracting but visual. Other than that whatever you assigned us she’s passed that yet we do it. If you have anything for us a bit advanced we don’t mind doing that. Thank you.
Part of being a teacher is figuring out how to make an activity work for ALL learners. While this “remote learning” idea is completely new for me, making lessons simpler for some students, and more challenging for other students is a daily task! I added some suggestions to help challenge and simplify in the lessons for today. Were those suggestions helpful to meet Huda’s needs? If so, I’ll continue to add this to my videos. If not, let me know and I would be happy to give some more suggestions!
It’s very difficult for me to judge the lessons without actually doing them with the kids- so your feedback is helpful!
Thank you! I really wasn’t sure if I should send them or not ( I just don’t want to be sending lots of stuff). But I’m glad you liked them. My child has been very excited about all the activities we have been doing, which really surprised me. I honestly thought he’s just gonna want to play and jump around with his brothers.
He’s been looking forward to watch your youtube videos every morning (he gets to tease his brothers that his teacher is on youtube 😅).
The counting games has been working very well with him, and as you suggested, I’m adding some more questions to make it more challenging.
The thing that I’m having problem with is the planning part. At home, we’re just not used to plan our day ahead of time (with my busy schedule, I just go with the flow I guess). So my child has been tell me how he plans his play time at school, going from one play area to another. But we haven’t been able to do that at home.
Another question I had is that how much time I should be spending on each activity? Do we do breaks in between? For example, when my child was doing his strawberry book, he lost focus by the time he got to the 3rd page ( he was supposed to do from 15-20). Should I be more strict about it and have him finish it, or it can be more flexible? Im just trying to do what is best for him. Thank you in advance!
A parent emailed with some questions that may apply to all of you, so I copied and pasted the email above!
YES!!! Send me all the pictures and videos that you can, I’ll look at 100’s of pictures and videos of your children. Even if you are sending them in the middle of the night, I’ll look! It helps with my own anxiety to see those faces…and it will be one great way to show how strong our efforts for educating our students are the end of all of this!
Regarding planning time…you know I wasn’t sure how this would go at home. But, this is an area of weakness for our students- so I do want them to practice! Most often at this time of the year, Preschoolers should be able to tell me 2 things that they want to do and be able to complete both things without me reminding them (for example a child telling me, “Ms. Bass I am going to the block area to build a tower with Hussein and then I’ll go to the art area to make a painting for mom.”) Planning time doesn’t have to happen just before playing. Maybe making it part of your routine at another time would be more effective. Maybe try before bedtime. Children typically know they need to brush their teeth, bathe, put pj’s on etc….try then. I bet if you told him that want to let him make a bedtime plan, he would be able to. Try tonight using the verbage…. “Tommy (change to your child’s name 🙂 instead of making a plan for worktime like you do at school- I want you to make a plan for bedtime. It’s time to get ready for bed soon, what will you need to do before you get in bed?” Help him along for the first couple of days so he knows what you mean (example: “you want to put on your pjs first or brush your teeth first? So tell mama your plan…) Try it and let me know if this helps- it’s the same skill as school, but just a little bit different 🙂 We are making due!
In regards to activity and focus…..
Keep in mind, Preschoolers are 4…while they may have a brain that makes them able to do more than what a typical 4 year old can do…they still have a 4 year old’s body. Typically, I’ve been told that a child has a mental focus that matches their age. So a 4 year old can maintain focus for 4 minutes, a 5 year old- 5 minutes. In reality, I have found that a child can most often double that. If the lesson has several parts, the mind is distracted by a change and they can “sit” and focus longer. Allow the movement- that keeps focus much longer! A child can write numbers and draw circles standing sitting and moving.
For your particular child, remember the video you posted of him counting and adding cards to the one line of cards- he moved his body several times even within that short video clip. HE NEEDS THAT! If doing 4 pages at once in his number book couldn’t hold his interest- no worries. We’ve given his kindergarten mind a big task for his preschooler body to do! Give him some breaks or have him move positions between pages to keep his interest longer. Do a page at the table in a chair, then change it “sweetheart- would you do me a favor… could you draw the 14 circles maybe hide under the table- I don’t want to see you do them- make it a surprise for mama, would you?” I can see your particular child loving this idea!
Helpful? Let me know if you need more suggestions!
Hello good to hear from you all the time Sakinah is playing all day with her sister different games and doing a lot a lot art and painting and using clay and she loves your videos
Thank you
Seems like the kids like my youtube videos! I thought this might be good for them to keep interest. I’ll continue to make them for upcoming lessons! Thanks for the feedback! Please make sure you add photos/videos of Sakinah doing her projects to our photo/video link. You can upload them at this link: https://forms.gle/EyAi9S86YVpeEEJC9