Helpful Tips

Sometimes I am just amazed at the creativity of some people. Being a preschool teacher can be challenging as you may have little time with your students, and a huge clean-up project is not always an option. This section is helpful tips I have been given to make life a little less stressful during a busy school day. Some suggestions may seem obvious to you creative and logical people out there, but sometimes I get so busy with life I don't think about the obvious. I hope something here helps!

If you have any time management, clean-up or organization tips, share in the comment section!

• One of the first things I learned from my preschool director seems so obvious to me now. When you have a craft project where you need to cut pieces out ahead of time, save yourself some time! If it is a symmetrical shape (i.e. apple, tree, flower, etc) fold your paper in half, and draw one half of the object. Cut the half out, and voila - you have your whole stencil. If you need to cut several, be sure to cut 2-4 pieces of paper (based on the quality of your scissors) at a time. It amazes me how much time these little tricks have saved me.

• Another helpful tip from my director is for your gluing projects. When you are working on that pincer grasp, put a post-it note by each child and squirt some glue on it. This way the child may stick the bead, mosaic, pipe cleaner or whatever in the glue and put it on the craft. Once their done, they can throw it away, and the mess is gone!

• Out of paint cups? Well according to a helpful tip found in Mailbox, you can use cupcake liners to place the paint. When craft time is over, throw away for less mess and easy clean-up

• Colored Sharpies are your friend - Really any colored marker is. When tracing something for the children to cut out, use a marker of a similar color. This way when the object is cut out, the tracing lines do not distract from the finished product.

• Looking forward to trying this out. I get frustrated easily when cutting out felt. I go through the trouble because my pre-kindergarteners love playing on the felt board. Follow this link for a helpful tip in designing and cutting felt pieces. http://www.jugglingwithkids.com/2013/10/the-secret-to-cutting-felt-making-felt.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+jugglingwithkids%2FgQTQ+%28J