Learning Centers

Each day, the preschoolers are encouraged to make choices for themselves and practice self-care skills through out the day.  Some of these activities are teacher-led or teacher-directed.  However, many of our activities are student-led and teacher facilitated activities.

We accomplish this by carefully preparing multiple learning centers around the classroom.  Each learning center is prepared so that specific language targets and other developmental goals can be developed while the preschoolers play.  We feel that if the child is interested in an a certain area (and can choose when to play there) he or she will be more focused and more attentive to learn the language in that area.  We call this "kid-choice" center time.  We give the students 2 choices at a time in order to encourage more peer interactions as well as the opportunity to develop other social skills.  This also helps the preschoolers to work on their overall communication.  

And, even though I talk a lot about the theme center on this blog, we actually rotate through various centers each day in our classroom.  One of our goals for this activity is to encourage the preschoolers to use their language in a meaningful way.  For example, they can practice using their language to tell us, where they want to go, what they want to play with, etc.  The language opportunities are endless!

Our daily center choices are as follows:   The Kitchen, The Reading Corner (+ fine motor activities), Letters & Numbers, Transportation/House/Blocks, Art & Sensory, and Technology (computer & iPad).