Provide active learning opportunities. Preschool students do not have the educational experience or attention spans necessary to sit and listen to a lecture or focus on silent seat work. Allow the students to get out of their seats whenever possible. Offer them games, artistic activities or kinesthetic learning opportunities.
Creating an environment conducive to learning. For many preschool students, their current classroom is the first one with which they have experience. Create an engaging classroom full of color, learning materials and educationally sound decorations to set the scene for high-quality learning. Make it clear to young learners that the classroom differs from other settings in both function and design.
Compose lessons that are within the students’ zone of proximal development. The zone of proximal development is the level that is neither too easy nor too difficult for the students. If you present information that is too simple, preschool students will not feel that they are being adequately challenged. If the information is too difficult, they will become frustrated and shut down.
Set a consistent daily schedule. Students need to know what to expect from day to day. Set up a routine for your young pupils to follow. Start every day the same, and progress through the activities in a predictable pattern.
Maintain classroom control with clearly stated and consistently enforced rules. While your students have likely followed simple rules at home, this is their first experience with standard classroom rules. Make your rules clear to your students by posting them and reviewing them numerous times throughout the year. Enforce them consistently so that students do not feel that they are being singled out for punishment if they are disciplined.
Watch carefully for exceptionalities. At this age, students have not yet been identified as having a special need or exhibiting characteristics of a gifted child. As students learn throughout the year, consider their abilities and make note of any signs that the child may need extra enrichment or assistance.
Get parents involved. Speak regularly with the parents of your preschool students, and invite them to be involved in their child’s education. Send home notes, both positive and negative, and hold classroom events to which parents are invited to allow them to see that they play an integral role in their child’s education.