Tried & True Teacher Tips

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Episode 8

Caylee Carullo

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Episode 8 - Support for families during the pandemic

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EPISODE 8:

Ok, we want to start out by saying, this whole situation is super crazy and unpredictable and we have no idea what the hell we are doing, but we want to try and support teachers to support families… 

  • Especially for our pre-k and k teachers, we wanted to create something you can pass on to your families to offer some ideas and support during this crazy time… 

  • We want to start by saying, we are doing this episode to try and help…. We don’t want to overwhelm you or add extra to your plate… we just hope everyone is staying safe and taking care of themselves, cause we are in this with you and we are losing our minds too… do the best you can and sleep well at night knowing that is enough… a few weeks away from school, even a month or two, isn’t going to be the end of the world...I mean things are crazy and we are all experiencing so many different emotions, but we just want be a calm voice that can tell you, “it’s going to be ok… kids aren’t going to forget everything they’ve learned”… who knows how long this will be for, when I first wrote this episode I was saying “a few weeks away from school won’t be the end of the world” but now it looks like most schools are closing until the end of the year, so I had to change it to a few months away from school…

  • we all want this to be over soon… and we don’t want to freak anyone out… the one thing we can control is how we react to things… it’s important to stay calm, take it one day at a time and we hope that this episode will bring you some joy and some inspiration…

  • we would actually really love to see everyone relax, reconnect, and embrace this crazy, special time. We want this episode to be more about how to survive, or dare we even say, enjoy, this time being with your kids and away from, well everything else... we know that life is stressful right now, but we want to help you enjoy being around your kids 24/7 for days and days…I know that so many people are worried about supporting their families and can barely get past the day to day, so I know the thought of educating kids from home and distance learning, is just too much for a lot of us… I hope after you hear this episode you feel like we have given you some do-able easy things to make your life and this time better for you.

  • So that’s first, we want to remind you, not to feel pressured about “being the teacher”... we don’t know how long this is going to last, but once it’s over, your teachers will step back up to be the teachers, and the kids will get right back to it and everything will be ok… 

  • - Scout is in preschool… Her teachers had been so awesome throughout all of this. They email us with fun and simple activities to try at home. A lot of the ideas are play based and things we normally do but she reminds us to use certain vocab and things like that. Another really fun activity she suggested was to play school and let scout be the teacher and have her teach us the songs they sing at school.  Scout loved this one. She pretended to be Ms.Michele and was able to teach us the good morning song, the calendar song and days of the week. Scout misses school terribly… She cried when I told her she couldn't go back for a while. Her teachers have been so sweet and send us emails that really brighten her day. The emails are short but they have made such a big difference. It’s simple but really thoughtful. 

  • learning at home can be a great experience if you relax, breathe, and keep it simple. 

  • Ok one big tip-We know that kids act differently at home than they do at school which is good for many reasons but it can also make it hard to do school at home… so we recommend finding a way to make a change for the “school time” in the day at home whether it’s creating a certain space where it will be the school time or getting certain materials together that will be “the school materials”...do something to clearly show your child, we are entering this space, now we will be doing school work or we are using these specific materials, we are going to act differently because this is going to be our work time, and then we will go back to fun normal home time shortly after this… (not to say that school time won’t be fun!) but you want to make a clear distinction for your children. Because school is a place where kids thrive off routines and structure. If you can bring that stuff into your home day, for a little bit, you’ll be so much better off. Some ideas for this are setting aside a space for work time, whether that’s a table set up in the family room or if you live somewhere that’s nice it might be able to be set up outside… or you can create a tray of school materials, maybe a fresh pack of crayons or some pencils that you’ve attached feathers to the end so they feel special and kids will be excited to use them… 

This is such a good suggestion.I was talking to my mom who's a therapist and she said something that I thought was really helpful. She said a good way to spin this is setting up the new normal…. It means you can set up the new normal how you want it and to be sure to be more balanced with mental,physical, and emotional health …. So that when everything goes back to the way it was we can keep those aspects into our daily routine moving forward.

Also, during this time of so much uncertainty it's nice for kids to feel safe….and one way of doing that is providing the routines and rituals at home. Kids can get anxiety just like adults but it usually comes out in stomach aches, not sleeping, out character behavior and so on…. Kids daily routines have been turned upside down. They are used to going to school daily, having playdates and soccer practice to know not knowing what's going on. One way I helped deal with so much change is having her help me make a daily visual schedule.   It's been really helpful for her to know what her day is going to look like. She can now refer to the schedule and know when it's time to do what. Also….Keep this SIMPLE!!!! Ours is literally made with markers and a piece of wrapping paper. We have about 6 or 7 things things on there. Breakfast- movement(outside play,dance,yoga)- School fun- lunch- Chores/ quiet time- Play -Dinner . I think the schedule has actually helped me accountable more than anything lol but Scout does like to know what's happening next so this is helpful.  

That is such a great idea. Time is an abstract concept that kids don’t fully understand… so making a visual schedule can be so helpful to help kids out with this tricky concept… My sister told me having a schedule 

  • I think that one way to do this is, like we mentioned, to make a small part of the day for learning, where kids can act like they would in school, and we know you’ve probably seen the hundreds of posts about online resources, there are plenty of great ones, but with so much of them being online, it can be tempting to hand them the screens, but just remember, when they sit on the screens, they are missing out on so much of the movement and engagement they are craving… so if you’re seeing behaviors flare up, I’d look for ways to reduce screen time, and increase the movement… 

  • I have been seeing hundreds and hundreds of resources that are being made available to families for free and I will admit, it’s totally awesome, but it’s kinda overwhelming…. As a parent, I can only imagine looking at a spreadsheet of free stuff and being like, “ok, I have about 6 hours ahead of me to even begin to decipher these links and decide what’s really going to be helpful for my child…” We will put the link in the shownotes to the full list, because there are lots of great ones on there - there are museums that are doing virtual tours that you can view for free… lots of cool stuff at amazingeducationalresources.com …. Again, I will link that in the shownotes, 

  • but we have taken a look at the lists and compiled a SHORT LIST of a few of the resources on there that we’ve personally used and recommend for your pre-k aged kiddos… 


  • My favorite way to do this is cosmic kids yoga-- if you’ve never heard of it, it’s a yoga instructor named Jamie, who is also the most amazing story teller and entertainer ever… I have done so many of these videos along side my class and my niece and nephew.... They are simple enough for kids to do the moves and as she goes, she is telling you a story, you can choose episodes with different animals, characters from movies like frozen or trolls… it’s seriously GOLD… you could easily find time once or twice a day to play this guided yoga meditation for your children to be entertained while getting the movement in… 

  • Another great website for movement is gonoodle… there are TONS of videos on there that will get your kids moving and teach them new vocabulary, and concepts like patterns in a fun way… 

  • Another tip we want to share for you parents/guardians turned teachers, is a website called teachers pay teachers, now that you are taking on the teaching role, you should be let in on the secret, Teachers pay teachers, also known as TPT, is a website where you can go and search from MILLIONS of teacher created resources and pay all different prices for documents you can print and use right away at home. I have a TPT store and my documents are for pre-k aged children so between 3-5ish, but if you go to TPT, you can search different price ranges and grade levels, they have tons of free resources, there’s just a lot of great teaching tools available to you on there. 

  • And of course, there’s always the Pre-K Teacher Family, we know money is tight right now for, the world… so we want to help bring you resources at a reasonable price… if you use the promocode PODCAST, you can join the Pre-K Teacher Family and have access to hundreds of documents right away. Even though it’s called the Pre-K Teacher family, it’s really for anyone that has pre-k aged children in their life! We have parents, grandparents, babysitters, all types of people benefitting from the resources. I had a parent sending me photos of the dining room table filled with all the documents she had printed from the Pre-K Teacher Family membership and she was so excited to have lots of activities prepared and ready for her pre-K aged kiddo… Also, your membership comes with access to..  ME.. haha it might sound a little silly but I am quarantined here in Montana, no kids at home, ready and waiting for the members of the family to reach out to me for ANYTHING they might need support with.. Behaviors that are popping up at home, what do I do when my kid does this? It’s nice to be able to send me a message and hear back right away about whatever it is that you need some help with… even though we are all feeling really secluded right now, I am here and available to help you from a far… talk to me! I’m listening!!! 

  • follow their interests… if your kids are into animals or paw patrol, use that to your advantage and create learning opportunities from those interests. It’s so much easier to get your kid to practice writing when they get to write or draw or color something they already like, rather than something you just printed or tell them to write about. 

  • Yes to this. Kids already have so many awesome interests. Your school time doesn't need to look like traditional school. You don't need worksheets or a desk or any of that. Use what they already have and love. My daughter loves to play family… There are so many ways to deepen learning by just playing family with her.  I simply just point things out in a nonchalant way. “Oh I see your baby loves to eat red beets” Then she looks at the pretend baby food….. And asks what are beets? 

  • I ask her to name the family members, what are their favorite colors and animals, how many pairs of shoes her baby doll has and so on…

  • My son is obsessed with cars and bugs…. The other day we spent hours outside turning over rocks to find bugs….. It was filled with so much curiosity and wonder not to mention all the awesome vocabulary. Bugs we didn't know ….we went inside and looked them up on the computer.  I see so many parents worried about not knowing how to teach their kids or not knowing how to do their math….. It's ok…It's a good thing to show your kids when you don't know something. I always tell my kids that I don't know and that I'll have to look that up. And I am always sure to look it up and let them know.  It's teaching your kids that it's ok not to know but there's always a way to learn or find out. Hawk always plays with cars and its easy to have him tel me what color they are or to group them by color. He also likes to wash his cars and count his cars.      

  • We know you don’t want to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on materials, you don’t need to do that. We are going to give you some ideas for learning and creating fun engaging experiences at home with things you already have around. 

    • Cardboard boxes are one fun material that most people have at home already… you can make them into a fort and let kids color and write all over them… or you can lay them flat and draw roads for kids to create a whole town… when you do this one, kids can use any kind of blocks, toys, animals, dolls, figurines, cars, etc...and add to their own little town.

    • Window tracing… if you have a window that’s accessible to the kids, you can take any kind of coloring page from a coloring book or you can print some for kids to trace by holding up to the window. I usually use painters tape to attach the image they want to trace and then you can put a piece of paper on top of that and let them 

  • Also, our sponsor is another great website resource for you… this episode is sponsored by a company called ampeduplearning... they are owned and operated by classroom teachers, which we love... as you know, we're here to support teachers -- this great company has fun teacher designed and printed shirts that don't break the bank and they have tons of documents and printable activities that gamify learning... how awesome is that?... we all know kids retain so much more information when the lessons are fun...they have created a coupon code just for our listeners to give you 10% off your entire order -- the code is triedandtrue10… again, that’s triedandtrue10 (it will give you 10% off which makes it easy to remember, triedandtrue10) …. so make sure to check them out, use our coupon code, AND they do giveaways every month on facebook/twitter and instagram -- find them @ampeduplearning... I will attach a link to their facebook page in the show notes! 

  • Since we are all being cooped up and made to stay at home, we want to give you ideas of fun ways to spend time with children outside, to get a break from the house. We actually did a whole episode on ideas for play outside in EPISODE 3... make sure to check that one out, we give you some fun ideas for entertaining kiddos outside by making potions, running relays and races, spicing things up with accessories, dancing with streamers, and we give our favorite tips for bubble play. 

Ok, so we have two final tips for you. 

ALSO, if you’re looking for creative ways to motivate kids at home

-Spider-Man brain/hulk brain 


Ok...so first, I’d explain to him why work is important. With my students, I’d talk to them about their muscles - I’d have them hold out their biceps and squeeze them and say, “whoa you’re strong...you’re like Spider-Man or hulk.” (They love this.)

Then, talk to him about how his brain is like a muscle too...but to get it stronger, you can’t just lift heavy stuff — to get your brain stronger, you have to THINK hard. When you’re working on something and it’s hard, if you keep thinking and trying, that’s how your brain gets stronger!!!

You can just google images of hulk or spiderman with their strong muscles… seeing these images is very motivating for young children. 



And talk to him about how we want our brain to get strong... in my classroom we would talk about how we want a “hulk brain” ...not a “spongebob brain”


You can google images of spongebob trying to lift weights… and kids always find this funny.. There’s one where spongebob is struggling to lift the bar with stuffed animals on either end..

And you can say to your kiddo,  “He can’t even lift those teddy bears? You are stronger than that, right!? Oh ya. We’re gonna get you a hulk brain, my man! When you think and work hard, your brain will grow strong!!!”

Kids are very responsive to this and want to make their brains stronger!

Another idea I want to share comes from the montessori method…this is when you create a space where your child gets to display their work once it’s completed (kids really like this), maybe on the fridge or in a big window in the kitchen, somewhere he can hang it up (you could even make it more special by giving him a

“special” tape dispenser and showing him how to hang up his own work, he will feel proud to do that. It’s just a normal tape dispenser you put in a special place and tell him this is his special thing to use...little privileges like this mean a lot to kids) and everyone in the family will see his work and give him attention (high fives, acknowledgement, etc.) which will encourage him to keep it up!

(Maybe he even gets to put a few stickers on it if he completes it himself, as an additional motivator?)

Ok, so we hope this episode has given you some ideas to help lighten your heart during this crisis… remember, we are all in this together and we are always here for yoU!.