Assessment isn't just about ticking boxes or assigning grades. By analyzing assessment results, teachers can tailor their instruction to meet the specific needs of the children that are in their class right now.

Many times teachers take time to complete assessments and document observations and then the process stops there.

Deciding HOW to use the results of the assessment to create opportunities for learning those missing skills is the most important step!

Tune in and hear how I actually use the data I've collected!

Topics Discussed:

• Assessment types
• Analyzing assessment results
• Using assessment results
• Monitoring progress

Assessment Resources:

• Blogpost: Our New Assessment Approach in Preschool
• Blogpost:  Analyzing Assessment Data (includes a tool to help you identify which skills are needed class-wide
• Blogpost: Making Assessment Engaging
• FREE Assessment Guide

 Small Group Resources

• Blogpost: How to Effectively Group Preschoolers for Small Group
• Blogpost: My Top Tips for Small Group
• Blogpost: Preschool Small Group Activities
• Blogpost: Organizing Preschool Small Group

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

Are you a preschool teacher that still does daily calendar at circle time?

It seems like the newest trend in early education is to say ‘so long’ to calendars in the classroom. The traditional calendar is either being replaced by a linear calendar or no calendar at all. But why?

We know that young children don’t quite understand the concept of time in days, months and years. We know this to be true because to a preschooler everything happened yesterday!

But, the thing is we don’t use our calendar just for looking at the concept of time. I use it as a quick, fun way for us to reinforce and practice some skills. Plus, it’s a great way to start laying the foundation for the concept of time by relating events on the calendar back to something important to students.

Want to know more about how I use calendar time to practice important skills?

Stay tuned!

Topics Discussed:

• Skills that the preschool calendar helps us to practice
• How a preschool calendar can help us lay the foundation for future use
• How I use the calendar in my classroom

Resources Mentioned:

• Calendar Cards for Preschool - Patterning and Holidays Included | TPT

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Blogpost: Why we Still Use Calendar at Circle Time

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

Subitizing is the ability to quickly identify the numbers in a set without counting. By developing subitizing skills early on, children build a strong foundation for more complex math concepts. How do we practice it in our classroom though? I've got you covered!

Stay tuned!

Topics Discussed:

• Two types of subitizing
• Subitizing cards and how to use them
• Other ways to practice subitizing in your classroom

Resources Mentioned:

• FREE Subitizing Cards

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Blogpost: Assessing Preschool Math Skills

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! It's also a busy and sometimes difficult time of year for teachers! The holiday excitement can definitely affect behaviors in our students. I've found that keeping our little learners engaged is the best way to handle all of that excess holiday energy!

If you need ideas for December activities, let me share some of my favorites!

Stay tuned!

Topics Discussed:

• December centers
• December small group lessons
• December whole group lessons

Resources Mentioned:

• Holiday Science Centers
• December Math Games
• Holiday Literacy Unit
• Holiday Shared Reading

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• To see photos of these activities, visit this blogpost.

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

It's the most wonderful time of the year!! It's also a busy and sometimes difficult time of year for teachers! The holiday excitement can definitely affect behaviors in our students. I've found that keeping our little learners engaged is the best way to handle all of that excess holiday energy!

If you need ideas for December activities, let me share some of my favorites!

Stay tuned!

Topics Discussed:

• December centers
• December small group lessons
• December whole group lessons

Resources Mentioned:

• Holiday Science Centers
• December Math Games
• Holiday Literacy Unit
• Holiday Shared Reading

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• To see photos of these activities, visit this blogpost.

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

While we all know fine motor skills are important, but do your little learners have enough opportunities to practice them?

I knew during play that most all of my centers have fine motor practice available. But, I also found that some of my students weren't using the fine motor activities that were incorporated into the centers.

Time to "think outside the box"! Actually, time to think inside of the boxes! Literally! This little set of boxes and the activities that I created to fill them have helped my students with fine motor skills and I hope they will help yours too!

Stay tuned!

Topics Discussed:

• What is a Fine Motor Box
• 16 fine motor activities
• Why everyone is loving these boxes

Resources Mentioned:

• Fine Motor Task Boxes

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• See photos at this blogpost: Using Fine Motor Tubs

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

The debate over assigning centers vs. allowing free choice is one that has long raged in the early childhood field. In our minds assigning centers makes sense - if children go to each center, they are getting everything we want them to out of center time... right? Maybe not.

In this episode, let's talk about 5 specific reasons why assigning centers can backfire!

Tune in!

Topics Discussed:

• 5 reasons you should consider free choice during center time

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Episode 13: Benefits of Free Play

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

We've all heard those words - "I HAD THAT FIRST!"

Conflicts in a preschool classroom are common. Whenever we put children together who are still learning appropriate social skills and who haven't mastered conflict resolution yet, it's going to happen!

These moments of conflict are the perfect opportunity for us to step in and coach our students. There is so much we can teach students in the moment!

In this episode I will take a deep dive into why teaching conflict resolution in preschool is so beneficial, when to teach it, and a step by step of how to coach your students through those unavoidable moments of conflict!

Tune in!

Topics Discussed:

• 7 important benefits of teaching conflict resolution in preschool
• When exactly to teach conflict resolution
• How I coach children through conflicts
• The conflict resolution in preschool coaching framework

Resources Mentioned:

• Be proactive and teach conflict resolution during whole group! - Peer Problems Social Emotional Learning Activities

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Blogpost: How to Teach Social Emotional Skills
• Podcast Episode 12: How to Teach Social Emotional Skills

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

Are you looking for a fun and engaging way to encourage your preschoolers to write?

Sometimes our little learners just need a fun idea to get their imaginations going!

Writing invitations can be a fantastic tool to spark creativity, build excitement, and foster a love of writing.

Tune in to find out what a writing invitation is and how to use them in your classroom!

Topics Discussed:

• What are writing invitations?
• How do you use writing invitations?
• Benefits and expectations of writing invitations

Resources Mentioned:

• Writing Invitations Bundle

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com

As a preschool teacher, you know the importance of making learning fun and engaging!

One way that I LOVE to do this is by adding games into our classroom! Especially, math games!

Games can help children develop essential math skills in a playful and interactive way.

Let me give you the what, where, and how when it comes to using math games in Episode 104!

Tune in!

Topics Discussed:

• The benefits of using math games
• How to use math games in your classroom
• Why we use math games instead of worksheets or flashcards

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Math Games Training
• Circle Time Games

Connect with Ashley

• Follow on Instagram @lovelycommotion
• Join the Lovely Preschool Teachers Facebook Group

More About the Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast

Are you a busy preschool teacher who loves gaining new ideas, perspectives, and inspiration for your classroom? The Lovely Preschool Teachers Podcast is here to help you up your confidence in educating early learners in a quick, actionable way!

As an early educator who is still in the classroom, Ashley Rives will share the ins and outs of how she runs her classroom in a play-based, child-centered way. Each week, expect a new episode focused on actionable strategies to level up your abilities and confidence as a preschool teacher.

Ashley Rives is an early educator with over 17 years of experience and a strong passion to help teachers implement child-centered learning in preschool classrooms all over the world. You can follow her on Instagram @lovelycommotion or learn more at the Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources website: www.lovelycommotion.com