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

Have you tried bringing a Literacy Unit into your Fall Thematic Unit?

It’s what I have been doing for the past several years and I love it!

Many times when we have a thematic unit around fall or autumn we focus on reading themed books.  The books might revolve around apples, pumpkins, leaves, and fall in general.

We also bring that thematic flair to the art center or we bring autumn into our sensory tub. We may add pumpkins to the science center and create a pumpkin patch in our dramatic play area!

We plan our lessons with the theme in mind too, but when it came to literacy, I felt like something was missing and wanted to go deeper than just reading the story.

Tune in to find out how I add literacy to our fall unit!

Topics Discussed:

• What literacy elements I add in
• Why I think adding literacy is important
• How I add literacy to our thematic units

Resources Mentioned:

• Fall Literacy Unit

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Bringing Literacy Into Your Fall Unit - Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources

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

Let’s get cutting!  Cutting skills and preschool go hand in hand. Many times it is the first time that children have been allowed to use scissors.

So, it’s important that we understand the continuum in which children’s cutting skills develop.  To make it a little easier to remember, I created a printable Preschool Cutting Continuum graphic that you can grab at the link below!

Tune in to learn about all things preschool cutting!

Topics Discussed:

• The Preschool Cutting Continuum
• Tips for cutting obstacles such as a child who is struggling to open and shut scissors

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Cutting Continuum Printable
• Silly Little Scissors Book (affiliate link)

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Preschool Cutting Tips - Lovely Commotion Preschool Resources

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