Circle time is a great way to review skills and grow class community! However, what do you do when circle time feels like more of a hassle than it's worth? Is it hard to keep the students engaged? Is your circle time becoming boring? In this episode I will help you bring joy into your circle time!

Topics Discussed:

• Why circle time might need a refresh
• Ways to keep circle time lively

Resources Mentioned:

• Free Circle Time Plan

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Quick & Easy Circle Time Games - 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

Raise your hand if you struggle to ‘fit it all in’.

Relying on small group time to fit in all the things that preschoolers need to know just wasn’t cutting it.

The problem is… since small group time often occurs during free play, there are many distractions. Not only do some children not want to leave their play to come to the small group table, teachers are often needed for conflict resolution.

But, while teachers are taking the time to help students in the social setting, they are struggling to fit in all of the other things!

That's where quick and easy circle time games come in!

Topics Discussed:

• What is a circle time game?
• How do you use a circle time game?
• Do they really help?

Resources Mentioned:

• Sign up for a Sample of FREE Circle Time Games
• Circle Time Games Bundle
• 6 Principals of How Children Learn

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• How to Use 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

As Play-Based Preschool Teachers, we often find ourselves juggling multiple responsibilities and trying to create engaging and play-filled experiences for our little learners. However, while trying to provide the best education possible, we can end up getting overwhelmed and stretched too thin.

Topics Discussed:

• Reconsidering classroom parties
• Simplifying student gifts
• Rethinking seasonal decor
• Eliminating 'themed days'
• Holiday programs

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

Sharing. It's a common topic amongst those who teach young children. Why are preschoolers expected to share? What impacts might forcing young children to share have? What should we do instead. This episode covers it all!

Topics Discussed:

• The reasons preschoolers are told to share
• The negative impact it can have
• What we should teach instead
• How to help children solve "sharing issues"

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

Preschool is often the first time that young children are leaving their home environment and trying out a classroom setting. This includes the need for peer-to-peer communication. It can be hard for children who have not had many opportunities to practice these types of interactions before. As educators, it is our job to help them navigate these peer relationships.

Topics Discussed:

• Skills children need to effectively communicate with peers
• Ways to teach peer communication to preschoolers
• Ideas and activities to help children interact with peers

Resources Mentioned:

• Social Emotional Lesson Plans

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• How To Teach Social Emotional Skills In Whole 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

Question of the Day, Daily Question, Preschool Graphing and Survey of the Day has long been a staple in early childhood classrooms… for good reason.

With children being quite ego-centric (a nice way of saying, they think it’s all about them), students learn new things more easily when they are at the center of it.

So, when we ask each child a question, gather everyone in the classes’ responses and analyze the data – children are interested!

Topics Discussed:

• How to use survey of the day and the benefits of it
• A walk through of exactly what survey of the day looks like in the classroom
• Types of surveys

Resources Mentioned:

• Clipboard Surveys Bundle
• Classroom Management Podcast Series

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• Podcast Episode 32: Ideas for Preschool Classroom Jobs

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 preschool teachers we are constantly looking for ways to incorporate literacy in our classrooms to support our young learners.  One powerful tool that surrounds us every day is environmental print.

This type of print refers to print that children see around them in their day to day lives, such as signs, logos, labels and symbols. Environmental print can play an important role in literacy development in our preschoolers.

Topics Discussed:

• How environmental print benefits literacy development
• Ways to incorporate print into your classroom
• Activities that support environmental print

Resources Mentioned:

• FREE literacy training: '3 Mistakes to Avoid to Rock Early Literacy in your Preschool Classroom'
• Classroom Management Podcast Series

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• How to Teach Literacy Without LOTW
• 3 Mindset Shifts Preschool Teachers Need to Make regarding Teaching Letter Recognition
• Using Meaningful Experiences to Teach Letters
• Using Meaningful Experiences to Teach Letters
• Finding the Time to Implement Preschool Literacy Experiences in the Preschool Classroom 

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

Looking for some cool math games for pre-k?

I am a game-loving teacher who brings games into learning whenever I can. And math lends itself well to game play, because most of the time my pre-kers don’t even know they are learning! 

What’s even better… my students are practicing turn-taking and how to win and lose gracefully.  Name me a worksheet that can do that!?

Topics Discussed:

• 9 types of games
• Benefits for each of the games mentioned.

Resources Mentioned:

• Preschool Math Games
• Monthly Math Games
• At-Home Math Games

Related Episodes or Blogposts:

• 9 Pre-K Math Games We Love - 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