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15 Best Tips to Start a New Preschool Year
A Little Planning To Start on the Right Foot
You will soon start a new preschool year full of unknown situations, and I wanted to help you start on the right foot with my best tips, hoping to make it easier for you, your preschoolers, and your parents. The pandemic disrupted everything in our lives and changed the world forever.
It is my understanding that most preschool programs closed, either because somebody got sick or because they wanted to prevent it. Other centers, like mine, stayed open because we mainly serve doctors and nurses.
Being so close to first responders and essential workers every day is very stressful, but my teachers have worked without complaints. I commend them and appreciate them for being so professional and dedicated. If you are one of those teachers, thank you!
How to Restart After the Pandemic
I know how hard it is to start a new preschool year after what we all have been through in the last months because we don’t know what will happen this year. However, we have to be ready regardless of this particular situation.
One of the most important things to prepare for is planning your year before school begins. Starting on the right foot can make all the difference in how easy (or not) you are going to manage your class and in how your experience and the experience of your students will be.
15 Best Tips to Get You Ready
Whether it is your first year of teaching or you’ve been teaching for a while, these tips can help you start this new preschool year in the right direction and make it better than the one before.
1. Get Prepared.
Give yourself enough time to review your students’ information, create labels for your centers, name cards for your preschoolers, and tags for their cubbies, and take notes about what themes you are going to teach this year and in what order, what you want to change in your classroom for this new preschool year, and what materials you need to replace or include.
2. Decorate Your Classroom
When I was still actively working as a teacher, I always decorated my classroom with a theme and changed it every year for a fresh start.
Whatever you decide, this is a new preschool year after a challenging and complicated situation. You need to decorate your classroom to catch the eyes of your preschoolers and their parents and get them excited. However, you need to remember not to cover all your walls. Leave a lot of room for your children’s work, which will always be the most essential decoration you need to have.
Some things you can include are:
- Welcome banner
- Focus wall
- Calendar
- Weather station
- Classroom jobs chart
- Color poster
- Number poster
- Shape poster
- Alphabet tiles
- Birthday Board
- A daily schedule
- Word Wall could be a good idea as well.
3. Introduce Yourself.
One of the things I always do when I hire a new teacher is to ask her to write a little biography, provide a picture of herself, and write a simple letter to her parents to introduce herself. Then, I placed a little poster with her biography and picture outside her classroom and gave out the introduction letter on the first day of school. I encourage you to do this as well. You never know when a parent may find that he or she has something in common with you and can start up a relationship that could be a positive partnership to develop a better learning experience for your preschoolers.
These letters might help you welcome your new preschoolers and their parents. One copy is in English, and another is in Spanish, and they are FREE to use in your classroom.
(English & Spanish)
4. Establish The Classroom Rules.
If you want discipline to work during this new preschool year, start by establishing classroom rules (no more than five) right at the beginning. To be more effective, it is recommended that you involve your students in creating the rules.
You can use circle time, for example, to talk to your preschoolers about the classroom rules and involve them in writing them. This way, you will start building the foundation for your school family, which will promote your children’s strong sense of classroom community and support positive social behaviors.
To help you get started, I’ve included these FREE rules posters for your preschool classroom. If you want them in Spanish, please let me know, and I’ll gladly send them to you as well.
5. Get Organized.
Nothing good happens in chaos, especially when you know that the first week (or weeks) in a new preschool classroom can get the best organizational systems off track. Because of that, a preschool teacher (or any teacher) should start with the best organizational plan to prepare for her students.
If you are disorganized, you cannot expect your children to learn to clean up and have a decent-looking classroom. It will also keep your sanity intact! Part of this organization process includes your classroom’s centers and shelves. You can use all kinds of containers and labels, and these hacks might help you as well.
Organize your students’ information and evaluate them to find what they know and what you think they need to know so that lesson plans can be created based on that. Encourage curiosity in the classroom, and take time to start slowly in the beginning so each student can find success.
To help you with this, please receive this FREE Plan Book as my gift. It contains everything you need to organize and organize your information in one place for easy access.
6. Be Realistic.
You cannot expect your new preschool classroom to run as smoothly as a classroom with older children might. Remember, you are dealing with little kids who might not have been at school. I can almost guarantee that you will have some preschoolers who are scared, some who have challenging behaviors, some who are shy, some who are outgoing, etc. Don’t let this stress you out.
Set realistic goals and expectations and create an environment that encourages your preschoolers to develop their creativity and curiosity, setting the foundation for them to become lifelong learners.
7. Get Ready for Special Students.
You might receive students with particular learning problems or physical disabilities. Please set up a plan from the beginning of this new preschool year to help these children the best way you can without making them feel that you are setting them apart. This will allow you to cater to the student’s best interests, yourself, and the rest of the class.
8. Get Parents Involved From The Beginning.
Most preschool parents will be terrified about leaving their little treasures at school and out of their sight for the first time.
You will have to deal with a wide variety of parents, from the complicated ones who will try to make your life a living hell (literally!) to the ones who don’t care at all because you are “their babysitter” (super insulting!) and every other type in between. Getting them involved and starting a partnership with them will go a long way to a successful school year.
To accomplish this, I always like to create a student’s communication folder or binder every new preschool year, where you can place things like daily reports, children’s work to take home, maybe a little homework, and a letter about the theme you are going to be talking about. In other words, you can use it to send any communication you want to make your parents aware of, and parents can also use the communication folder to write you a note back if they wish.
This Daily Report might help you. It’s simple, easy, and FREE.
9. Plan Your Lessons.
One of the things you can do to get ready to receive your new batch of little beings is to develop a lesson plan, so you know what you will be doing ahead of time. Preschoolers notice more than we sometimes give them credit for, and they will test you! If you’re not ready for them, they will take advantage of it, and you will lose them from the beginning.
Your students must feel that you are prepared and know what you are doing at all times. If, for whatever reason, you feel lost or don’t know the answer to their questions, don’t panic, and most importantly, don’t let them know! Keep your cool and answer them like: “That’s an exciting question. Why don’t we find out the answer together?” This is a trick that helps you more times than I can count!
10. Be Intentional in Approaching Your Students.
You might never find out what’s happening in your preschoolers’ lives. Out of experience, I can tell you that some of them might have an amazing home life while others are going through things that not even an adult should live through.
From the beginning of this new preschool year, make yourself and your classroom a safe and positive place to show your students that you genuinely care about them. Always encourage their curiosity, welcome them, and feel they matter. This will promote a classroom community where unity, love, and respect for you as a person and educator and each other as peers will cater daily.
11. Introduce Your Centers.
Show your children what each center in your classroom is about, how many children are allowed in each center, how to use the toys, and care for them.
Every new preschool year, I like to open the centers slowly, maybe two or three a day during the first week, to avoid chaos, destruction, and injuries.
12. Create a Positive Atmosphere.
It is not difficult to start a new preschool year (even when you might be terrified). Still, it’s more difficult to keep being positive, especially when you have children with behavior challenges. I know! To encourage yourself to keep doing it, remember that preschoolers feed off your energy and your classroom’s atmosphere.
Keeping an environment where children feel comfortable, secure, and encouraged will not only have a positive influence on a child’s life (maybe the only one!) but will also create an effective learning environment where students are encouraged to do their best, which will have a positive impact on the rest of their lives.
13. Be Open and Sincere.
Talk to your children about what you want from them and how you feel. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable because, for your preschoolers to learn how to express themselves and recognize their feelings and the feelings of others, you have to teach them how. Also, make sure that you tell them precisely what you expect of them early. I promise that most of your students will rise to your expectations.
Creating a classroom community that promotes love, respect, and empathy for themselves and each other will benefit everybody and encourage an integrated school family, which is beautiful.
14. Give Personal Attention.
You must take a few minutes to interact with each of your children one-to-one every day to get to know them better and, most importantly, to assess what they know and what they need to know to plan individual activities accordingly. Also, always remember to greet every child (and parent) who comes through the door in the morning and say “goodbye” with a hug as he or she leaves.
15. Adjust Accordingly.
If you have been teaching for a while, you know that sometimes things don’t go as planned. Maybe one day, your most challenging child doesn’t come, and your day runs smoothly, or something happens that makes your day so complex that you come home drained, exhausted, or sad.
Do not let these types of situations discourage you. You have one of the most beautiful and rewarding professions in the world. You hold in your hands the little treasures that will guide the future. Always be flexible and patient, and keep your sense of humor. If you do this, you and your students will be okay.
The Last Thing You Need to Know
The beginning of this new preschool year is approaching fast, and with preschoolers, it’s constantly changing, fast-paced, rewarding, emotional, and exciting, but also exhausting and stressful. Nevertheless, always remember to allow yourself some personal time. This may involve going for a run after school, taking bubble baths on the weekends, or simply putting work away for a while to spend time with your family watching a movie or going out for ice cream.
You are more than just a teacher; you need to make time to recharge your batteries and ensure you can be the best teacher possible for your preschoolers. Remember that for some of them, you might be the only positive in their lives. These vital tips on starting this new preschool year will help you have the best one yet.
You will create a unique, loving, creative, and positive learning environment where your students will learn, enjoy, and appreciate. You will be rewarded with a well-managed classroom where you will love to come every day and keep your sanity intact. I promise this fantastic start to a new preschool year will only improve with each passing day.
Good luck! I hope you and your preschoolers have a wonderful year of wonders and rewards. I know it’s going to be amazing!
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.D. Please let me know if you use some of the resources I provided and if they worked for you. Also, if you come up with other ideas let me know. I am very interested in what you have to say.
