Miss Jacobs' Little Learners: Tips for Prep Teachers!

This post is designed to assist new Grade Prep teachers during the first few weeks of school.

It is aimed at assisting you with what to do PRIOR to the year commencing.

I hope you find this post useful.

YAY! You are SOOOO lucky to be teaching Grade Prep!

(Also known as Kindergarten or Foundation in some states.)

Grade Prep is one of my favourite years to teach and it is very close to my heart as it was the first year level I ever taught - also the level that I have the most experience in.

This is going to be such a REWARDING year for you however, be prepared to be EXHAUSTED in Term 1. Trust me though, it WILL get better!

This post has been created to give new Prep teachers some advice on how to go about the first few weeks of teaching this unique year level. I hope that you find it useful :)

This is the exciting part! My advice is to try to set up your classroom and organise as much as you can BEFORE the first day of school. Once the children start and you are into the term, you will find it very difficult to find time to get these things done.

Here are some things I suggest you make / purchase / borrow - please note they are not essential, however you will find them useful.

CLASSROOM DECOR

Alphabet Posters - up high and visible to all students (examples here)

Word Wall / Literacy Wall - a wall/board to place new words or weekly Reading focus

(I have some FREE Word Wall cards in 3 State Fonts - NSW, VIC and QLD. Click on your state to download for FREE)

Number Posters - up high and visible - its good to include the numeral and word and a visual representation of the number (Tens Frame or collection of objects) (examples here)

Numeracy Wall - a wall/board dedicated to display new maths concepts, strategies or weekly Maths focus

Visual Timetable - to outline your daily schedule - many children at this age require visuals so they know what to expect. (Read about this more here) (examples here)

Bag/Locker/Tub/Desk Labels - the parents and children like to see this all set up prior to the first day - use a different picture for each child to assist them in locating their name.
I used these labels for their tables.
(examples here)

Alphabet Desk Charts - the children will use these daily so make them accessible - on their desks or around the room so they can refer to them when writing. You can grab this one FREE from here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Vic-Font-Alphabet-Desk-Chart-FREEBIE-2194619

ORGANISE YOUR CENTRE STATIONS OR GAMES

Its a good idea to get some games and activities laminated and ready before the year begins. These games will often need to be self-directed and focus on either Alphabet letter/sound knowledge, Number Knowledge, Fine Motor Development and even building social skills.

There are LOADS of ideas around that you can use. Pinterest is a great start!

Here are a few PINTEREST BOARDS that you can follow which may help:

Literacy Games:

Fine Motor Activities:

Numeracy Games:

Developmental Play:

Literacy Games:

Alphabet recognition games, letter sound games, matching upper case and lower case letters, sight word games, jumbled sentences.

Here are some of mine: You can find them all here:

Numeracy Games:

Number recognition, number ordering, matching amounts with the numeral, one to one correspondence (pointing to objects as you count them - only once), subitizing (the ability to look at a small group of objects or dots and instantly recognise how many are there), patterns (red, yellow blue, red, yellow blue etc)

Here are some of mine: You can find them here: