what are the key points to look for a great preschool
By John D. Tulenko, Jackie Mader and Lillian Mongeau, The Hechinger Report
We know preschool makes a big difference for kids and that its furnishings can final a lifetime. Only to have that kind of impact, early on intendance has to be high quality.
Faced with constraints on price, availability and location, parents are often unclear about what really matters when evaluating a potential preschool. No thing what educational philosophy or model an early childhood classroom uses, these 5 elements are the essentials to look for when choosing a preschool.
1. Classroom atmosphere and design
A classroom that's conducive to learning should feel joyful and friendly and exist designed around clear focus areas, called centers, that offer a variety of activities.
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What you can meet:
- Building toys
- Books
- Apparel-up dress and props
- Art supplies
- Unique kid art on the walls
- Age-appropriate learning materials (So look for a number line, just not a multiplication nautical chart, moving-picture show books, but not affiliate books, etc.)
- Low shelves with accessible toys
- Child-sized tables and chairs
- Clearly delineated areas (You might come across a apparel-upwardly expanse, an artist'south station or a mini-library, for example.)
What you can ask:
- How much fourth dimension is spent in group activities? (Hint: Should be about half the twenty-four hour period or less.)
- How much time is spent in free play at centers?
- Exercise kids make up one's mind which centers they will use, or practice they cycle through all of them?
2. Teachers
Teachers should guide academic growth, model classroom beliefs, and offering children tools for dealing with strong feelings.
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What you tin can see:
- Teachers crouched at eye level talking to kids
- Teachers constantly observing children as they work and play
- Teachers asking open-ended questions
- Teachers repeating students' feelings back to them (You might hear: "You lot're mad. It's hard to feel mad.")
- Teachers prompting students to resolve disputes
- Children looking engaged
- Children offer spontaneous gestures of endearment to teachers (Look for kids reaching for teachers' easily, giving them a quick hug, etc. Quick physical contact is one manner young children limited their comfort with adults.)
What you tin enquire:
- What's your teaching philosophy? (A wide range of philosophies are effective. What's about important is that teachers can articulate their arroyo.)
- What's your training and how long have you been teaching?
- What practise you similar about education preschool?
- How oft do teachers leave this school?
- What can parents practise to support what you are doing in course?
3. Discipline and Social-Emotional Development
Preschools should aid children sympathise their feelings and interact with their peers.
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What you tin see:
- Charts and pictures on the walls to help kids identify feelings
- A quiet, calming spot in the classroom where upset children can relax
- Minimal use of exclusionary tactics for punishment (Brusk time-outs can be helpful, only they should be no longer than 3 to 5 minutes and should be framed every bit a adventure for children to calm downward and regain cocky-control, not every bit a punishment. Children should not exist exiled form the classroom or kept confined in a separate expanse from their classmates.)
- Corporal penalization is never used
- Teachers deal with misbehavior without raising their voices.
What you lot can ask:
- Exercise you have a program for teaching children to deal with their feelings?
- What is your plan for when children bite or hit each other? (Hint: Schools should exist willing to work with families to figure out what'due south going on and assist work out a plan to teach children to self-regulate.)
- Do you e'er suspend or miscarry children? (Ideally, the answer is "no," although teachers should exist willing to discuss alternative or additional opportunities available for children with emotional, mental or physical issues that bear on their power to adjust to a classroom.)
4. Academics
Children should learn key bookish skills in reading, math, science and social studies through discovery and creative activities.
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What you can see:
- Children creating and explaining patterns
- Children telling a story while the teacher writes it down and the child illustrates it
- Children playing with edifice materials (such equally blocks and train sets)
- Children playing with puzzles and games that require counting or an understanding of more and less (such as a simple version of Chutes and Ladders)
- "Artifacts" of accurate learning, such a child art, science projects and other prove of child-directed learning
- Teachers prompting students to explore an idea further (Yous might hear: "You've congenital some alpine towers, but they keep falling down. What could you do differently to make them stay up?")
- Teachers prompting students to predict what they think will happen next in a story, a math puzzle, or a science experiment (You might hear: "Nosotros know Clifford, the large red domestic dog, loves his friend. Now that his friend is stuck in a tree, what exercise you retrieve Clifford will do?")
- Minimal use of rote learning (Children singing songs they've learned by center or practicing counting to twenty — every bit long as their whole day doesn't consist of parroting back memorized answers.)
What you can ask:
- What is the curriculum you use, and is it based on educational research?
- What are the bookish goals for this year? (Hint: They should tell you nigh their plans for math didactics and other subjects, not just literacy. Listen for phrases like "activity-based" and "hands-on" when they tell you lot about their plans.)
- How do you lot rails what my kid is learning? How exercise yous tell if my child is learning?
- How volition you lot go along me informed about whether my child is on runway?
5. Condom
Students should not be at undue physical risk while at preschool.
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What yous tin run into:
- Chemicals stored in airtight cabinets, cords tucked away out of reach
- No open bodies of h2o (such as a kiddie pool or a filled tub)
- Tall piece of furniture secured to walls
- A process for entry (Look to run across if only anyone could walk in and if a kid could easily walk out. If the entry system is unclear, enquire staff about it.)
- Bones standards of cleanliness are met
- Fire safety certifications be upward to date and displayed
What you can ask:
- Are emergency systems in place? What would y'all do if my child is injure?
- What happens if my kid needs medicine?
- Are background checks on staff upwards to date?
- Tin can I encounter your latest state inspection written report? (You may also be able to look up inspection reports in a public state or city database online.)
This story nearly high-quality preschool was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in pedagogy. Sign up for Hechinger'south newsletter.
Source: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/five-elements-of-a-good-preschool_b_5bbe3704e4b0b9948ee27be9
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