Pirouettes and Pre-K Plans

Gobble gobble! Are you getting ready for the week before thanksgiving? Need a fun math activity for iPads or interactive white boards?

I finally have a new resource posted in my TPT store!

Practice counting, quantifying, and numeral recognition with this fun learning game!

Download at the link in the comments!!

👋🏼Hi. Hello. It’s been a minute.

I’ll be honest, the reason I haven’t posted in a while is this school year has been hard. And I’ve been tired. And my body just hasn’t had the energy.

However, I wanted to share that I’ll be spending this week at the Conscious Discipline Advanced Institute, where I have been invited to take a deeper dive into my CD practice.

I’m hoping for a refill in my “I can do hard things” cup this week. I’ve always gotten one when I attend Conscious Discipline workshops, and I could really use one right now. ✨

*A friend of mine shared the below post, and it inspired a lot of thoughts from me, a teacher. Here is my response.*

Dear Grown-Ups, from an Early Childhood Teacher

I know the night before the first day of school is a strange place. You go through your normal nightly routine, but this night is anything but normal.

Dinner is done, everyone is bathed, the laundry is done. Or maybe it’s not. Your kids are safe and your kids are loved, and you can always start the washer tomorrow.

When your little one put on those jammies and climbs into bed, their heart is full of wonder, nerves, and excitment. While your mind is filled with pride, uncertainty, and second guessing every choice you’ve made for your child up to this moment.

Listen grown-up, you have done enough. You are enough.

You’ve checked the check list sixteen times to make sure your child has everything they need. Because you know the feeling when you’ve forgotten something important. As your child crawls under the covers, they will ask about their lunch, and their juice, and their snack, and their teddy. And you will reassure them that all these things are exactly where they need to be for tomorrow.

And after they have drifted off to sleep, your brain will be flooded with questions about their life at school. Because whether this is your first baby to go to school, or you’ve done this a time or two before, leaving your little one at school for the first time doesn’t get easier.

I hear you grown up. I see you. I want to help ease your worries.

I am the safe keeper of the classroom. My job is to keep it safe. I will keep your baby safe.

I will stay with your child when they are in the hallway. And if they stray from the group, because young minds are curious and they wanted to know what was behind that corner, I know my coworkers will kindly help them find their way back to our classroom. It takes a village, and we are a school family.

I promise that everything about your child will be celebrated. Because we are all learning how to talk, and produce letter sounds, and how to be a person. When your child tells me their teddy is in their “pack pack,” I will calmly respond with “Go get your teddy out of your backpack.” And my heart will smile the biggest smile, because I love when they say “pack pack” as much as you do.

I have studied my roster, and the countless “all about your child” GoogleForms you have filled out since I first reached out to you. I have intentionally planned my activities and seating arrangement to make sure your child feels connected to our school family from day one.

I will teach them how to open their milk carton and their water bottle. Developing fine motor skills is a priority, and fostering independence is what we do best. When they get frustrated because they need help, I will remind them that they can’t do it YET, but that’s why I’m here. To help them now, and teach them how to do things own later.

And if they fall on the playground and skin their knee, I will hold them close, and remind them that I will keep them safe. I will teach them where the band-aids are for the little scrapes, because independence feels good. And for the big ones, well that means we get to go see the nurse. She is so nice, and she helps me keep them safe. And for the small scrapes that feel like big scrapes? Well, in those moments I will hold your baby, AND teach the class. Because teachers are great multi-taskers. But do you want to know a secret? Sometimes, I don’t have to, because their peers will do that for me. A school family bands together to keep everyone safe. Their friend will give them a hug, and hold their hand until they feel better. Sometimes that’s for a minute, sometimes it’s an hour and a half, but we take care of each other.

I can assure you that your little one will miss you while they are at school. When you walk them to my classroom on the first day, YOU will trace YOUR hand on a piece of construction paper. You will hold a paper heart close to your beating heart, and transfer all of your love. You will glue on that love filled heart, and cut out your hand. So when they miss you, they can always hold your hand, even when you aren’t there.

And trust me grown-up, they are going to miss you.

I can assure you I will notice when your child starts to fidget with nerves…because I fidget too. I will show them where I keep the fidgets in the classroom, and teach them that it’s okay to use them when they need them. I will teach them how to use their voice to express their feelings. Their feelings of fear, anger, and sadness. Feelings of happy, excited, and calm. I will teach them how to ask for help when they need it, and I will notice when they do something on their own for the first time.

I will make them feel seen, important, and needed.

I see you grown-up. I feel you. I know this is happy-hard.

You have done the best you can with the tools you have to prepare them for this moment. Take a moment to look at the beautiful human that you have created. You did it! And you have done a remarkable job.

At school, I will show your child love, and kindness, and respect. We will celebrate the big things, we will celebrate the little things, and we will celebrate everything in between. And we will have oops moments too…oh so many oops moments. And when these oops moments happen, I will remind your child that they are still beautiful to me, and no matter what, they are worthy of love.

Grown up, I know you have lots of questions about the future, and I don’t have all the answers. But what I can promise you is I will love your child with my whole heart and then some.

So when you leave them at my door tomorrow, I do encourage you to treat yourself. Because whether drop off was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezey, or difficult-difficult-lemon-difficult, guiding them to this point is quite the achievement.

And when they hop in the car at 2:20, they are still your baby. They might be a little dirty and a little more independent, but at the end of the day all they want to do is be loved by YOU.

With love and well wishes,
Your child’s teacher.

✨E•M•P•A•T•H•Y✨

💕 Social Emotional learning is at the root of EVERYTHING I do in my classroom. I am way more interested in helping my students learn how to be a human in a social setting than anything else.

🔎 I found this note from one of my babies last year as I was unpacking my classroom, and it reminded me of my “why.”

😢 The day before I received this note was a hard day. During rest time, I was on a phone call with one of my education coaches (Ms. Sonya), and I started crying. I could have left the classroom to compose myself, but I intentionally stayed. Teachers have bad days too, so I decided to take this as an opportunity to model for my students how to handle heavy feelings. I tell them every day it’s okay to cry when you’re sad, and I wanted to model that to be true. I took some breaths, used my blanket, and several students “wished me well.”

🖍 The next morning, this sweet kiddo brought me this note he made at home. He told me that he hoped the day was better and he loved me. He did exactly for me what I would have done for him if HE had a bad day.

🥺 Of course I teared up a bit, and I put this note in a special place.

Teachers, listen, you do NOT have to be completely put together every day to be the best teacher you can be. You are going to have bad days too, because you are human. You never know, how you handle your low moments in front of your students might be the most impactful lesson you teach all school year.

✨That was helpful!

💕Classroom Jobs help establish a sense of belonging in children. Meaningful jobs are SO important because they make each child FEEL important.

💡Here are some great ideas for getting you started on your job list!

➕What jobs do you find most helpful in your classroom? What would you add? Some of my ideas will be in the comments!

👋🏼 Hello! This is me wishing that hanging up a bulletin board was as easy as clicking

🖱 *align center*

🖱 *distribute horizontally*

What are you putting on your bulletin boards for back to school? Drop your ideas in the comments below! ⬇️

✨ If you need a happy-feel-good-in-your-heart story, keep reading.

💕 Savannah was one of my students when she was in pre-k. I just want to shout from the rooftops how GENUINE this act of kindness is. This girl’s heart is made of pure gold.

🎉 I’m always willing to take a moment to celebrate good humans.

🟢 I got the green light today to contact my new pre-k families! I’m going through some pictures to share with them, and I think this one sums up me quite well.

💥 I’m loud.

✨ I’m a lot.

💕 I’m unapologetically me. And I am so ready to love your child with my whole heart and then some.

While I’ll be so sad to see the summer end, I am so excited to start another (more normal) year of partying in pre-k! 🎉

One of my goals this coming school year is to intentionally use this structure more!

Have you started thinking about next school year yet?

What are some of your goals for the 2021-2022 school year?

▶️When was the last time you pressed PLAY on YOUR learning?

gets you up and moving in EVERY training session! Because adults learn through engagement too!

💕 I refer to the kids as “tiny humans” all the time, but I think I’m going to start referring grown-ups as “tall children” because sometimes I think we forget that we are the same creatures just stretched out a bit. 💕

The Safe Place is an intentional learning center for practicing self regulation skills! Some days, I find myself in the safe place more than any kid. ⭐️🎈💧🥨

⏰This morning, I went to turn my alarm off, and realized that I hit snooze three times. Ugh, I’m running late.

🔌And when I unplugged my phone, I noticed it didn’t even charge overnight.

😴I didn’t have time to put on eye shadow or fix my hair. Breakfast was a handful of Fruit Loops on the way to the venue.

I think I’ll move to Australia....

❗️OH SHIFT!!! reminds me I can be a STAR and pivot. ↩️

☀️My body was tired and needed sleep. Thank goodness the venue isn’t very far away.

🔋I can bring my charger with me. I’ve got plenty of battery to get me through the first half of the day.

✨My eyes will sparkle with or without eyeshadow, because I sparkle from within. My presence is more important than my makeup. I like Fruit Loops, and lunch will be soon.

On days when I’m feeling uncertain, this is my go-to sweatshirt for comfort and self-affirmation. Sometimes, even as a grown up, I need an external visual for these things. Thanks for the reminder . I am enough.

You are important. You are enough. ✨

Welcome to CD1! How would you like to be greeted? I am so glad you are here! LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!

4 checked bags 🧳🧳🧳🧳

3 Uber rides 🚗🚗🚗

2 airplanes ✈️ ✈️

1 concourse sprint 🏃🏼‍♀️...
..and the only bag to make it to Rochester was the one with the presentation materials...that could be EASILY recreated. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Tonight, I’m thankful for my Conscious Discipline skills, tiny toothpaste, and the travel motto Ms. Leigh Ann taught me when I was 10...”It’s an adventure!” ✨

Sometimes you just need a campfire chat with coworkers after school! 🏕 🔥 🐿

I am IN LOVE with how this campsite dramatic play is coming together! I have been sitting on these materials for TWO YEARS, and I am glad they are FINALLY being used! (More on that story later.)

Hoping to take more pictures tomorrow of our setup to share! Today was just so exciting I forgot to take pics!

What’s in your dramatic play center now? I’m already thinking about ideas for next year!

✨officially fully V•A•C•C•I•N•A•T•E•D! ✨

Today marked two weeks after my second dose of Pfizer. Today, I’m as vaccinated as they come. I know there is still a non-zero chance I could contract or transmit COVID, but the fact that it’s less likely (and if it happens it’s less likely to be severe) makes me feel safer.

My job is to keep it safe. This is how I help keep it safe. 💕

✔️

Did you know it’s The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) ‘s Week of the Young Child? This week, we will be celebrating the beauty and wonder of being four and five years old! What are you doing for Musical Monday today? Check back later to see what we are doing to make music today!

✨you. are. enough.✨

💫Last night, I got into a fight with my classroom closet. And the classroom closet won.

🚗I ran up to school to get out some of our cars and trains for the transportation unit we are starting. OF COURSE, all of my cars and trains were stacked at the back bottom corner of my closet. I had to pull EVERYTHING out to get to them. 🤦🏼‍♀️

😔After way too long trying to deal with the mess, I was feeling defeated. It was late, I felt like I had gotten NOTHING done, but I wanted to go home.

💭I had this grand plan in my head of a wonderful dramatic play construction site, blocks with pictures of buildings from around our town, ramps and bridges building investigations...the whole nine yards. And all I managed to do was rescue a few cars and houses from the depths of the closet.

💕But that’s ok. It doesn’t make me less of a teacher. Even when I don’t get all the things put together, I am enough for my kids. I am enough as a teacher. I am enough as a human.

🌈When I got home last night, I immediately pulled out this sweatshirt to wear today. I knew today was going to be a day I needed this reminder. (I’m not cool enough to be sponsored, I just really love their stuff! Go check out their website! They have SO MANY cute and awesome shirts!)

✏️This school year is weird. Classroom closets can be equal parts black hole and avalanche sometimes. To-do lists are never ending, and it’s easy to start down a path of self-doubt.

But when those “yucky feeling” thoughts start to creep in, take a moment to stop, smile, and breathe with me. ⭐️🎈💧🥨

✨Repeat after me: “I am enough. I am enough for my students. I am enough for my family. I am doing the best I can with the tools I have. I. Am. Enough.”

🌷Spring is here, and we are starting to see the home stretch of this pandemic teaching school year. You can do it. Teachers can do hard things!

It’s the “pre-fine motor activity” fine motor activity!

🖍We NEED to draw/write with broken crayons to build fine motor strength and force that pencil grip grasp of writing materials.

👉🏼To make a bunch of broken crayons for this, we need the wrappers peeled off the crayons. Having my tiny human friends peel the crayon wrappers off is helpful to our classroom AND is a fine motor experience of its own!

✨ It’s a win-win situation for me! I hate peeling crayons, they love it, it’s great for building their hand strength, AND IT GETS THE JOB DONE!

Yes yes yes! This was a HARD pivot in thought to make, but it has made all the difference. 💕

💗

Don’t you just love a room full of giggles at story time? ☺️

My class is having a blast with our Mo Willems author study this week! Today’s featured story: Knuffle Bunny. Today’s activity: Bring a special stuffed animal friend to school.

Let me tell you, Teddy is SO excited about his first day of Pre-K. He even already knows that his mask stays on his face to keep it safe. 😷 🐻 ✨

Day seven of quarantine for close contact got me feeling a bit like Dr. Jean...

I am slowly going crazy 1 2 3 4 5 6 (1 hour long) I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)

I asked my class today if they knew it was a special day, and one of my virtual kiddos told me all about the inauguration. She told me about her families beliefs and then asked, “Ms. Fotovich, are you for the blue team or the red team?” 💙❤️

Yea, that took me off guard. 😳 After several seconds of awkward stuttering (that felt like hours), I decided that I would tell her where I stood. Not to push my political leanings on my students (that is NOT my job), but to model willingness to have an open and empathetic conversation no matter which “team” you route for.

If I’m going to create a classroom of “purple people,” I feel it’s my responsibility to model exactly what that looks like. My hope is that I can help create a future world where political conversations are not taboo, but held with respect and understanding for the humans having them.

Also, I didn’t feel like I could wear this shirt and pretend that my political standing was top secret. 🤷🏼‍♀️

🇺🇸💙❤️🇺🇸

When I set up my bulletin board background, I kept saying, “I just have this looming feeling that I’ll be teaching from home at some point this year.”

And here I am.

I am NOT sick, but I’ve been quarantined for close contact. My exposure was away from school, and since my job is to “keep it safe,” the next two weeks I’ll be calling in to my classroom instead of teaching from inside it.

It made me feel “happy-sad” to see my classroom of kiddos appear on my screen today. Happy to see their eyeballs (masks stay over our nose and mouth 😉), but sad to not be there. I love these kids with my whole heart, whether it’s from six feet or from behind my screen. And boy did I feel our connection today when I was able to lead a storytime FROM MY HOME, and they all responded as if I was right there.

My face-to-face kiddos are in amazing hands with my co-teacher, and I’m looking forward to the extra opportunities I’ll have to connect with my virtual kids this week. Man, is this school year weird.

Today, we put the PIROUETTES in the PRE-K PLANS!

It was a “virtual day,” and I like to make things exciting for our virtual days. Today, we started learning about “The Nutcracker.” I wore my ballet clothes, and we had ballet class, just like the dancers in the show!

Conversations included “ballet isn’t for boys,” which we will continue to debunk tomorrow, and possibly one of my favorite answers to “what do you already know about...”

Ms. Fotovich: Raise your hand and unmute to tell me what you already know about The Nutcracker.

Pre-K Friend: 🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏼‍♂️🙋🏼‍♂️ I KNOW! THE DANCING PLUMBER!!!

Pre-K Mom in the background: No baby, the Sugarplum Fairy. He means the Sugarplum Fairy.

I see where you got that little friend. May you always share your background knowledge with that much excitement. Because us teachers LIVE for this kind of stuff.

✨New Resource!✨

I know many school systems are switching back to remote learning after the thanksgiving holiday. If this is you, I wanted to help you out!

I compiled all the things I included in my Pre-K in a Box packets, along with a check list of hands on materials that you might have in your classroom to send home.

My hope is to lighten your load a little so you can focus on your kiddos and also yourself!

ALL of my Pirouettes and Pre-K Plans resources will be free until the pandemic is officially over. Teachers have enough on our plates right now, and if I’ve made something that can help you, I want you to have access to it, no questions asked. So, head to my TPT shop and grab this download so you can check “distance learning materials” off your to-do list!

“Lookit! I need a band-aid!”

This friend has asked for a band-aid for the same tiny scratch every day for a week straight.

Every day , I give her one.

One of my favorite pieces of advice I received from my coach was “plain Band-AIDS are cheap. Cover the boo boo. Just because it looks small to you doesn’t mean it’s small to them.”

In these moments, my friend wasn’t just asking for a band-aid. She was asking for connection. “Does she see me? Are my needs and feelings important to her? Will she keep me safe?”

I want all my kids to go home each day confident enough to say “YES!” to all those questions. Because I am the safekeeper. It’s my job to keep you safe.

I would like to pass along this advice to you...give them the band-aid and wish them well. Because while the boo boo might be invisible to you, that glorified sticker might help heal a wound that much deeper than the skin. 🩹💕✨

Today, we made slime.

I’ve always been a “promoting independence” classroom, but COVID precautions have challenged me to let go of some of the little “control” things I’ve held on to.

We made slime whole group. This was the least stressed I’ve ever been when making slime. I provided them with the materials, let them pick their food coloring, and let them mix away!!!

There was no, “AH AH AH! Two drops of color!”

Or “Like I said, everyone will get a turn to make slime. Go play until I call you”

Or “Watch out before you spill!”

There WAS wonder, exploration, problem solving, and the scientific method.

When I saw this work space, my response was, “Oh my stars! That’s probably going to take a while to clean up!” And that even surprised me because past teacher me might have said, “What a mess! My instructions were to keep all the glue in the bowl! This is why we don’t make slime very often!” And while all of those sentences might be factual, those words would not have been helpful in the moment.

This IS a mess. My instructions WERE to keep the glue in the bowl. And we DON’T make slime very often.

This DID take a while to clean up, but it got done. And we ALL had fun.

Pre-K is messy. But the cool thing about four year olds is they are extremely washable. 🧼 🎨 💕

I already had “Duck for President” pulled and ready to go for tomorrow, but as I was driving home from dance tonight listening to the LifeKit podcast about raising good citizens, I had a change of heart. We are still going to vote on something tomorrow, but I think I’m going to pivot my focus for the day from strictly voting to advocating for kind and understanding humans.

I think tomorrow, what we will need in our country more than anything is love and understanding. I predict there will be a lot of people shouting BLUE💙! And a lot of people shouting RED❤️! But what do you get when blue and red come together? Purple. 💜💜💜

Tomorrow, when I’m standing in line to cast my ballot, I will be a purple person by practicing breathing and wishing well. Because I know that tensions will be high, and I can be helpful by sharing my calm. 💜⭐️🎈💧🥨

“Ms. Fobich, I got a lotta acorns in my pocket.”

The trees on our playgrounds drop a lot of acorns this time of year. And I mean A LOT!

In the past, I’ve said, “leave the acorns outside, we don’t need to bring them in the classroom.” But this year, I’m making a conscious effort to lean into their excitement about little things, and let that wonder drive my instruction.

So, we now have “treasure buckets” on our desks where they can put their acorns every time we come inside. Last week, we counted how many we can hold in one hand. Today, we used our acorns to make shaker instruments that we will use for the rest of fall!

We can measure with our acorns, weigh our acorns, paint our acorns, and them to our sensory trays...the possibilities are endless.

My favorite things about all this is it’s FREE, they feel ownership over the activities because they collected the materials themselves, and most of all, acorns are small, so we are working those fine motor skills every time!

What would you do with a collection of acorns? Share your ideas in the comments below!

After last night’s debate, I took a few minutes today to pull a few books for a “suggested reading list” for our president candidates. ❤️💙

You see, in pre-k, we prioritize learning how to be a nice human over everything else. I think these dudes could benefit greatly from learning how to take a STAR breath. 🌟

I was thinking, maybe for the next debate, we should roll out a Time Machine for conflict resolution. A good visual will solve any problem, right? 🥴

Do you know of any books you would add to the list? Drop your title suggestions in the comments below!

I am so excited about these “Pre-K in a Box” packs I put together for my virtual students!
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I’m currently teaching face-to-face and virtual pre-k at the same time. It’s not for the faint at heart, but it’s not as bad as one may think either.
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However, the materials my students were provided at the beginning of the school year were minimal to say the least. We were all getting tired of “Around the House Shape Scavenger Hunts,” and all the tablet based activities were making my true play-based heart hurt.
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So, my coteacher and I spent last week gathering supplies from around the room for these kiddos to get a pre-k experience much closer to what we do at school. Sensory materials, counting manipulatives, science explorations, music and movement props, writing utensils...you know, PRE-K THINGS!
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The week we spent putting these together will make planning activities for them at home so much easier, and I feel better to be able to assign more activities AWAY from their screen.
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And the best part is, the only thing I bought was the boxes themselves. (Target for like $2 each). Everything else I already had in my classroom!
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Some of the things are theoretically loaned (I wrote my name on those items), but it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get them back. And each box was topped off with a personal note from me, because connections are KEY!
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