Perfect Activity for The First Day of Preschool
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The first day of preschool can be a WILD RIDE…
Preschool is tough because on that first day of school… they are BRAND NEW to literally EVERYTHING!
You can get yourself into BIG TROUBLE if you start putting out materials they aren’t ready for…
❌They’re not ready to snap caps of markers.
❌They’re not ready for glue!
❌Don’t even think about getting out the scissors!
On the first day, they’re simply not ready for most art materials in your closet.
SO, I know YOU ARE WONDERING—
WHAT DO WE DO THE FIRST DAY??
‼️Alert! Alert!‼️ — I have the perfect activity for you on the first day of school with your preschoolers!
What is it?
🤗MAKING PLACEMATS!
LET ME EXPLAIN…
On that first day of preschool… your little guys won’t be ready for A LOT of things…
BUT, they can handle these tasks:
(As long as you introduce them the right way!)
👍🏼Let them stick stickers.
👍🏿Let them color with crayons or colored pencils–
👍🏾But stickers and crayons are a pretty safe bet.
Once your students decorate them, then you’re going to laminate them (These are my go-to laminating sheets!) to make them spill proof and durable so they’ll last all year!
These are the laminating sheets I used:
I recommend using cardstock paper (8 1/2 by 11) printer paper because it fits nicely into the individual laminating pouches.
THIS cardstock pack is fun because there are so many different colors for the kids to choose from…
It’s cool when you can have each kid with their own color paper for the placemats because it’s easy for them to spot theirs!
(Rather than only using 4 or 5 colors of paper and having multiple kids with red placemats or yellow placemats, etc!)
WE USE THE PLACEMATS EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Kids love having “THEIR OWN SPOT”
And they know it’s theirs because 👀THEY SEE THEIR PLACEMAT!
✔️Spots change everyday so kids can visit with different kids.
✔️You can make it a student’s job to set them out.
✔️You can make it a student’s job to wipe them down at the end of the day.
✔️They will last all year.
🤔Where do you sit?
🙌🏼JUST FIND YOUR PLACEMAT!
✔️They make seating SO SIMPLE.
Placemat Materials:
✔ cardstock paper
✔ colored pencils or crayons
✔ stickers
✔ little cups (to put the sticker sheet scraps into)
👉🏿👉🏽👉🏻 (Here are the cups we love — and I use them for TONS OF DIFFERENT THINGS around the classroom!)
🎬 WATCH MY YOUTUBE VIDEO EXPLANATION OF THIS ACTIVITY!
^^This is a photo from my course, 🌿 The Calm Classroom — WHICH I CREATED JUST FOR YOU! In the course, I give you 19+ strategies to help you create A CALM AND HAPPY preschool classroom… if you’d like to learn more about exactly how I introduce placemats and how I use them on a daily basis— SIGN UP FOR MY COURSE TODAY!
✨ Tada…Placemats! (By the way, these are just example placemats I made for my video explaining this strategy… the one the kids make turn out WAY COOLER!)
BUT THERE’S SO MUCH MORE TO THIS ACTIVITY…
It also becomes THE PERFECT way for you to strategically decide seating for your students, (without them realizing you’re even doing it)…
Anytime you have your kids sitting at the tables — USE THE PLACEMATS to show them where they sit!
This is your way of setting them up for success without them realizing they don’t get to pick their seat…
They just love knowing “Oh, there’s my placemat… THAT’S MY SEAT!”
I add a photo of each child so they can easily spot which placemat is theirs (and so other kids can tell who they belong to!)
(By the way, these are just example placemats I made with my daughters photos for my video explaining this strategy.)
^^ 💛💛💛 I’d LOVE to teach you all the ways you can use these placemats to create a calm classroom environment!!!
The photo above is from my course, 🌿 The Calm Classroom — WHICH I CREATED JUST FOR YOU!
In the course, I give you 19+ strategies to help you create A CALM AND HAPPY preschool classroom… if you’d like to learn more about how I use these placemats (AND SO MANY OTHER TIPS AND STRATEGIES) — SIGN UP FOR MY COURSE TODAY!
