Picture Schedules in the Pre-K Classroom

Several years ago, when my daughter was little and we were struggling to cope with her autism, we used PECS cards and picture schedules to help her manage transitions. It didn't take long for me to realize that picture schedules were a great way for "NT" (neuro-typical) preschoolers to manage transitions, as well. I've been using movable picture schedules in my classroom for since then.

In almost every early childhood classroom, you'll find a written daily schedule at "grown-up" eye level for grown-ups to read. Few preschoolers can read these and even if they are able, they are likely posted way above a preschooler's eye level.

There are lots of great ways to implement picture schedules in an early childhood classroom. One of the easiest is to use a pocket chart and list the activities with a picture, similar to this one from Learning Resources. I would substitute the clock face for actual pictures for young children who are not "reading a clock" yet.

One of my colleagues made this one for her class. There is a clothespin that the students manipulate to change the current activity.

Last year, when my state Pre-K consultant visited, she mentioned that I really needed to have one that read left to right to encourage proper patterns of reading. My current schedule goes across and back again for a few rows, since I just didn't have the space to put one in one long length.

I use photos of the kids during each part of the day, so it is easy for them to relate to.

There is a velcro arrow that the "Timekeeper" moves throughout the day.

Some years, I randomly ask a student to move the schedule or assign it for the day, but this year I included it as one of our weekly jobs. Manipulating the schedule can be an especially helpful task for some children with autism or special needs. It is also very soothing for a child who has separation anxiety. They can look and see exactly what comes next and when "Mommy or Daddy is coming back".

Each Monday morning, my students are invited to pick a classroom job for the week and be in charge of that duty. Our "Timekeeper" gets to move the arrow at each transition time and gets to sport the "Timekeeper" job icon on their cubby.

 Our "Timekeeper" icon

The schedule can be as complex or simple as your needs dictate. The goal is to make a schedule that fits your activities and needs. Be sure to post it low for little eyes and hands.

Dino-Mite Dinosaurs!

A few of my guys are just crazy about dinosaurs. Although I didn't already have a dino week planned, I wanted to give an opportunity for the kids to have a say. They voted the dinosaur unit down in favor of a wild west week in November. There were a few that were just so disappointed that I tried to work it in anyway. We had a Community Service Helper visit for a day and a field trip to the symphony this week, too, but we manged to work in a few "dino-mite" dinosaur activities.

We measured down the length of our hallway to see for ourselves how long a dinosaur was. (Sorry no pics of that.) We fit an entire preschooler inside an Apatasaur footprint. (Paleontologists and scientists have changed the names of a few dinosaurs and are learning more and more about how they really lived.)

We each took a turn to place our footprints inside the dino print to see how many of our feet would fit.

After we'd all had a turn, one of the friends suggested we trace around a shoe to finish the rest of the count.

 Dinosaur block play was pretty interesting. I think we've got the makings of a new dinosaur action movie here!

We made dinosaur footprints a`la Teach Preschool by tracing our shoe and a few triangles from our math center.

 

We drew dinosaurs freehand or traced unit blocks to make dinosaurs we named after ourselves.

We sorted dinosaur toys.

Our sensory table was a popular spot. I had lots of grand plans like Irresistible Ideas, but in the end, we just used sand, water and props.

We made impressions in playdough and talked about fossils.

Show and Tell this week was especially fun, with all the kids showing off their fancy dinosaur toys!

 One remote control dinosaur was really something!

 My favorite item brought for show and tell was so simple and gave us a lot to talk about.

 Early in the week, we made Pteranodons by making paper airplanes and decorating them to look more "birdlike". 

On Friday at recess, we took them outside and flew them.

Through out the week, we talked a little about volcanoes. I really wanted to have the time this year to make a magnificent volcano with the kids, like Teacher Tom did, but in the end, we barely had time to erupt the small one I already had. 

When all was said and done, we didn't get to do nearly as many of the fun things that I've seen and really wanted to try, but we had a good time and learned quite a bit.

A few little apples left.....

As I was tidying up this morning, getting things ready to be posted to the bulletin boards or filed,  I ran across a few last apple activities. I found our applesauce recipe that we wrote after making it as a class.

The applesauce was tasty, but I suggest you check additional recipes for cooking times!

I mentioned in the last post that we played a math game with large apple die cuts.  We rolled a die and placed the corresponding number of pipe cleaner "worms" on the apple. After we'd each had a few turns rolling, we counted and compared the number of worms on our apples. Here's a picture to see how easy it was to make. I laminated the apples and store the whole thing in a gallon zip lock bag. It's held up well for the last three of fours years!

We also had apples to lace for fine motor practice. We marked the holes and let those that were able to use the hole punch to make the holes. We used yarn for lacing around the edges.

A few even decorated the front of their apples.
In case you missed them, click here for An Apple A Day part 1 and An Apple A Day part 2 for some of our previous apple activites.


I'll be posting soon about the dinosaur unit we just completed. We worked the unit in at the last minute because so many of the kids were dino-crazy, so we had a lot of fun with it.