Tailoring a platform for preschoolers, kindergartners

Creativity is key when teaching young children and that is even more true when the learning platform is online.

Student teachers at the Fishback Center for Early Childhood Education came through with flying colors on that count when their students became homeschoolers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 25 student teachers as well as their mentor instructors produced more than 100 videos on activities that children could do at home.

“I was really impressed with all of the teachers being so flexible and moving into a totally different format. It’s been successful,” said professor Kay Cutler, director of the Fishback Center.

The center has 108 students from 15 months to kindergarten. The videos were tailored to the small group of students each student teacher works with, Cutler said. The videos served the dual purpose of continuing the students’ learning and maintaining the student teacher’s connection with students and their parents.

Laura Gloege, who coordinates the preschool program, said, “We’ve gotten a lot of emails from parents saying thank you and that the preschoolers love seeing our faces.”

The videos, most under five minutes, were posted on the communication platform Seesaw, which the center had been using before the COVID-19 pandemic prevented students from returning to the campus classroom.

Information can be sent directly to a student’s folder and parents can also report back with equal privacy, Cutler said.

Student teachers began their new assignment when online instruction initiated March 23 and continued through the last day of classes May 1.

“We wanted the videos to encourage movement and be engaging. We asked each of the student teachers to put up at least four videos,” Cutler said.

Some of the more creative efforts:

Chalk drawing letters on the driveway in the shape of burning ‘Letter’ houses. Then a firefighter, armed with a spray bottle, was dispatched to douse the fire when the letter was called.

Taping letters to the wall and instructing boys to fire their Nerf guns at the announced letter.

A scavenger hunt though the house looking for items starting with a designated letter.

The novel coronavirus was the topic of videos as well. Gloege posted links to help youngsters understand social distancing—not an easy concept when you’re just learning to count to six and associate a foot with having five toes—encouraging them to reach out to relatives and to be thankful for what we have, and explaining strategies to cope with worry.

One kindergartner liked what he saw so much that he had his mother record a video of him doing a science experiment and then posted it on YouTube and SeeSaw.

“Overall, it has been positive,” Cutler said of the videos.

Gloege added, “I see a potential of still posting videos to Seesaw for connections with parents next year. I just hope it’s not exactly in this format.”