Blog - My Play Based Classroom
Hi there!
I'm Janelle - a play-based early years teacher passionate about creating learning experiences that ignite curiosity, creativity, and academic growth.
On this blog, I share practical tips on meeting curriculum benchmarks through a balance of explicit teaching and play, setting up the ideal learning environment and fostering social-emotional development.
Let’s make play-based teaching work in your your preschool, kindergarten, and first grade classrooms!
Planning for the First Week of Grade One
Make the first week of grade one a success! Discover practical tips, engaging activities, and flexible plans to build your classroom community, establish consistent routines, and feel confident knowing your first week of school planning is done.
Free Christmas Writing Prompts for Kids in Kindergarten
Download free Christmas writing prompts for kids in kindergarten and first grade. Encourage your students to write with these Christmas themed vocabulary cards and make story-writing fun and engaging this festive season.
9 Christmas Games for the Classroom - fun and easy
Check out these easy prep Christmas games for the classroom and celebrate the holiday season with your students. You will love these fun and easy prep Christmas games. They are perfect for younger kids in preschool, kindergarten and first grade.
Free Halloween Writing Prompts for Kindergarten
Get your students excited about writing this Halloween with my Free Halloween Writing Prompts for Kindergarten and grade one. Quick, easy prep and educational too!
Investigation Area Ideas for the Start of School
Are you looking for some simple yet highly engaging investigation areas and learning invitations to start the school year? In this blog post, you’ll discover a heap of Investigation area ideas for the start of school. These tried and tested learning invitations are my go-to setups year after year, so you’ll be sure to find some that you can use in your classroom too.
The Transforming Schema
The transforming schema is all about change and how things transform in substance or appearance. If you have children in your classroom mixing sand with water or drawing and painting on their bodies, you might have children developing their transformation schema. This blog post will explain exactly what this play schema is and give you a heap of playful hands-on activities to support it.
The Connecting Schema
The connecting schema is all about how things connect and separate. If you have children in your classroom tying things together, fascinated with tape or building and knocking over towers of blocks, you have children developing their connection schema. This blog post will explain exactly what this play schema is and give you a heap of playful hands-on activities to support it.
Science Provocations – Properties of Materials
Teaching the early years chemistry strand and looking for some engaging and educational science provocations? This blog post has 5 hands-on learning invitations to help you teach about Materials and their Properties. There are also tips and ideas to help you set up your very own purposeful early childhood science learning provocations.
Classroom Mindful Monday
Mindful Monday is a great way to start the school week. Discover how to run a classroom Mindful Monday routine with your students and build focus, resilience, and positive self-talk each week. If you are looking for a way to bring some mindfulness into your classroom, you are going to love this Mindful Monday activity.
Counting the Days of School
If you are not already counting the days of school, I encourage you to do it!!. This fun math activity is popular in kindergarten and grade 1 because it is such an engaging way to teach and consolidate early number concepts. Your students will love this predictable daily counting practice and you will be surprised at how many early numeracy skills and concepts can be taught when you count and celebrate 100 days of school.