Teaching Supplies
Teaching supplies are an essential part of a well-rounded classroom approach for early childhood learners. They must experience colors, textures, and visual stimulation of various kinds. Lessons in math and science can effectively use carefully designed teaching kits that provide physical objects to define math systems and physical properties. In many jurisdictions, local budgets place limitations on supplies that have forced teachers to find alternative sources of classroom materials. The resources here include free and low-cost supplies as well as traditional suppliers. Teachers can also find useful tips and advice on maximizing the benefits of these teaching assets.
Oriental Trading
This online, telephone, and mail order business offers a wide range of educational supplies that work well with early education age groups. They offer items for special abilities children and early learners with a sortable index arranged by grade level. Teachers can search by subjects that include science, math, active play, and social studies.
Learning Resources
This site offers useful categories of teaching supplies that range from classroom decorations to classroom technology. Many items come in classroom kits that provide a full set of instructions and materials for learning and educational play activities.
Treasures 4 Teachers
This member-based resource group provides free or low costs supplies for early childhood teachers. The benefits include educational resources, supplies, materials, and training. The T4T is a donation-based organization and members can have access to free or low-cost school supplies. The supply resources can relieve teachers that in the past have expended personal resources to bring needed supplies to their classrooms.
School Specialty Select
This site offers contract pricing for eligible buyers and products that support learning, safety, and well-being. Ranging from floor mats to electronics, this site offers a comprehensive shopping experience for teachers and administrators. The early childhood section offers filters for infant, toddler, and pre-k age groups. They offer educational, play, and health supplies.
Kaplan Early Learning Company
This site offers supplies for classrooms and teaching plans that focus on infant and toddler selections, pre-K, and early elementary grades. The store offers insightful, educational supplies, like science lessons that teach the nature of germs and microbes. These lessons double as child health and safety by encouraging hand-washing and hygiene.
Lesson Plans
Teachers must create a sequence of meaningful educational experiences. The tool for establishing a course of study for early learners is lesson planning. Lesson plans place teaching goals and objectives into the framework of an action plan. The teacher designs the information in a way that presents it, reinforces it, and helps students apply it. Successful lesson plans stand the test within each unit and build to a conclusion each day. At the end of the course of study, the lesson plans should build to solid learning accomplishments for each student. Lesson plans must meet the needs and capabilities of the learners.
Teachers Network
This site offers free lesson plans, example lesson units, and classroom activities. Teachers can watch video presentations and read articles by experienced teachers on developing themes and strategies. Teachers can find valuable templates and modify them to meet the needs of their early learner groups.
Education World
This easy to use site offers printable templates, diagrams, forms, and charts to help ECE teachers develop responsive lesson plans. The template topics include lesson plans, classroom organizers, assessment templates, award templates, flyers, posters, and signs.
Better Lesson
This advanced site offers lesson plans, classroom materials, and instructional resources from high-performing teachers. The site has an ELA section with information and models provided by master teachers. Teachers can search by grade level, and ECE teachers can use the lower elementary levels for grades one, two, and three.
Early Childhood Education: Lesson Plans
This is a multiple source site. Teachers can use this research portal for links to early childhood education lesson plans such as A-Z Teacher Stuff and many other sources. Teachers can search by topic, grade range, and subject.
HotChalk Lesson Plans
A free resource for ECE teachers. These plans can provide an excellent reference and starting place to refine and tailor an approach. Lesson plans should reflect the needs and objectives of the class participants, and HotChalk plans can reduce the time needed to develop excellent plans.
Classroom Management
The learning environment for early learners is a critical factor in their success. Young learners need a place in which they can feel secure and supported. Early learners can be active, easily distracted, and very energetic. Successful ECE teachers must develop methods and techniques for maintaining control while permitting the children the freedom to interact and experience the lessons.
The Teacher’s Corner
Classroom management is an essential part of creating a positive learning environment. Early learners have an abundance of energy and curiosity. Teachers must channel that energy and interest into positive applications that work for the individual and the group. This site has a classroom management section that offers advice, tips, and ideas for creating a safe and responsive learning environment.
Classcraft
This site offers teachers and schools and school systems access to educational games. In various formats, these games can help free teachers for administrative tasks, organize student engagement, and help manage the flow of lessons in the lesson plan. Gaming is an excellent way to engage children at all levels of learning. These simple and powerful tools help keep children connected to the group purposes and stimulate learning.
10 expert tricks for managing your preschool classroom
Organizing a room and using devices like a puppet friend are among the many tips and devices that can help a pre-school teacher maintain control over a class of early learners. Teachers can anticipate periods such as transitions between activities and use fun games and activities to engage young learners. Tips can offer insight that teachers can adapt to their styles, objectives, and circumstances.
Staying in Control of Your Classroom
This site offers twelve expert tips and analysis of classroom situations. It covers wandering attention, using a tight schedule, and managing disruptive behavior. In addition, there are books, essays, and articles about many aspects of teaching pre-school learners. Tips include identifying situations in which extra help or expert consultation can be the bests option.
New Teachers
A new ECE preschool teacher is much like the students; they must learn each day and try to get better. All teachers must show patience and understanding, and recognize that each child is a unique individual with circumstances that the teacher must also understand. Many experts recommend that young teachers should be themselves, keep a sense of humor, and be willing to try new and different things. New teachers have to find a way to manage classrooms, organize materials, and conduct educational activities. The resources listed below can help with the technical aspects of class organization, planning, and conduct.
Resources Toolkit for New Teachers
New teachers can take advantage of convenient articles, videos, and instructional advice and tips. This information toolkit is aimed at teachers in the earliest stages of their careers. Teachers can gain new ideas and greater confidence in their approaches to classroom activities, management, and lesson planning.
Teach Preschool
This site offers experienced-based ideas, techniques, and support for teachers at all levels of experience. New teachers can take advantage of creative ideas, illustrative videos, and projects in action to make their classrooms interesting and stimulating.
5 Mistakes Pre-K Teachers Make the First Week of School
This site offers free resources for Pre-K teachers with some articles dedicated to the new teacher such as the most common mistakes. New teachers can search by subject area, classroom ideas, and the latest technology for ECE teaching. The site has printable and downloadable content that can help with lessons and lesson planning.
Childhood 101
This helpful site focuses on play and learning activities. Play is an excellent way to help children learn, socialize, and achieve. The enjoyment of play makes learning more accessible and enjoyable. New teachers can use these techniques to stimulate learning and customize their lesson plans.
Preschool Inspirations
The preschool classroom can be a busy place where young learners play and study equally. This site offers insights from experienced teachers that help fill the class day with engaging beneficial activities. The approach includes advice and equipment that can help keep students calm and interested in their challenges.
Teaching Tools
Today there are many types of teaching tools that ECE educators can use to create and carry out lesson plans that will engage and stimulate early learners. The range of teaching tools extends to the reaches of teacher creativity and imagination. Teachers can enrich classroom content with artistic creations, visual images, and audio elements. Today, software technology makes video available on a wide range of platforms and devices. Early learners engage with lessons about music, science, math, and the characteristics of the natural world. Lesson plans, teaching kits, and other modules can enrich the classroom experience and engage learners at every stage of their early childhood development.
ClassDojo
ClassDojo is a software system that uses digital formats to record and present voice, visual, and other information and shares it in networks of teachers, students, and parents. The software can connect everyone involved in a successful educational experience in a single format with convenient controls on a wide range of devices. ClassDojo works with smartphones, tablets, and computers.
Resources for Early Learning, Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care
Resources for Early Learning offers easy access for educators to age-appropriate educational materials for birth through age eight. They include basic skills for infants, math, science, writing, drawing, language and speaking. The site also offers career enrichment resources for educators to further their professional development. For learners age three to five, the site has the Massachusetts early learning curriculum with important learning themes like family, music, and buildings and structures.
Teachers Pay Teachers
This site is an open marketplace for educators where teachers buy, sell, and share original teaching resources. TPT is a place to get free and paid resources and teaching tools. The section on Elementary School Resources includes searchable categories for subjects and grade. Teachers can search for fee-paid and free resources.
This is an online research platform that has useful categories for ECE educators. Whether searching for visuals to demonstrate themes or artistic creations, ECE educators can use Pinterest boards. Teachers can create boards or use the existing early childhood resources on Pinterest for Teaching Preschool and Early Childhood Education.
Education.com
This site offers resources for early learners such as games and activities that stimulate learning and help organize classroom activities. The site uses the expertise of its core of award-winning teachers to provide advice, tips, and strategies for effective learning at all stages of age three through fifth grade.
Professional Associations
Professional Early Childhood Education Associations offer opportunities to enhance professional knowledge, gain access to educational resources, and network with other practitioners and leaders in the field. Many Early Childhood Education Associations reflect the history of the field as one that has struggled for recognition of its importance. Pioneers in the field have fought for greater awareness and investment of resources. Many professional associations engage in policy advocacy at the national, state, and local levels. These efforts have produced favorable policies that have increased the availability of early childhood education. Professional early childhood education associations are a worthwhile investment of time and effort for teachers, researchers, parents, and caregivers.
National Association for the education of Young Children (NAEYC)
The National Association for the Education of Young Children is an organization dedicated to improving the lives and ensuring the well-being of children aged birth through age eight. The NAEYC has played a key role in advancing early childhood education and standards for quality education and care. NAEYC administers an accreditation program directly for many types of childcare and child education facilities, and they have rich resources for professional training and development. NAEYC membership provides participation in both national and local services.
National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI)
This national association focuses on the challenges of early childhood education with special emphasis on Black culture and African American communities. The association hosts annual events and provides professional development resources. The NBCDI is an advocacy and educational resource organization that supports educators, parents, and families. The local chapters provide direct services in many US communities.
National Head Start Association (NHSA)
This large national organization is the advocacy arm for the Head Start Community. It promotes policies that strengthen Head Start and amplify the importance of its mission. The Head Start community consists of professionals and institutions that provide early education to financially challenged families and others across the US. Teachers both within and affected by the Head Start programs would benefit from the networking and association benefits of the NHSA.
Zero to Three
This organization advocates for stronger efforts and greater resources for infant and toddler education programs. Their goal is to ensure that every child has an opportunity to take advantage of the earliest learning opportunities, which are critical to overall development. Membership in this group offers benefits for professional development networking and advocacy.
National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC)
The NAFCC is an advocacy and policy group that recognizes the role of family-based early childhood education. They seek to gain access to public resources for early childhood education from family caregivers. The association seeks greater resources for family childcare and early education. These efforts can include increased resources for the use of family caregivers that seek to exercise parent choice for early childhood education.
A resources guide cannot answer all the questions or solve all the needs of a preschool teacher. Some of the resources here may raise more questions and cause farther inquiry. This is a good thing, as teachers must also strive to learn—they must also be good students. The challenge of working with the youngest groups of learners is steep. The potential for growth in the early childhood learners is impressive, and their energy and curiosity make them eager to soak in facts, knowledge, and all sorts of information. The challenge of the ECE teacher is to get each child moving in a direction that can fulfill their promise. ECE teachers must be good observers and patient listeners. They have an enormous opportunity to make a positive contribution to a lifetime of learning.
Career Path Options
When you are planning on becoming an early childhood teacher, there are many different career paths and options for you to choose from. Below are some of the most popular choices and there are specialization in each of these careers:
- Preschool Teacher
- Kindergarten Teacher
- Elementary School Teacher
FAQs
What resources a teacher can use? ›
- ReadWriteThink. ...
- PhET. ...
- Scholastic. ...
- The Stanford History Education Group. ...
- PBS LearningMedia. ...
- Epic! ...
- EDSITEment. ...
- NCTM Illuminations.
Teaching Tools - a list of tools that can be used for creating and editing technology-enhanced tasks, activities, and materials for language learning. Media Sources - a list of media sources such as audio, video, and images that can be used for language teaching and learning.
What are resources in ECD? ›Popular resources include books, art supplies, puzzles, games, technological devices, etc.
Why are resources important in early childhood? ›This is because resources are needed to provide a conducive teaching and learning environment, purchase relevant instructional and learning materials and pay staff.
What resources do teachers need most? ›- Teaching Tools. ...
- Classroom Library Essentials. ...
- Scholastic Book Clubs. ...
- Professional Development Books. ...
- Scholastic Teachables.
Classroom resources are a brilliant and effective way to help to teach and learn in a hassle-free easy process. Resources can be for teachers and children such as tools to help with marking or learning tools to help children understand subjects and get the most out of their learning.
What tools teachers use in the classroom? ›A variety of tools can be used in the classroom to support student learning, ranging from traditional to high-tech options. Examples include the whiteboard, index cards, posters, audience response systems (e.g. clicker technology), Google collaboration tools, 3D printing, and wikis.
What are teaching tools? ›A teacher tool is any tool that enhances or expedites the teaching process and helps teachers to teach better. For instance, it can be a tool that allows the teachers to conduct classes in a more organized and efficient way and communicate with parents quickly and efficiently to improve classroom productivity.
What are the 7 instructional materials? ›| Textbooks, pamphlets, handouts, study guides, manuals | |
|---|---|
| Audio | Cassettes, microphone, podcast |
| Visual | Charts, real objects, photographs, transparencies |
| Audiovisual | Slides, tapes, films, filmstrips, television, vedioo, multimedia |
| Electronic Interactive | Computers, graphing calculators, tablets |
That includes PowerPoint presentations, worksheets, activity booklets, colouring sheets, writing frames, page borders, e-books, board games, quizzes, activities and cards.
What are learning resources in education? ›
A learning resource is an artifact that contributes to a learning process. Some authors restrict its meaning to content, others include tools and environments. We suggest making a distinction between resources and tools as in learning design methods, although boundaries overlap.
How can a teacher use local resources in teaching? ›Outside your classroom there is a whole range of resources that you can use in your lessons. You could collect (or ask your class to collect) objects such as leaves, spiders, plants, insects, rocks or wood. Bringing these resources in can lead to interesting classroom displays that can be referred to in lessons.
What is the purpose of resources in teaching and learning? ›Effective educational resources make positive connections with learners' knowledge, experience, and identity. Learning is an active process that involves many different kinds of connections. People learn best when they are able to connect new learning with what they already know and can do.
How do online resources help teachers? ›Teaching support — Free access to a huge variety of educational resources can help you create comprehensive lesson plans and learn new teaching strategies. Tracking and reporting — Many learning platforms have built-in progress trackers and reporting tools, making it easy to track and communicate student progress.
How do teachers get free supplies? ›- Adopt-A-Classroom. Adopt-A-Classroom is a non-profit organization dedicated to giving schools and teachers the supplies they need to succeed. ...
- A Day Made Better. ...
- Kids In Need Foundation. ...
- Treasures 4 Teachers. ...
- Operation Kid Equip. ...
- Schoolhouse Supplies.