I teach a special education preschool program in a rural Utah town. My students consist of special education toddlers, age two to five, along with twelve typically developing children who serve as peer models. I have quite the spectrum of ability levels in my classroom from very young, differently abled children who are experiencing their first time away from parents, all the way up to pre-kindergarten students who are reading on their own.
I love teaching a broad spectrum of students.
I think what I enjoy the most about preschool age children is their ability to explore the world around them and find wonder in their imaginations. The reason I feel that our program is so special is that preschool is the only time that SPED children will experience full inclusion with their typically developing peers. I have seen so many benefits for developing children as they learn and play with each other.
My Project
I have selected several mediums of insect exploration for students to engage in. We will start by introducing insects life cycles in a teacher lead circle time. Then students will branch off to different centers such as sorting by color and size, creating their own pony bead caterpillars, exploring insect habitats in the sand table and looking at insects up close after we go on a bug hunt.
Preschool age children are naturally inclined to show fascination to the insect world.
I hope that by building a love for the sciences early on that we will encourage them to explore fields and activities pertaining to STEM activities in the future. I'm excited to watch their science vocabulary increase as they build social skills and a love of learning for everything bugs and creepy crawly.
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