Guides for preschool and daycare
Short guides for the grown-up who runs the room, each with the answer first and the tool that goes with it.
- How to plan a theme week in ten minutes
Seven slots, one theme: circle time, books, a craft, a song, a snack, a letter and outside, planned in ten minutes and printed for the wall and the door. - Circle time for twos, threes and fours
A five-line circle time (greeting, calendar, theme question, song, book), how long to plan for each age, and what to drop first when the room is restless. - Picking books for a theme
Three or four books a theme, read more than once: Peabody's open library levels 0 to 3 for following along, and longer read-alouds for the grown-up. - Songs you can print and sing without a license
What public domain means for a classroom, which rhymes and lullabies you may print and send home, and why some favorites are left out. - The sign-in sheet: the usual fields, and where your state's rules are
The five columns most daycare sign-in sheets have, daily or weekly, and where to find your own state's licensing rules (we state none of our own). - A newsletter families actually read
One sheet, four blocks, the theme and the song: what makes a parent newsletter get read at pickup, and what to leave out. - Crafts with six materials or fewer
The craft rule every theme follows (six materials, three steps, nothing hot, with a grown-up), what twos, threes and fours can each do, and what to keep out of reach. - Snack time with the Kitchen
How each theme's snack links to the Peabody Kitchen, what the recipe pages show (allergens, swaps, lines for under-fours), and what to check first. - The letter of the week, without a worksheet pile
Trace once, find it in the room, find it in the book: a letter of the week in three short meetings and two printed pages. - Running a mixed-age room on one theme
One theme for infants to fours in a family child care home: who hears, who makes, who leads, and how the oldest help the youngest. - Transitions: songs and signals
Ten songs and signals for tidying up, lining up, washing hands and rest, all public domain or wordless, each kept for one job. - The daily report slip: what to write in 20 seconds
Meals, naps, diapers or potty, mood, one activity and one thing to bring: a daily slip filled in as the day goes, with medication kept in your own log. - Name tags, cubbies and the first week
First names only, big and plain, with the same picture every time: labels for cubbies, hooks and name tags that survive the first month. - A year of themes, by season
All 52 preschool themes by season, with the months rooms usually run each one and why the order goes the way it does.