Tips for Teaching with Social Distancing in Pre-K and Kindergarten
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Teaching with social distancing surely looks different than teaching during a regular school year. It will likely look different for every teacher because you have to adhere to the plan of your specific school and district. Check out these helpful Tips for Teaching with Social Distancing perfect for Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms!
*For hands-on centers perfect for social distancing in the classroom, grab our Independent Box Centers BUNDLE!
Brain Breaks While Teaching with Social Distancing
Brain breaks will be even more important than ever when teaching with social distancing. There won’t be as much movement for students naturally built into their day, so you will have to be intentional about getting them out of their seats.
Not only do students need to move, their brains need a break. Little learners can’t just jump from one thing to the next without a few moments for their brains to decompress.
Head here to learn more about brain breaks and to get a list of ideas for brain breaks your students will love.
Socially Distanced Seating Options
Seating during social distancing can be a real challenge, especially depending on the size of your room. Some of your seating choices may be determined by your space.
If you have a big, spacious room, you may be able to have all of your desks spread six feet apart. But if you have a smaller space, you may need to get creative!
You could have kiddos at tables with plexiglass shields to separate each student. Or, you could get lap desks for students and let them spread out on the ground. The great thing about lap desks is that they are portable and can be easily sanitized!
Scoop chairs and a clipboard are also a great option. You can space kiddos out around the room as needed, and this also lets you have flexibility with your seating.
To ensure your students are spacing, you can mark their spots on the floor with SitSpots! Or tape down hula hoops around their space so they have a little wiggle room (and I do mean room so they can wiggle!).
Head to my Instagram reel to see some of these seating options in a real classroom!
Teaching with Social Distancing Can Still Include Choice!
Incorporating choice in early learning is super important because choice allows students to practice making decisions and increases engagement.
Some ways you can still incorporate choice in a socially distanced classroom are:
- Independent centers (learn all about independent box centers HERE!)
- Seating choices
- Choice of manipulative (Does it matter if they pick the cubes or the pom poms for the counting activity?)
- Let them choose their writing utensil (Could they circle all of the sight words with their purple crayon instead of a pencil?)
RELATED RESOURCE: Circle Time Chants and Activities Endless BUNDLE
It may feel like social distancing limits our ability to include choice in our classroom, but we just have to provide choices in the day in a different way. You get the idea. Even if they are small choices, it’s important to build choice into your early learner’s day!
Sanitation Station
Whether you have kiddos in their own space all day long with no shared supplies, or your area has fewer restrictions and you can have some shared items, having a sanitation station is helpful!
This could be as simple as a bin you have on a table for anything that needs to be sanitized throughout the day. You could also have hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes (If you can get your hands on any!), and some spare masks at your station so you are prepared for anything that comes your way.
I hope these tips for teaching with social distancing have been helpful to you! Do you have a great tip for teaching with social distancing? Be sure to share it with all of us on Facebook or Instagram!
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