I was asked to fill in for 3 months for the 2 year old Sunday school class this summer. Oh, I forgot what working with 2 year olds are like. I teach in our homeschool co - op- but not normally this age. First of all, I didn't get a helper right away and I had 12 little ones. (it was last minute last week that they asked me) Second of all I forgot just how short their attention spans are. I had a lot of trouble keeping them focused - meaning I had a few of them for a moment, but when I tried to get the others the ones I had took off. When the first grandparents came to pick up their little ones the room was utterly a disaster. I was trying to pick one thing up - stop some struggles over a toy and the whole book case (soft rack) went down and there were books everywhere! When the grandparents came in they were nice about it, but you could tell they knew things went rough and did help me pick up some things (I was so grateful) I knew my first day would be rough and in addition I don't know any of the little ones names and I struggled with that too. I did have a lesson - but didn't get very far because I had trouble wrangling them all up and trying to get them to listen. I guess I was just asking you all if you had any pointers for me. Thanks.
12 2 year olds is too many for one person! I hope you get a helper soon. I use to be a 2 year old teacher in a daycare, and the most I ever had at one time by myself was 8, and even that many could be difficult at times. I don't really have many pointers for you because it was so long ago (before my kids were born, probably about 17 years ago) One thing I did do though, was set up different activities at different tables 3-4 kids to a table, not messy activities, just like puzzles or crayons and paper, blocks, that sort of thing, set a timer, and for the lesson, just do one group at a time, then switch tables when the timer goes off. One of the first lessons should be classroom rules, make sure everyone knows what is and is not allowed. Good luck, it will get easier, especially after you learn everyones name. Some days will be better than others. I really hope you get a helper, that way while you are doing the lesson with one group, the helper can keep watch over the others! Have fun!
Do you have lesson plans? If not, I have written curriculum for 2's. Let me know, and I'll give you lesson ideas. First, keep things SHORT. I would start with the kids sitting on the floor, and would do a prayer and a song or two, maybe five minutes. Then we would go into our story, which would be another ten minutes. Try not to keep them in one place for more than 15 minutes. Next, I would do a craft at the table. Very short, very simple, and usually not messy. Then we would have "Praise Time". I would put on a CD, and let the kids dance. We might use scarfs or bells or something like that. That would be about ten minutes. Then we would have our snack at the table, another 10 to 15 minutes. Finally, the kids hav Free Time, where they play until their parents pick them up. Dawn is absolutely right that 12 2yo's is TOO MANY!!! There should be three adults in that class at all times, if at all possible. You'll need at least two tables, because there's no way you'll get all 12 around one. And, instead of sitting at the end of the table (at the "head"), sit in the middle. That way, you can actually reach most of the children from where you're at. Dawn also mentioned learning names. USE NAME TAGS if you need to!!! It is VERY important to be able to call them by name! Also, I believe firmly in praying EACH CHILD'S NAME during the opening prayer, but I don't know if that's do-able with that any kids. Even if it's something like, "Thank you, God, that Johnny, Jill, Susan, and Billy are here today." Whatever, I think it's important to mention each child, to make it personal, and for them to hear you pray for them SPECIFICALLY.
Thank you both so much. I do have a lesson plan - it is Gospel Light - I'm not super impressed with it - but like I said I didn't have much of a chance today to do much. I tried to make little puppets with them today from brown paper bags. It was simple, bags and crayons. Oh -- they had the crayons everywhere and I'm not sure I even found them all. I felt really like a total failure. I can bring a cd player from home - I have white sticky labels and I may take them next week and ask the first Sunday School teacher to help me "name them" (We have two classes and I'm teaching the second class.)
Let me know what you're lessons are, and I might be able to come up with some simple crafts. Oh, I forgot Snack, between Praise Time and Free Time!!!
Oh! I forgot! There is a snack issue. One little boy is allergic to wheat, dairy and oats. They said they just give him his blue bowl whenever a snack comes out, but I'm worried about him getting what the others have. Thank you soo much Jackie. It did list a couple of simple crafts we could do and I tried the puppets with the paper bags but not all of them got them done. This weeks lesson is about Jacob and Esau and the trick with the bowl of stew. They suggest a craft of them gluing beans or rice onto a drawn bowl on some paper. I'm leery of small things like that after the crayons yesterday!!
Oh OH I know! lol. I studied this in college. lol. Start off right when they get into the door. The thing with 2 year old's is no idle time. Make it boom boom boom with what you're doing. Keep in mind a 2 year old's attention span is very short so speak for a short interval, and then move to a craft. If they have a little play/free time in the room then let them play, but tie it into the lesson. Ask if they can make some soup in the kitchen area, or something else like building the tower of Babel with lego blocks, you know? Remember, you can always talk and ask them questions during the craft as well. Go simple your first time and see what their abilities are, and adjust your curriculum accordingly. Be very animated, use your hands, be excited this keeps their attention. Their more apt to listen if you look really excited about what your doing, and if you're obviously nervous then they can pick up on it, and be nerous and aprehensive as well. Agree #1: 12 is too many. Usually the ratio is 6:1, six student per teacher. You really need to get a helper right away. This will also take some of the stress off you. Agree #2: Beans and rice is too small for a 2 year old who still likes to mouth things. If you are going to do a bowl of soup you might just want to cut out clip art soup pieces and have them try to name them and glue them on. tip: mix glue with a little water in a bowl and let them dip in a q-tip to get some glue/water. It's more motor skill friendly and less mess.
How many helpers do you have? I would think the church would INSIST on at least two adults. If you don't have one, can you recruit a responsible teen to help? Set up two or even three tablels, and have one adult at each, sitting in the middle. Take whatever craft supplies you need...a paper plate with rice, glue, picture...and have them in a container, one for each adult. Sit the kids at the table, adult in the middle. Have her demonstrate what she's going to do. Then she passes out each paper, SHE can put glue in the correct area, and the kids can sprinkle on the rice. If you're dealing with one adult per 4-6 kids, that's do-able. ETA: Meg's q-tip idea is also very good. It can also keep a child from squeezing a whole bottle of glue onto their paper, lol! Now, rice or beans? That has me pondering! Rice would stick better, I would think. But the beans would be easier for little hands to pick up and put down, and easier to clean up. But the rice you could kind of "pour" onto the glue. HEY!!! THAT'S an idea! Have the kids put their paper, one by one, into a box lid, and then have the each kid pour the rice on top. That way, all the "extra" will stay in the box. ETA: Meg brings up kids putting the rice/beans into their mouth. I wouldn't worry too much about that with the rice. It's too small for them to choke, and a few grains of hard rice won't cause them any ill effects. Also, if you are controlling the rice and have small student/teacher ratio, this would be a minimum. The next time you color, don't get out ALL the crayons. The adult sits down, puts the crayons in the middle of the table, and passes out the paper. Then the adult sits there, and colors a page, too. I think the trouble you had was 1) first time in there, 2) lack of adult supervision, and 3) the number of kids.
Thank you all soo much! I'm going to do my best to have a helper when I get there with me this Sunday. Some of the issue is too is there are already kids in there from the first hour - some are staying, some are leaving, some come in. So they are in a down time/transition moment when I get there. I may just do the clip art. Oh RATS! I just remembered that I was going to look for a CD from the library today to play with them and I forgot!
OH!!! So they are playing with stuff, and YOU have to come in, have them put stuff away, and get going. OUCH!!! That does make things more difficult!
I forgot to update about last Sunday. Things went MUCH better. I had a helper from the very beginning. I only had 9 this time. I brought in sticky labels to put on name tags while the first hour teacher was still there. We did our lesson, - I had them each take an object and put it in a "bowl" for us to make the soup. Then they had some sticker/coloring page that went with it. We played with puzzles and I played some music - I brought in a portable CD player. They then had snack. Then I read a couple of books to them. They kept bringing me more books to read! I LOVE that about that age!! Then we all played ball game. Then it was free time play and the parents/grandparents came. It went MUCH better this week. I hope they all go better. Thanks for all your suggestions!
