Preschool Teachers

Preschool Teachers typically perform the following tasks: • Teach basic skills, such as color, shape, number and letter recognition, personal hygiene, and social skills. • Establish and enforce rules for behavior and procedures for maintaining order. • Adapt teaching methods and instructional materials to meet students' varying needs and interests. • Provide a variety of materials and resources for children to explore, manipulate, and use, both in learning activities and in imaginative play. • Serve meals and snacks in accordance with nutritional guidelines. • Attend to children's basic needs by feeding them, dressing them, and changing their diapers. • Meet with parents and guardians to discuss their children's progress and needs, determine their priorities for their children, and suggest ways that they can promote learning and development. • Organize and lead activities designed to promote physical, mental, and social development, such as games, arts and crafts, music, storytelling, and field trips. • Identify children showing signs of emotional, developmental, or health-related problems and discuss them with supervisors, parents or guardians, and child development specialists. • Maintain accurate and complete student records as required by laws, district policies, and administrative regulations. • Assimilate arriving children to the school environment by greeting them, helping them remove outerwear, and selecting activities of interest to them. • Observe and evaluate children's performance, behavior, social development, and physical health. • Prepare materials and classrooms for class activities. • Read books to entire classes or to small groups. • Establish clear objectives for all lessons, units, and projects and communicate those objectives to children. • Arrange indoor and outdoor space to facilitate creative play, motor-skill activities, and safety. • Teach proper eating habits and personal hygiene. • Demonstrate activities to children. • Plan and conduct activities for a balanced program of instruction, demonstration, and work time that provides students with opportunities to observe, question, and investigate. • Enforce all administration policies and rules governing students.