Preschool Video Clips
View these video clips to see a teacher interact with preschoolers in a learning experience involving roly polys.
Children are born ready to explore and learn about the world around them. Programs offer professional development and coaching to help education staff use effective teaching practices. This includes using interactions that facilitate concept development to support:
For preschool children, these practices support the Concept Development dimension (Instructional Support domain) as defined in the Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS®) Pre-K Manual. Concept Development "measures the teachers' use of instructional discussions and activities to promote students' higher-order thinking skills and cognition and the teacher's focus on understanding rather than on rote instruction." Learn more about Concept Development practices in this 2019 Office of Head Start webinar, “Focus on Instructional Supports: Resources to Help Head Start Programs.” It also features several resources for grantees to use to help them focus on improving instructional supports for children and mentions this webpage.
Use the following resources to learn about and support education staff in implementing effective teaching practices. Start by watching these video clips that show teachers building on children’s curiosity and promoting thinking and language skills. Education managers and supervisors can use these videos along with The Inquiry Cycle handout to facilitate conversations about teaching practices during trainings, staff and team meetings, and other professional development sessions.
Coaches and coachees can use the videos and handout to identify specific teaching practices to focus on during coaching sessions.
View these video clips to see a teacher interact with toddlers in a learning experience involving avocados.
Exploring Avocados
Keesha: Shall we make a discovery? Shall we check and see what's inside the avocado? Huh? What do you think is in here? What do you think is inside? Inside the avocado? Andrew, you working on getting inside the avocado? Andrew's opening up his avocado. Let me see, friends.
Child: Oh!
Keesha: Oh. You are experimenting with rolling your avocado because it's so round. You too, Mia? You going to roll it around the table? Hmm? You helping Mia with your — with your fork? You want to use it on your avocado? Hmm? Let's see You want to try and open another avocado? Let's see if I can help you.
Child: Ah!
Keesha: Ah.
Marie: You're almost there, Andrew.
Keesha: Yes. You're taking out — You have dark green on the outside of the avocado, and light green on the inside of the avocado. Mia, you're eating it. How does it taste? How does it taste? It smells so good. Did you see that? Mia's scooping her avocado out with her spoon like you are. Yes. Let's see. You want me to help you? You want to hold it? Thank you. You're sharing with me, huh?
Marie: You going to try some more, Andrew?
Keesha: Look.
Marie: Oh, Miss Keesha helped you. Oh, you're stacking.
Keesha: You're stacking your avocado inside your avocado.
Marie: You going to try with your hands? Feels smooth inside.
Keesha: What do you think, Eileen? You're done with the spoon? You gonna touch it, too? Huh? You hear Miss Marie talking about how slippery and smooth it is? It is slippery and smooth. I feel it. Can you feel it? You taking Andrew's avocado? Andrew, you want another avocado? Huh? Mia got ahold of your avocado, huh?
CloseWatch Teacher Keesha interact with three young toddlers as they explore the shape, taste, and texture of avocados.
View these video clips to see a teacher interact with preschoolers in a learning experience involving roly polys.
Exploring Roly-Polies
Jessica: Yesterday during small group time, we went outside to look for the roly-polies, remember?
Children: Yeah.
Jessica: Where did we go find the roly-polies?
Girl: In the grass, because they like to live where it's so wet.
Jessica: The roly-polies live in the dark, wet, moist areas. How do you know that?
Girl No. 2: Because they live under the dirt.
Jessica: Because it lives under the dirt. Yes, and under — and where it's dark. Today, we're gonna observe our roly-polies. We're gonna use our senses to find something out. We may use our eyes to look at the roly-polies, or we need to touch them to find out what it feels like. Oh, here's one. That's a real roly-poly.
[Children talking indistinctly]
I'm gonna pass them out, yes.
Girl: There's a lot of them. It tickles.
Jessica: Does it tickle when you touch it?
Girl: Yeah. [Laughter]
Jessica: So, when you pick it up, it tickles?
[Girl talks indistinctly]
Oh, it does tickle. You're right.
Girl No. 3: A baby one! A baby!
Jessica: How do you know that that's the baby one?
Girl No. 3: It's white.
Jessica: It's white. Remember when we talked about during small group time that the rolypolies that are born are white and clear?
Girl No. 4: I dropped it.
Jessica: Are you using your magnifying glass to look at the roly-polies?
Girl No. 5: A worm!
Jessica: Oh! Sometimes we might find some worms inside the — the soil. Does the worm look like the roly-poly?
Girl No. 5: No.
Jessica: No? What does that worm look like?
Girl No. 5: Wiggly.
Jessica: It wiggles. Yours is crawling up your hand.
CloseWatch Teacher Jessica interact with a group of preschool children as they explore and learn about roly poly bugs.
Education managers and child development specialists can review the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework (ELOF) Effective Practice Guides as refreshers about what supporting children's higher-order thinking and language skills looks like in practice. Use the embedded videos during trainings, staff meetings, or other opportunities to help plan high-quality teaching practices, interactions, and materials that stimulate children's thinking.
Coaches can pull out key practices and videos to use in their work with coachees during one-on-one or Together Learning and Collaborating (TLC) group coaching sessions.
Explore Effective Practice Guides Resources
Approaches to Learning
Language and Literacy
Cognition
Education managers and child development specialists can use the in-service suites during ongoing professional development and reflective supervision. Education teams can review the suites and talk about the identified practices and how to use them in their settings.
Education teams who work with preschool children can plan for a study on concept development. Teams might consider a six- to 12-month process of reviewing articles, videos, and facilitating discussions about how to implement practices that support children's concept development in meaningful ways. Coaches can work with teachers and family child care providers to identify and strengthen specific teaching practices introduced in the in-service suites.
Explore 15-minute In-service Suites Resources
Crosswalk of the 15-minute In-service Suites with the CLASS®
Education managers, child development specialists, and coaches can refer to this resource for more information about which suites align with CLASS® domains and dimensions.
Education managers and child development specialists can use this resource with teachers and family child care providers to identify ways their curricula help children develop higher-order thinking skills and a deeper understanding of concepts.
Coaches can use this resource with teachers and family child care providers to identify and strengthen specific teaching practices within their curricula that support children's higher-order thinking and language skills.
In these animated videos, learn about ways programs can improve effective teaching practices, in particular on the CLASS® Instructional Support domain. Explore resources and strategies that can help both coaches and education managers create a culture focused on children's higher order thinking and promote concept development.
The Education Manager Planning Calendar and Education Managers Series are additional resources to use with programs to improve effective teaching practices.
Resource Type: Article
National Centers: Early Childhood Development, Teaching and Learning
Last Updated: July 9, 2024