Shelley Stephenson

Compassionate Substitute Teacher specializing in early education, child development, and collaborative teaching methods. Skilled in providing classroom instruction and personalized student support through a balanced blend of traditional and modern approaches. Passionate about teaching kindergarten and dedicated to meeting the educational needs and fostering the development of young children.

• Circle Time. Example: Creating shared experiences like songs, rhymes, fingerplays and stories. Exploring prior knowledge by using brightly colored photos of the topic (close up picture of a spider) and teaching new information like insects have three body parts, two antennae, 6 legs and wings.
• Centers filled with sensory materials for open ended exploration. Example: rice table with flowerpots, plastic flowers, glass beads or paper towel tubes of various lengths and funnels.
• Crafts focusing on product and process using various materials. Example: Use cinnamon scented paint for apple pictures, paint on real pumpkins for Halloween or paint on tinfoil while listening to music.
• Small group and large group activities to promote science inquiry. Example: mixing liquid food coloring and shaving cream to die Easter eggs, baking soda and vinegar dinosaur eggs.
• Literacy focus. Example: books by Eric Carle to talk about insects in May or adding alphabet letters around the room for children to find and trace on an answer sheet on a clipboard. Letters added to sensory tables, grocery lists in the kitchen area or drawing a structure they build in the block center.
• Differentiated instruction. Example: teaching letters – letter formation practice page for older students and a coloring page with objects starting with the letter for younger students. Planning activities for students able to read instructions, ones who can read the pictures and ones able to trace the letters.
• Planning and preparation. Collaborating with the other teachers on a monthly basis to plan activities, center experiences and special theme days for the students. Ideas come from student's interests, past experience, research on preschool websites, activities and programs from Teacher Pay Teachers and my own creativity.
• Use of Technology. Example: creating Word documents to adapt materials found on preschool websites. For example: a coloring page for matching shapes by importing images and clip art. Using preschool videos from YouTube for singing, dancing and exercise times. For example: Ms. Rachel, Super Simple Songs, Jack Hartmann and Danny Go!
• Diversity in the classroom. Adapting the program to engage students from many cultures, some speaking little or no English, some with speech delays or no speech, diagnosis of Autism or signs of other learning challenges. My focus is to allow lots of time for preschoolers to play and socialize with other children, learn classroom routines and take part as they are able.
• Fine Motor Journals. Examples: pre-writing skills like following the zigzag lines on the page, scissor skills like cutting and gluing blue paper to fill a raindrop shape, letter formation like tracing the letter H and drawing ladders on the page. Encouragement to draw their own picture on the next page when finished.
• Binder Portfolio. Organize and assemble a binder for each student full of weekly artwork, coloring pages and letter recognition worksheets to send home at the end of the year.
• Christmas Concert and Graduation Program. Prepared students to perform a short program with songs and actions for their families and enjoy treats together afterward.
• Field Trips. Helped organize students and parent helpers during field trips to the Science Center, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, bowling, walks in the park.
• Building Relationship with Families. Examples: Open House at the beginning of the year, inviting parents to volunteer for party days like Halloween or Christmas, chatting after class about concerns or family holidays/events.
• Bloomz app. Weekly posts to the app included photos of the children at play, group activities or concepts they were learning. Parents were able to message teachers privately with concerns or absence/pickup information.

• Circle Time. Example: Creating shared experiences like songs, rhymes, fingerplays and stories. Exploring prior knowledge by using brightly colored photos of the topic (close up picture of a spider) and teaching new information like insects have three body parts, two antennae, 6 legs and wings.
• Centers filled with sensory materials for open ended exploration. Example: rice table with flowerpots, plastic flowers, glass beads or paper towel tubes of various lengths and funnels.
• Crafts focusing on product and process using various materials. Example: Use cinnamon scented paint for apple pictures, paint on real pumpkins for Halloween or paint on tinfoil while listening to music.
• Small group and large group activities to promote science inquiry. Example: mixing liquid food coloring and shaving cream to die Easter eggs, baking soda and vinegar dinosaur eggs.
• Literacy focus. Example: books by Eric Carle to talk about insects in May or adding alphabet letters around the room for children to find and trace on an answer sheet on a clipboard. Letters added to sensory tables, grocery lists in the kitchen area or drawing a structure they build in the block center.
• Differentiated instruction. Example: teaching letters – letter formation practice page for older students and a coloring page with objects starting with the letter for younger students. Planning activities for students able to read instructions, ones who can read the pictures and ones able to trace the letters.
• Planning and preparation. Collaborating with the other teachers on a monthly basis to plan activities, center experiences and special theme days for the students. Ideas come from student's interests, past experience, research on preschool websites, activities and programs from Teacher Pay Teachers and my own creativity.
• Use of Technology. Example: creating Word documents to adapt materials found on preschool websites. For example: a coloring page for matching shapes by importing images and clip art. Using preschool videos from YouTube for singing, dancing and exercise times. For example: Ms. Rachel, Super Simple Songs, Jack Hartmann and Danny Go!
• Diversity in the classroom. Adapting the program to engage students from many cultures, some speaking little or no English, some with speech delays or no speech, diagnosis of Autism or signs of other learning challenges. My focus is to allow lots of time for preschoolers to play and socialize with other children, learn classroom routines and take part as they are able.
• Fine Motor Journals. Examples: pre-writing skills like following the zigzag lines on the page, scissor skills like cutting and gluing blue paper to fill a raindrop shape, letter formation like tracing the letter H and drawing ladders on the page. Encouragement to draw their own picture on the next page when finished.
• Binder Portfolio. Organize and assemble a binder for each student full of weekly artwork, coloring pages and letter recognition worksheets to send home at the end of the year.
• Christmas Concert and Graduation Program. Prepared students to perform a short program with songs and actions for their families and enjoy treats together afterward.
• Field Trips. Helped organize students and parent helpers during field trips to the Science Center, Royal Saskatchewan Museum, bowling, walks in the park.
• Building Relationship with Families. Examples: Open House at the beginning of the year, inviting parents to volunteer for party days like Halloween or Christmas, chatting after class about concerns or family holidays/events.
• Bloomz app. Weekly posts to the app included photos of the children at play, group activities or concepts they were learning. Parents were able to message teachers privately with concerns or absence/pickup information.