How to Teach a Multi-Age Group in a Preschool
A multi-age preschool classroom has many benefits to young students ranging from increasing positive social behaviors to possibly improving language skills. Although this approach to the young child's education has been a standard in some philosophy-based programs, such as Montessori, for years, there is an increasing awareness of these methods in the traditional preschool or early childhood center. With age groupings typically encompassing at least a 2-year span, such as from 3 to 5 years old, the multi-age room requires distinct ways of teaching.
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Instructions
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Set up the classroom for the specific multi-age group. Although early childhood centers may offer programs for kids of all ages, many multi-age programs that refer to themselves as a "preschool" cater to 3- to 5-year-old children. Including clearly separated centers or learning areas for different classroom content or curricular sections is an important part to the room design. For example, use child-sized shelving units to designate a literacy center, a table with chairs and an easel for art, a table with bins for tools and materials for a science center and a pretend play area complete with dress-up items or a play kitchen.
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Develop a rotating curriculum or sequence of lesson plans. You will have the same students for at least 2 years, and you will not want to make year 2 a repeat of year 1. Vary the themes and specific activities to give the students some diversity. For example, if you do a farm animal theme during year 1, try a zoo animal concept during year 2.
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Place the young students into ability groupings for limited amounts of time. Developmentally and academically, the children may be in very different places. Although this is what you should expect of the multi-age classroom, there may be times that you need to separate the children. For example, during literacy activities, an advanced 5-year-old child, who is preparing for kindergarten, may be able to fully write his name and some simple words. In contrast, a young 3-year-old child may still be scribbling. Take small blocks of class time, no longer than 15 minutes or so, to work with each ability level grouping to enhance their special skills.
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Pair more advanced with less advanced students in buddy or mentoring teams. This can benefit both students in that the more advanced child can develop social and emotional skills, such as empathy, patience and understanding, whereas the less advanced student can grow and learn from the older child's experience. Seat the teams next to each other during table activities, such as art making, writing or game play and puzzles. Encourage the children to verbally interact, and if needed, stimulate the conversation with prompts, such as: "Can you tell her how you made that shape?" or "Use your words to explain why you are having trouble making those blocks fit together."
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Tips & Warnings
Encourage all of the students to bond and act as a community of learners through group projects. Whether it is a morning group discussion or a collaborative mural project, gather the children in one area and ask them to work together as one team.
Engage the parents in the learning process. Some parents may not completely understand the multi-age philosophy. Help to inform them by distributing weekly or monthly newsletters or by providing tip sheets and easy-to-read articles on the subject.
Set clear and easy-to-follow rules that apply to children of all different developmental levels. These rules may include sharing, using an inside voice, not hitting or raising a hand to talk during group time.
Avoid separating the age groups for long periods of time. Although it is acceptable to make groupings for specific short-term activities, this should not be a long-term practice. There is a difference between conducting a 15-minute math activity as separate groups and separating the 3-year-olds from the 5-year-olds for an entire day.
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