“They’re Rugrats, but I love them” said Kate Lane, director of the Little Lancers program.

On March 11, students in Child Development 1 Class were very excited for the Little Lancers to come back to Preschool. 

The Little Lancers Preschool program has open enrollment all year for three and four year old children who live nearby.

“I am excited to spend time teaching the Little Lancers. After the last month preparing and learning how to teach, I feel like I am ready for the kids to come,” said Chloe Bremer, a student in Child Development.

Lane had the students prepare for the Little Lancers’ arrival by demonstrating ways to keep the kids entertained and engaged. One key goal in the program is to work on the children’s small muscle motor skills. Lane split the class into groups and gave them each different types of activities that the Little Lancers could do to improve their coordination. One group got building blocks; one got Mega Blocks; and another got counting bags. 

Students are also making their lesson plans for when the kids come back. A lesson plan lays out what the teacher for that day will do and their job for the week. 

For the lesson plan, they have to write down what they plan to teach and how they will do it. They also write down the steps to their lesson, what the children will learn/benefit from the lesson, and what materials they will need, to complete the lesson.

“It wasn’t stressful for me at all on the first day,” said former child development student in fall semester, Sammy Thomas. “I just played with the kids and made sure everything was OK and all the kids were having fun.” 

A normal day at Little Lancers Preschool: First, they Little Lancers play for a little bit. Second, they do a morning greeting message. The morning message is a song that the morning messenger sings along to a video. This gets the kids engaged and warmed up for the day.

There is ALWAYS a “special person of the day.” There is a calendar that has all the kids’ names on it, one for each day. Whoever the special person is, they get to count how many boys and how many girls there are in class that day. 

Next, they sing the ABC’s song. Then they have story time. Whoever is the reader in Child Development that week reads the story. The student teachers get to choose the book they are reading.

After they read, it is station time. Station time is when the Little Lancers move around from a math lesson, an art lesson, and a number/letter station. Each station lasts ten minutes. Once the ten minutes are up, they switch stations. 

The Little Lancers start their first day back on Tuesday, March 17.