Prepared by:

ROWENA D. WALICAN
BEST PRACTICES IN KINDERGARTEN/ECE
INSTRUCTION

Best practice can be described as

providing the very best in all aspects of the
child’s care, wellbeing, learning and
development.
The National Association for the Education of Young
Children was the front runner in the development of
developmentally appropriate practices. They now have
these practices developed for infants and toddlers,
preschoolers, and kindergartners. The concept of
developmental appropriateness has three dimensions:
age appropriateness, individual appropriateness and
cultural appropriateness.
1. Age appropriateness is based on human development research which
indicates that there are universal, predictable sequences of growth and
change that occur in children during the first nine years of life. These
predictable changes occur in all domains of development - physical,
emotional, social, and cognitive. Knowledge of typical development of
children within the age span provides a framework from which teachers
prepare the learning environment and plan appropriate experiences.

2. Individual appropriateness recognizes that each child is a unique person

with an individual pattern and timing of growth, as will as an individual
personality, learning style, and family background.

3. Cultural appropriateness recognizes the importance of the knowledge of

the social and cultural contexts in which children live to ensure that learning
experiences are meaningful, relevant, and respectful for the children and their
families.
1. Assessment and Testing.
2. Curriculum, Standards, and Instructional Practices in Early Education
Classrooms.
3. Disability, Disorder, and Developmental Delay.
4. Diversity and Inclusion.
5. Executive Function and Other Foundations of Learning.
6. Nutrition and Physical Activity.
7. Routines and Transitions.
8. Safety.
9. School Readiness and Kindergarten Transition
10. Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills
11. Trauma, Abuse, and Hardship
1. Assessment and Testing.
Assessment is a critical part of a high quality, early childhood. When
educators do an assessment, they observe a child to get information about
what he knows and what he can do.  

• The program supports children’s learning using a variety of assessment methods,

such as observations, checklists, and rating scales.
•  Assessment methods are appropriate for each child’s age and level of development
and encompass all areas of development, including math, science, and other
cognitive skills; language; social-emotional; and physical.
•  Teachers use assessment methods and information to design goals for individual
children and monitor their progress, as well as to improve the program and its
teaching strategies.
•  Families receive information about their child’s development and learning on a
regular basis, including through meetings or conferences.
 2. Curriculum, Standards, and Instructional Practices in Early Education
Classrooms.
-The curriculum consists of the knowledge and skills to be acquired in the educational
program as well as the plans for experiences through which children’s learning will take place.
“Goals and plans for children to acquire skills and knowledge through activities, experiences
and opportunities”

•  Ask about the program’s curriculum and how it addresses all aspects of child
development. The curriculum should not focus on just one area of development.
•  Children are given opportunities to learn and develop through exploration and play, and
teachers have opportunities to work with individual children and small groups on specific
skills.
•  Materials and equipment spark children’s interest and encourage them to experiment and
learn.
•  Activities are designed to help children get better at reasoning, solving problems, getting
along with others, using language, and developing other skills.
•  Infants and toddlers play with toys and art materials that “do something” based on
children’s actions, such as jack-in-the-box, cups that fit inside one another, and playdough.
3. Disability, Disorder, and Developmental Delay.
Developmental disabilities begin in young childhood, may impact a child’s
ability to function in one or more areas, and may continue throughout the
person’s life. Ask parents how much and what types of communication they
find helpful and build rapport with honesty and caring. Encourage parents to
ask questions and express their emotions. Know the resources available to
assist the child and parents.

4. Diversity and Inclusion.

Get to know your students. All the students in your school are unique
individuals, so use that fact to build a diverse and inclusive school culture, Be
willing to address inequality, Connect with parents and community, Meet
diverse learning needs, Hire diversely, Support professional development
opportunities.
5. Executive Function and Other Foundations of Learning.
-Learning begins the day a child is born. Children develop how to promote
the cognitive skills that underpin a child’s ability to read, write, and calculate.

6.Nutrition and Physical Activity.

-It’s important to provide children the nourishment their bodies need to
be the vessels that carry them through their earliest experiences. Establishing
positive eating and exercise habits early in life sets a foundation for physical
health in adolescence and adulthood.

• Teaching staff have training in pediatric first aid.

•  Infants are placed on their backs to sleep.
•  The program has policies regarding regular hand washing and routinely cleans and
sanitizes all surfaces in the facility.
•  There is a clear plan for responding to illness, including how to decide whether a
child needs to go home and how families will be notified.
•  Snacks and meals are nutritious, and food is prepared and stored safely
7.Routines and Transitions.
-Routines help children understand their environment as predictable and
safe. When children feel safe, they are free to play, learn, and grow as
members of society.
8.Safety.
-Young children depend on adults to keep them safe from environmental
dangers and physical harm.  

• The facility is designed so that staff can supervise all children by sight and sound.
•  The program has necessary furnishings, such as hand-washing sinks, child-size
chairs and tables, and cots, cribs, beds, or sleeping pads.
•  A variety of materials and equipment appropriate for children’s ages, skills and
abilities is available and kept clean, safe, and in good repair.
•  Outdoor play areas have fences or natural barriers that prevent access to streets and
other hazards.
•  First-aid kits, fire extinguishers, fire alarms, and other safety equipment are installed
and available.
9. School Readiness and Kindergarten Transition
-The ‘ready children’ dimension focuses on children’s learning and
development. It refers to what children should know and be able to do in order
to enter school ready and eager to learn, thereby enabling a successful
transition to a primary school learning environment.

10. Social, Emotional, and Behavioral Skills

-Social, emotional, and positive behavioral skills are the foundation of
successful relationships. These skills are learned by children from adults.
Adults must model appropriate behaviors and encourage children to develop
positive relationship skills early in life.
11. Trauma, Abuse, and Hardship
-When children experience distress or feel threatened, parents or other
caregivers support them in reestablishing a sense of safety and control. In
contrast, children who experience early trauma at the hands of such trusted
adults may not have the experiences that lead to healthy attachments, such as
adult guidance to help them regulate their emotions and physical reactions to
stressful events.
 1o Best Practices of Highly Effective Teachers

1.Provide frequent and timely feedback. Enough can’t be said about the importance of
sharing feedback with students during the learning process. Setting up checkpoints,
offering a variety of formative assessments, and discussing learning in real time are all
essential.

2.Value parental/familial involvement. Students have an entire life outside of school and

hopefully a solid support system. Bridging a connection between these two worlds
helps everyone stay informed and makes it easier for parents to reinforce and support
what’s happening in the classroom.

3.Sidestep the comfort zone. Innovations and new strategies are occurring all the time.
This doesn’t mean that every bandwagon should be boarded, but in trying something
new and unfamiliar, teachers can find additional ways to impact students, and
students can see an exemplar of risk taking.
 1o Best Practices of Highly Effective Teachers

4.Offer second chances/clean slates. Rather than focusing on what can’t be changed

from the past, let the focus be on making the best future. Some students will push
limits, but when they are in your presence, they should be getting the best and most
positive version of you

5.Be resourceful. Whether this means thinking outside of the box for procuring
supplies or adding a little DIY spin to what seemed to be an unattainable resource,
teachers can always seem to find a way to get it done.

6.Make learning active. Students are going to find more impactful takeaways from
doing rather than simply listening or viewing. Offer opportunities for students to be
actively engaged in their learning journeys.

7.Be an advocate. This is twofold. Teachers need to advocate for themselves and for
their students. This can involve advocating for supplies, services, training, etc.
 1o Best Practices of Highly Effective Teachers

8.Pursue lifelong learning. Staying up-to-date on movements and developments in the

field allows teachers to help students prepare for an ever-changing world. Pursuing
personal passions outside of education also benefits learners because teachers can
reflect on what it is like to be in the shoes of their students.

9.Encourage discussion. Through discussion, students are exposed to a variety of

opinions and ideas that may or may not be similar to their own. Classrooms offer a
perfect forum for teaching students to respect others and learn to share information,
agree, and disagree in a productive and nonthreatening fashion.

10.Keep a positive outlook. Don’t get caught up with the naysayers. When (not if) this
negative attitude trickles over to the students, it can have detrimental effects on the
learning environment as a whole. Be mindful and always remember that a adding a
positive spin to necessary or mundane tasks goes a long way.
To fix the problem, you have to go back to the beginning.

Step 1: Observe.
Resist the urge to jump in and stop the misbehavior right away. Instead, take a step back and
observe. Give yourself 30 seconds or more to upload into your memory the unwanted behavior
taking place.

Step 2: Stop the activity.

Stop the activity by signaling for your students’ attention. If they don’t give it to you right away,
then you know this is something else you have to work on. It’s important to your effectiveness as a
teacher to be able to get your students’ attention any time you need it.

Step 3: Wait.
Stand in one place and wait another 30 seconds. Let their misbehavior hang in the air and settle
before speaking. Let them feel the weight of it. Give your students an opportunity to understand
what they did wrong all on their own.
Step 4: Send them back.
After your pause, send your students back to their seats or ask them to clear their desks and put
their materials away. Refrain from lecturing or expressing disappointment. It may make you feel
better, but it doesn’t help. The focus now is on doing things the right way.

Step 5: Replay.
Model for your students the misbehavior you observed, showing how it wasted time and disrupted
learning. Modeling how not to behave is a powerful strategy that allows students to view—and
really understand—their actions from a different perspective.

Step 6: Reteach
Now model how the activity or transition should be done. If it was a transition, sit at a student’s
desk and go through the steps you expect your students to take whenever they transition from one
activity to another.
If it was during independent work, literature circles, centers, or whatever, model what you expect
during that particular activity.
Step 7: Practice.
Use the power of one strategy to begin practicing the activity with your class. After a few
students do it correctly, then get everyone involved. As soon as you’re happy with how they’re
performing, move on with your day.

Step 8: Prove it.

Within a day or two, give your students another opportunity to prove they can perform the same,
or similar, activity the correct way. When the activity is over, don’t make a big fuss, but be sure
and acknowledge the good work. “Now that’s how to do it!”

Step 9: Standardize.
As much as possible, standardize each activity and transition for your students. In other words,
they should know the routine for successfully conducting a pair-share activity or for turning in
homework or entering the classroom or anything else you do again and again.
Promote early literacy. Preschool children develop literacy skills in a social environment
through language-rich activities. Teachers should spend time each day reading books
aloud to their students, which helps with reading comprehension, letter recognition and
print awareness. In addition to this, teachers can host puppet shows and talk about
favorite books and stories. Preschool children can create journals to practice beginning
printing, such as writing their names, and fill other pages with drawings. Teachers should
also have a reading center where children can pick out picture books they enjoy and spend
quiet time perusing them.

Introduce numbers and mathematics. Preschool teachers can plan many activities that
teach the basic concepts of numbers and math. Manipulating and counting physical
objects like colored tiles helps students relate them to written numbers. Putting items
together and taking them apart is the foundation for learning addition and subtraction.
Building blocks teach children about shapes and spacial relations such as above, behind,
on top of, and so on. Make sure students can identify different shapes and why those
shapes are called particular names. Talk about patterns and predictions.
Teach science through observation. Teaching early science skills involves asking students
to observe the world around them. Children can use their senses to to describe the
properties of events and objects, such as what makes rain different from snow. Teachers
can have students classify objects according to their physical attributes such as size,
length, weight, and temperature. Preschool children are also able to test hypotheses by
experimenting, such as guessing what will happen when they combine two colors and
observing the result.

Creativity and art. Strategies that build a child’s imagination and creativity can also help
them learn colors and shapes as well as improve their motor skills. Creative processes
such as drawing, singing, or movement help children articulate experiences, express
emotions, and understand cause and effect. One of the best strategies is to have your
creative project complement the rest of the curriculum that week. This helps to tie
together everything a child has been learning, and connect the arts to education.