Blog

Creche / Day Care Teacher

My passion and love to work with children began after having my own children. When I Introduced educational play toys to my children this led me in the direction of becoming a Sales Rep distributing educational products. I then developed an ambition to train others on the importance of children’s educational development. This initiative then led me to open my own Daycare Centre.

After my qualification in Early Childhood Development, I established strong organisational and communicative skills. With a willing ability to teach children, this helped me possess the key character trait to become a Day Care Teacher. My fundamental responsibility focused on covering the health, safety, nutrition and development aspect in a child.

Daycare Teachers are the initial providers in early education for children. Working as a daycare teacher requires specific skills, duties and responsibilities.

Requirements & Skills

• Age Range of 18-60 years old.
• High School Matriculation
• Medical Clearance Certificate
• Trained and skilled in First Aid and CPR
• Completing / Completed a basic level training certification course in Early Childhood Development
• Patient and Loving nature
• High standard of cleanliness
• Ability to work in a team
• Understanding and ability to work with young children

Duties & Responsibilities

·      Love and care for children

·      Positive attitude towards children’s needs

·      Supervise and monitor the safety of children in their care

·      Care for children’s basic needs such as bathing, changing diapers, play, nap,

and meal times

·      Develop creative lesson plans, schedules and routines to ensure that children

have enough physical activity, rest, and playtime

·      Help children keep good hygiene

·      Organize fun and educational play activities to develop their physical, emotional,

intellectual and social development so that children can learn about the world and

explore interests

·      Watch for signs of emotional or developmental problems in children and bring

the problems to the attention of parents

·      Keep records of children’s progress, routines, and interest

·      Talk with parents and guardians about each child’s behaviour and growth.

Lesson Plan

Lesson plans must involve play to engage children and motivate them to learn. Teachers must be creative and understanding when working with children. Therefore, teachers must create and implement activities and lesson plans that simultaneously engage and educate children.

Ideas on Planning a Lesson

·      Follow a flexible daily schedule, bearing in mind that babies need more time

for meals and nap times. Each activity should not extend more than half an hour.

·      Babies get dropped off early, so breakfast should be the initial start to the day.

·      Circle Time after breakfast brings babies and toddlers together. Musical instruments

and singing is a great activity at this time.

·      Individual activities separate different age groups and helps stimulate brain growth.

Play mats with soft/hard reachable toys for babies and colouring sheets and colour/shape

cubes for toddlers.

·      Combined Story Time prepares babies and toddlers for nap time.

·      Sensory activity time to be monitored using safe balls, sponges, ribbons and

play dough for babies and beads, seeds, bean bags, Velcro, painting and water play for

toddlers.

·      Outdoor Time taking walks and using a stroller for babies.

·      Afternoon snack can be after nap time or after activity time.

·      Nap Time for babies and Quiet Time to keep toddlers occupied with using board

books, string art, puzzles, threading and blocks.

·      Floor Time allows babies to lie on their stomach to strengthen muscles. Floor Time

for toddlers using bikes, slides, tunnels and tents strengthens gross motor activities.

·      Music Time is great to end the day before baby and toddler reunites with their parents.

Classroom Preparation and Set Up

Some Day Care Facilities take responsibility for classroom preparation and set up. Check that all areas are neat and tidy, with big, bold, colourful charts displayed on walls at the different learning areas with mats, tables and chairs available for the children.

Ideas and Plans

·      Make sure children’s belongings from home are clearly marked, labelled and

stored separately

·      Children’s names are visible

·      Separate learning areas that is practical and workable, e.g., theme table, play mat,

blocks, art, fine motor, gross motor, sensory, books, drama, music, math

·      Designated table for snack/lunch time is available

·      Toilet facilities are easily accessible from the classroom

·      Safe sleeping area for nap time

·      Storage shelves for easy reach and packing away of the learning equipment

·      Shelves to display library books neatly

Time Management

Time management is a very important skill to have because it helps you prioritize your work. You can use this in the classroom to optimize learning opportunities for the children. With time management, it helps you get more things done in less time. This is essential if you want to maintain a classroom that runs on its own. Use your Daily Teaching Programme to prepare in advance and make sure all teaching equipment, materials and items are in readiness for the individual lessons in the day. Make sure these areas are ready and made available for the children.

Workable Tips

·      On arrival have some quiet play equipment available to quickly divert children

when separating them from parents

·      Have all teaching materials for each lesson plan on hand and at your reach when

needed

·      Use songs and rhymes taught during morning ring for lesson change time

·      Choose a reading book for Story Time and familiarise yourself on what the story is

about before hand