Kelly Petrin is a preschool teacher in Portland, Oregon. She also teaches as an adjuct instructor at Lewis and Clark College.
Kelly Petrin finds animal backpacks are a wonderful tool for building literacy skills in young learners, as well as the home/school connection.
Kelly Petrin reflects on what she values most in the final days with children in her preschool program, and what she shares with parents.
Kelly Petrin meditates on the importance of trust and patience when looking for ways to connect with preschoolers.
Kelly Petrin reinvents a pumpkin decorating project with her preschoolers to help them build storytelling skills.
Kelly Petrin finds a bare classroom at the end of the year leads her to improvise with stuffed animals and literacy with her preschool students. The mix of play and reading is so successful that it changes her planning for the fall.
Are you spread too thin? Kelly Petrin uses the acronym SPREAD to remind herself regularly of what she needs to lead a balanced and joyful professional and personal life.
Kelly Petrin shares the power of response journals with preschoolers.
Kelly Petrin guides Drew from playing to drawing and finally writing during this conference in her preschool classroom.
This five-minute video from Kelly Petrin's preschool classroom shows the value of book browsing time. Kelly explains the skills children develop in language, book handling skills, and literacy independence during this time.
Kelly Petrin and Ruth Shagoury connect globes and children's literature with a map theme to inspire young children to write more and include visual representations in their drafts. While the examples are from a Head Start classroom, the booklist and activities are appropriate for any K-2 students.
Kelly Petrin’s meditation phrase for the day—Do not fret; it only leads to evil—guides her through a home visit with a parent who worries about her daughter’s literacy skills. This is a terrific short read for thinking through how to make encounters with parents less stressful.
Sometimes it takes a village to help a preschooler feel a part of the group, especially one who cries almost all the time. Kelly Petrin finds her young students have more empathy and resiliency than she imagined when she enlists their support.