I want them to be excited to come to school:

We all want children to come to school brimming with excitement and enthusiasm for a day of learning. Is that just a dream? Nope, all we got to do is motivate them to learn.

There are many kinds of motivation. We want children to be motivated to learn. We want them to get excited and interested. How do you get them actively involved in their learning and interested in learning more?

Get children motivated now to learn:

It starts with the teacher and family.

How excited are you about a new topic or lesson learned? Are you giving off a burst of enthusiasm? Children will know if you are faking it! Make sure you are excited and interested in the topic you are teaching. When children feel your excitement, their interests mounts.

Mmm I wonder why Ms. Ling is so excited to teach this..I want to find out!

As a mom or teacher you should be willing to extend their learning. Heard they are learning about plants? Buy some plants. Having something tangible and hands on helps the children relate to what they are learning thus creating interest.

When learning about metamorphosis, bring in some caterpillars to the classroom. Allow the children to experience what you are teaching, give them the opportunity to watch the ” great big change”.

Let children lead, do their own research. This makes them own their work and makes them interested in learning and reading more.

Creating projects and allowing the children to choose their own theme.

Praise and compliment the children on their effort and findings.

Live and breathe what you are learning- bring in things from home, talk about the topic constantly and make it real, and tangible for them.

A motivated classroom:

Lea just taught her class all about the many different kinds of leaves and colors. In order for the children to feel a part of the lesson, she took them out on a Fall walk to experience the crunching sounds of leaves. They then collected leaves to bring into their classroom to further examine them. They read relevant books and tried to match the actual leaves to pictures in the books.

Lea had many tools handy to further their learning such as magnifying glasses and kid friendly pliers. In addition, the children were able to take home some of the leaves to share what they had learned with their family. Lea encouraged children to bring in leaves from their garden at home and see the different kinds of trees in each neighborhood.

The children were fully immersed in this unit of study that when Lea met one of the parents, He told Lea ” My maple tree is doing great and is producing many leaves that you can have for the next years class!”

Yes! Getting children excited and motivated to learn may take the whole family involvement! Yet the motivation is priceless, it can lead to many wonderful lessons remembered!