Top 18 Real-life Scenarios of Children in Classroom and Strategies Every Preschool Teacher Should Know

Scenario: During nap time, some children struggle to fall asleep. Some lie with wide-open eyes, restless throughout the afternoon; others lie feeling uncomfortable, kicking and crying, disrupting their classmates. How would you handle this without affecting other children?

Resolution 1:

• Establish a sleep routine from the first day.
• Tell stories in a soft voice to encourage children to listen quietly and fall asleep easily, or sing lullabies and pay attention to those having difficulty sleeping.
• If a child refuses to sleep, don't force them; instead, move them to another room for quiet activities like puzzles, drawing, or molding, while also communicating with parents to ensure the child gets enough sleep within a day.
  

Resolution 2: Have two children lie next to the teacher. For those who won't close their eyes, gently stroke their forehead near their eyes. They'll fall asleep quickly. For those who disturb their peers, hug them and pat their back until they fall asleep. Repeat this for 1-2 weeks until they get used to it. With two or more teachers, each can focus on one child.

Resolution 3: Place children who have difficulty sleeping in a row for easy management, and focus on calming the most restless child by gently stroking their forehead or telling stories. When one teacher sits with a child to help them sleep, the others will naturally quiet down and fall asleep too.

Scenario: During organized playtime, themed 'Arrange Cars as Gifts,' toddler Nam in the 18-24 month class doesn't arrange cars but instead arranges wooden blocks in a line. As the teacher conducting this activity, how would you handle this?

Solution:

• Approach the child, inquire about what they're arranging, and assist them in carrying out their idea.
• Create prompting situations to guide the child towards fulfilling the activity's requirements.
• If the child struggles, provide guidance.
  

Scenario: While teaching children about 'trees and their living environment' (aged 5-6), some children believe that regular watering is necessary for trees to survive, bloom, and produce results. Others disagree, citing their own experience with a banyan tree at home that survives without watering, blooms, but doesn't bear edible fruit. How would you address this?

Solution:

• Avoid rushing to conclude who is right or wrong. Schedule an afternoon activity for the children to conduct an experiment titled 'Do trees need water?'
• During the experiment, focus on selecting trees in the growth phase to yield faster results.
• Upon noticing leaf withering, pause the experiment and encourage children to compare the differences between a watered and non-watered tree.
• Allow children to draw their own conclusions, and explain to them: The banyan tree is drought-resistant and doesn't require frequent watering. However, if left without water for too long, especially during dry spells, it may still perish.
  

Scenario: During the large kindergarten's play corner activity, about 30 minutes have passed. In the construction corner, children have completed building the 'Kindergarten for Kids' structure. The teacher approaches, stops, and asks the children: 'Have you finished building?' The children reply: 'Yes, teacher, we have.' The teacher stands admiring the children's work for a moment before moving on to other tasks. The children in the play corner look at her and wait... If you were organizing that play session, how would you handle it?

Solution:

• The teacher engages in a conversation with the children about their construction project to grasp their play idea.
• The teacher and children discuss the construction project: layout, children's building skills, what the teacher appreciates, encourages, suggests for improvement, and guides the children to draw lessons from their experience.
• If there is still time, the teacher suggests asking if the children want to build something else to enhance the project or have any other construction play needs (depending on the topic's implementation time to provide suggestions), and the teacher prepares toys for the children to continue playing.

Scenario: During the structured play session (for children aged 18-24 months) with the theme 'Choose red-colored toys,' when the teacher asks, 'Children, please pick a red ribbon for me,' some children choose a green ribbon instead. Explain the situation above and state your approach.

Solution:

There could be 3 reasons:

• Children may not have paid attention to the teacher's request.
• Children may not recognize the color red.
• Children may enjoy defying the teacher's request.

Approach:

• The teacher approaches and asks the child holding the green ribbon to repeat the request or needs a red ribbon to compare.
• If the child cannot find it, the teacher assists the child in finding and repeats the color of the ribbon with the child until they find it.

Scenario: During free play time in the preschool class, Ngoc is holding a table (toy) pretending it's clothing for a doll. Meanwhile, Lien keeps flipping the doll over to dress and undress it (using the doll's existing outfit as the clothing). If you were the teacher organizing this playtime, how would you handle the situation?

Solution:

• The teacher prepares different sets of clothing for Ngoc to perform the action of clothing, or suggests that the child changes the doll's clothes for washing.
• The teacher talks to Ngoc to help them understand that when it's clothing, it needs to be taken off the body to avoid burns.
• If it's clothing for the doll, we need to change into different clothes, spread them out on a mat to dry, and then dress the doll...

Scenario: During the preschoolers' role-playing corner time, in the 'Children practicing as doctors' corner, Hoa is happily carrying a doll to Doctor Mai for examination. Hoa puts the doll in the patient's chair, while Doctor Mai is busy playing with the stethoscope, unaware that Hoa is waiting for an examination. After a while, Hoa stands up, looks back at Doctor Mai while walking away. Doctor Mai continues to play with the stethoscope, completely unaware...

Solution:

• The teacher role-plays as a patient coming for examination and invites Hoa to join.
• The teacher greets Doctor Mai and asks for a medical check-up. After the check-up, the teacher asks Doctor Mai what the diagnosis is, what medicine to take, etc. The teacher takes the medicine and thanks Doctor Mai, then bids farewell and takes the patient Hoa for examination.
• The teacher observes, if Hoa doesn't know how to communicate with Doctor Mai, the teacher guides Hoa to play the role of the patient to carry out the role-playing idea of being a 'patient's mom'

Scenario: While washing the face of a child aged 24 - 36 months, if a child is found to have eye pain, how should it be handled?

Solution:

• Leave that child and wash last. After finishing washing, use a separate basin for the child, wash with soap, boil water, then sun dry the face towel.
• The teacher washes hands thoroughly with soap, disinfects with alcohol to prevent infection spreading to other children.
• Use eye drops for the child's eyes and isolate them from other children.
• Coordinate with the family to discuss and take appropriate action (such as allowing the child to rest from school to prevent spreading to other children).

Scenario: During the corner activity, in the study corner, a group of children is looking at pictures of animals. Lan and Tuấn are arguing:

Lan says: Rabbits are animals that live in the forest.

Tuấn: That's wrong, rabbits are animals raised in families.

If you were the teacher organizing that activity, how would you handle it?

Solution:

• The teacher approaches the group of children, engages the children in the group including Lan and Tuấn in a discussion, and solicits opinions.
• The teacher accurately clarifies by explaining to the children: There are many rabbits living in the forest, foraging for food, finding shelter, without human care.
• But this rabbit is a forest-dwelling animal
• While rabbits raised by humans, fed, and housed are considered domestic animals.

Scenario: During nap time, some children are having trouble sleeping. Some lie with their eyes wide open, restless throughout the afternoon; others lie down but feel uncomfortable, poking their neighbor to make them cry out loud; some cry loudly and insist on going home to their mothers... How would you handle this situation without affecting other children?

Solution:

• Establish the habit for children right from the first nap time.
• The teacher tells stories softly to keep children orderly, quiet, and easily fall asleep, or sings lullabies and pays attention to children who have trouble sleeping.
• In case a child refuses to sleep, don't force them; instead, move them to another room for quiet activities like puzzles, drawing, or molding, and communicate with parents to ensure that the child gets enough sleep as required each day.

Scenario: At the preschool, during outdoor playtime, the teacher organizes activities for the children to play with sand and water. When the time is up, the teacher instructs the children to wash their hands and feet to transition to another activity. However, Hùng refuses to listen and continues playing with the sand. Explain the phenomenon. As the teacher organizing the activity, how would you handle this?

Handling:

Explanation: Manifestation of the stubbornness characteristic of the age of three. This is the time when the sense of self emerges. Children want to assert themselves. Especially, children really enjoy playing with sand, water, and soil, and have few opportunities to play, so when the teacher asks them to clean up, they do the opposite of what the teacher asks.

Solution:

• The teacher gently explains to the child that playtime is over and suggests another activity with many interesting toys and games (the teacher gives examples of activities available in the next session).
• Inform the child about the outdoor activity schedule for the week (or month) and let them know that if they want to continue playing, they can do so later (if such play content exists).
• If the child still refuses, the teacher allows them to continue playing and makes an appointment with the child that after washing hands and feet, they will be the last one to play, and the teacher and the child will compete to see who can wash cleaner...

Scenario: When discussing domesticated animals in the large kindergarten group, the teacher says: Roosters, hens, ducks, geese, and swans all have two wings, two legs, beaks, lay eggs, and are raised in households, so they are called poultry. Bình raises his hand and says: Teacher, roosters don't lay eggs. How would you handle this?

Handling: The teacher presents the child's question to the whole class (or group) for discussion, and the teacher clarifies: Animals with two wings, two legs, beaks, raised in households for meat, and eggs for human consumption are called poultry. Roosters do not lay eggs, but they also have two wings, two legs, beaks, raised in households for meat, so they are also poultry.

Scenario: On a chilly morning, Tâm's mother wraps a scarf around him to go to kindergarten, but he refuses. His mother persuades him: 'Just wear it to keep warm on the way, and when you get to class, I'll ask the teacher to take it off.' Tâm agrees to let his mother put on the scarf. Upon arrival, Tâm tells the teacher: 'I greet you. My mom told you to take off my scarf, just wear it for the road.' As a teacher, how would you handle this?

Handling:

• Greet the child and approach to adjust their hair, clothing.
• Compliment the child on how nice the scarf looks, explain to the child that it's very cold outside, and when it's sunny and warmer, the teacher will take it off for them. In winter, we need to wear scarves to keep our neck warm to avoid coughing, getting sick, and missing school or outdoor activities… then re-adjust the scarf for the child and suggest they join their friends to play.
• Communicate with the parents without lying to the child, need to be gentle and explain for the child to comply with the request or clearly state that when it's warmer, mom will ask the teacher to take off the scarf.

Scenario: While allowing children aged 24-36 months to observe an orange (fruit and vegetable theme), after discussing with the children to identify the characteristics and structure of the orange, the teacher allows the children to taste it to recognize the taste of the orange (the teacher uses a spoon to feed each child a piece). As the teacher is putting a piece of orange into the mouth of a girl, she asks, 'How does the orange taste?' Before the girl can answer, the boy next to her says, 'Sweet. It tastes sweet, teacher.' The teacher scolds: 'You haven't even eaten it, how would you know.' In your opinion, how should the teacher handle this situation to promote positive attitudes and ensure the principle of 'teaching to exploit children's experiences, avoiding imposition, rigidity, and mechanization'?

Resolution:

• The teacher praises the boy and asks how he knows. The teacher suggests that besides the sweet taste of the orange, what other flavors he knows.
• The teacher allows the boy to describe the structure, smell, and taste of the orange and reminds him to raise his hand when speaking, not to interrupt, and encourages him to actively participate in constructive speech.

Scenario: During the session to familiarize children with the surrounding environment (family theme), in the part of organizing reinforcement games: 'Arrange a model of family members' in order from the oldest to the youngest, some children have placed the grandmother first, then the grandfather, the older sister before the younger brother. Some other children object, claiming it's wrong. If you were the teacher organizing this game, how would you handle it?

Resolution:

• The teacher does not immediately conclude whether it's right or wrong. The teacher asks the child why they arranged it that way and lets the child explain. If the child cannot explain, the teacher can ask another child to help explain.
• If the child cannot explain, the teacher explains to the child: in reality, there are families where the grandmother is older than the grandfather, the older sister is younger than the younger brother... but the older sister is always older than the younger brother.

Scenario: During the session to get acquainted with some bird species (consolidation, expansion, and education section), the teacher outlines the characteristics, habitat, benefits.... And extends to let the children know that some bird species often migrate. A child asks: 'Why do birds migrate, teacher?' How would you handle it?

Resolution:

• Encourage children to discuss, express opinions, and observations about winter.
• During winter, what clothes do people usually wear? Let the children talk about their winter clothes (if it's winter, count how many pieces of clothing the child wears, and feel the weather on that day).
• Explain to the children that some bird species cannot tolerate the cold, so they usually migrate to avoid the cold (migrate during winter).
• Educate children to maintain personal hygiene, protect their health, and dress warmly when it's cold.

Scenario: When teaching children about some pets in the family (topic: animal world), Lam asks: 'Teacher! Why do cats wash their faces?' How would you explain to encourage children to actively explore and satisfy their curiosity?

Resolution:

• Explain to the children that cats are clean animals.
• Cats instinctively groom their fur by licking their abdomen, back...
• On their faces, cats lick their front paws then rub them on their faces like humans washing their faces...
• Educate children to maintain hygiene and care for their pets.

Scenario: While introducing children to literary works (teaching storytelling), the teacher is passionately telling a story when suddenly a child complains of stomachache and cries loudly. How would you handle the situation to maintain order in the class and not disrupt other classes while still caring for the distressed child?

Resolution:

• The teacher approaches the distressed child, carries the child, and informs the whole class about the situation and requests the class to follow the instructions of the class leader.
• The teacher assigns the class leader to have the class read poems, sing, or appoint classmates to sing, read poems.
• The teacher takes the child with a stomachache to the resting room or lays the child down and asks about what the child has eaten. The teacher may apply a warm compress and monitor the child's condition.
• If the child's condition worsens, the teacher asks the assistant teacher from the neighboring class to manage the class and takes the child to the school's medical room for proper and timely attention.