50 Best Ways To Use Craft Sticks For Learning in Early Childhood | you clever monkey
In her just-released book, “The Importance of Being Little: What Preschoolers Really Need from Grownups” (Viking), noted early childhood educator and Silliman College associate master Erika Christakis argues that most of today’s youngest schoolchildren are spending their critical early-learning years in environments that ignore or misunderstand their needs.
First published July 2011. Updated 2018. I’m going to sound a bit like a textbook right now. I’m sorry. Bear with me. You’ll be glad you did…I hope. :) I was taught in my early childhood courses that there are 6 domains of early childhood development. I say there are 7, but we’ll get...
Infants and young children cannot always tell us that they are upset or explain what is worrying them. So it helps to know about the way they send messages, or their cues. These can be different for different children but there are some common ones to look out for. Changes in behaviour are often the […]
The importance of early childhood development should not be underestimated. The effects of learning in the early years are life-long.
Look, listen, touch, taste and smell are often taken for granted. Yet these senses are pivotal to learning complex tasks. Sensory play helps children to build skills in cognitive growth.
Are you having a challenging time with your toddler? Here are 10 phrases that work like magic when your toddler doesn't listen to you.
Here are the five aspects of holistic development in early childhood and some easy examples of holistic activities for kids.
The Outdoor Classroom Provocations & Beautiful Materials Take a moment and picture this … Jake and Ian rush down the sidewalk racing yellow trucks. Elise relaxingly swings in the shady […]
Playtime is More Than a Fun Activity, It's a Learning Experience! Learn About the 6 Stages in Play Development That Build Your Child's Social Skills!
Early Childhood Educators TEACH and CARE Printable Poster for child care provider appreciation or to print and display in your early childhood education classroom.
When you enter into the world of Early Childhood Education it’s no doubt just about play and teaching! Educator’s alike would agree that observing and documenting children’s learn…
Cause and effect toys are fun, engaging and challenging. Some examples of cause and effect toys are toys with buttons, musical toys and pop
As an ECE teacher I constantly trolled teaching websites, Pinterest and Facebook looking for advice and activities. I gathered nearly 100 online resources.
Learn how to teach children self-control the right way with this collection of fun yet powerful self-regulation strategies and activities for kids!
Our homemade treehouse that is great for exercise and creative play in kids with monkey bars, a climbing wall, a rope, a slide, zip line and slack line.
Children aged three to five don’t need to do formal academic assignments in early childhood education to hit their milestones.
In order to thrive, children need to play. Learning through play is central to child development. Find out why it is so crucial during early childhood.
See Sections below for different types of resources including general resources, 5 ways to... resources, benefits of... resources, self assessment prompts and critical reflection prompts. Aligning NQS with the EYLF v2.0Download PDF Sleep and Rest Risk AssessmentDownload WORD Sleep and Rest Risk AssessmentDownload Aligning NQS with MTOP v2.0Download Infographics environment agencyDownload compliance in formsDownload study
Learn how to teach children self-control the right way with this collection of fun yet powerful self-regulation strategies and activities for kids!
Free printables from Things to Share & Remember for early childhood education. Find quick and easy printables you can print to use in your preschool.
Image 4 of 30 from gallery of Playful Roaming Nursery / Philippe Gibert Architecte. Photograph by Sergio Grazia
Early childhood is a time of tremendous brain development. Discover the secrets to raising children with healthy and optimal brain growth.
When we discovered the warm and inviting classroom of Lisa and Nathaniel Santa Cruz, we instantly fell in love. Wondergarten is a Waldorf-inspired in-home preschool that seeks to enrich the lives of children with goodness & beauty. At Bella Luna Toys, one of our missions has always been to share the beauty of Waldorf education. The rare glimpse into the classroom that Lisa & Nathaniel share each day on Instagram does just that, and in such a lovely way. Let's take a journey through their day! Morning Playtime When children first arrive at Wondergarten, they have the option of playing with a variety of natural toys, play dough, beeswax crayons, blocks, books, and other essential Waldorf toys. According to Lisa, “Morning playtime is an essential part of our program, as it provides children with the opportunity to develop their imaginations, relationships, and problem-solving skills through creative, free play.” After a morning of playtime, the children transition by cleaning up and preparing for the daily ritual of circle time by singing Ring around the Rosie. Circle Time In Waldorf schools, circle time is a special time to celebrate the season with stories, songs, and creative movement. Each school puts their own spin on this special time and at Wondergarten, they add piano and guitar and dancing as they introduce their story of the week. After this joyful movement and song, the children transition to lesson time. Lesson Time The main lesson of the day typically fits one of three rotating activities; life skills, baking, or creative arts. According to Lisa, “lesson time and the development of life skills help children feel a sense of belonging, responsibility, and accomplishment as they contribute to various life-based activities.” From baking bread to wet on wet painting, each activity is directly tied to the season and helps foster community. Snack Time After cleaning up together and preparing the table, the children gather for snack time, which according to Lisa “is a delicious and nourishing part of our day.” As they eat, Nathaniel’s “Gnomes of Wondergarten” stories are told aloud, accompanied by engaging visuals and puppetry. As children finish their snacks, they wash and dry their dishes, put them back on the shelf, and get ready to go outside. Outdoor Playtime “Outdoor playtime is a highlight of our day, and we spend at least an hour outside each day, rain or shine, to build resilient bodies and a strong connection to the natural world.” Once outside, children play and work in the garden, run and play in the field, create muddy and treasure-filled concoctions in the mud kitchen, and love “collecting buckets of water and dumping them into ditches they've dug in the playscape to create lakes and rivers.” Wondergarten has even created a track where children can ride trikes “in little caravans, playing out stories of trains and fire trucks.” After a full day of play, nourishing food, fresh air, and gentle learning parents pick up their children from outside, and the day comes to a close. We are so glad to see Wondergarten open up their beautiful enviornment to share more about Waldorf education with the public. It is a beautifully peaceful way for children to learn and grow. To see more, follow Wondergarten on Instagram @wondergarten_earlychildhood or visit their website here: Wondergarten.net At Bella Luna Toys, we love to share the wonder of Waldorf education and how it can be incorporated into play. We are so thrilled to watch Wondergarten flourish and share their knowledge of Waldorf learning with a wide audience. Follow along as we share more on Instagram @bellalunatoys and don't forget to share your play and childhood magic using the hashtag #bellalunatoys.
See Sections below for different types of resources including general resources, 5 ways to... resources, benefits of... resources, self assessment prompts and critical reflection prompts. Aligning NQS with the EYLF v2.0Download PDF Sleep and Rest Risk AssessmentDownload WORD Sleep and Rest Risk AssessmentDownload Aligning NQS with MTOP v2.0Download Infographics environment agencyDownload compliance in formsDownload study
In order to thrive, children need to play. Learning through play is central to child development. Find out why it is so crucial during early childhood.
When you enter into the world of Early Childhood Education it’s no doubt just about play and teaching! Educator’s alike would agree that observing and documenting children’s learn…
Do you know how my 5th grade teacher taught us the planets? She sang it to us. When her former students would come back and visit, she would always ask if they remembered the order of the planets. And they’d all end up singing it back to her. Imagine these big high school juniors and seniors singing
I loved reading Sandra Smidt's book, An ABC of Early Childhood Education: A Guide to some of the Key Issues. It's so wonderfully laid out and easy to read. It's based on research but written so that anyone can understand it with lots of stories and anecdotes to keep you glued to the page. Here
As Early Childhood Educators would agree, observing and documenting children’s learning and development makes up a large part of the job. Too much paper work and documentation is one complain…
Welcome to my pre-k classroom tour! Classroom spaces and and arrangements are so very important and especially in the early childhood years! Defined areas for learning centers allow for students to be gravitated to new provocations and it also helps them know where to return materials properly. I love to create inviting center areas that are already set up for play! It gives students kind of an invitation to play and a few ideas about how to get started. The center learning areas I have are: blocks, pretend, discovery, reading, abc's, art, ipads, math, sensory, puzzles, & light table. Sometimes I don't have the centers open all at one time. For example, at the very beginning of the school year blocks and pretend centers are open. Students learn to be responsible in that center and then a new center is open/added every couple of days. I also like to incorporate the topic we are studying into all the centers. Currently, we are learning all about the season of spring! There are so many seasonal concepts students are interested in. We are exploring insects, spiders, butterflies, and gardens! We are also learning new art techniques with our Andy Warhol bee prints and learning about garden artist, Claude Monet! First stop, our morning board area! Here we have our word wall which has our alphabet circle letters (purchase here!), sorted student names, environmental print from our community, and post-it note student drawings of vegetables we have been learning about! We also have our Smartboard, Wish You Well Board, and other carpet/circle time supplies. Here is our newly arranged blocks center! This is a new classroom and I finally came up with a solution of where I wanted our blocks center to relocate. For a few years I have had it open to the group carpet area. It allowed for students to have a lot of room to build...but when it was time to clean up (and even if I gave the blocks group a head start) ..students were waiting to sit because of the blocks on the floor. So during winter break I revised the room layout a little bit which allowed for a new reading area, separate blocks area, and larger discovery area. It is working quite well! I am trying to stay with a more natural theme this year.. I purchased the two burlap canvases (above shelf) at Hobby Lobby and they display photos from our buildings study and photos of our observation of a hobby farm construction. The carpet is from IKEA and I like how they colors and design are a bit toned down? ..unlike a regular primary colored transportation rug. I was also attracted to this rug because it features a castle (for fairy tale unit), an igloo (for winter unit), and neighborhood buildings. We were studying community, construction, and maps when the rug arrived so it tied in nicely! The mirror is actually a pretend dress up clothes cabinet that I flipped over. It makes the center appear larger and students can view their constructions from a variety of angles! The blocks always stay in the center but I rotate extras with the current topic of study throughout the year! The "extras" include road signs, cars, construction vehicles, flowers, stuffed animals, plastic toys, people...whatever fits the theme. The blocks center also includes baskets for storage and clipboards. We practice drawing out our "construction plans" on the clip boards and students also like to copy the vocabulary posted. Our newly expanded discovery area! I have a large wooden spool/table and 2 wicker Ikea chairs that I hope to add in soon. The discovery center is all about investigation & finding out! Students explore weight differences, measuring, size ordering, textures, etc. The discovery center permanently houses science tools like a microscope, tongs, tweezers, pan balance, scales, binoculars, and magnifying glass. The center also has baskets for storage, clip boards for observation drawing & writing vocab, pencils, sensory bottles, plants, and vocabulary. In our discovery are we also have informational picture books on insects and gardens, seed activities, a butterfly observation basket, During our spring unit of study the center holds: The Very Hungry Caterpillar butterfly life cycle cards, plants, mini pretend nature doll house, seeds & seed packets, real butterfly wings, and a basket of textures. Here is an example of another unit of study in our discovery area. This photo is from our summer ocean unit from last year. Items can easily be switched out and easily rotated to fit any theme! This is a photo of our spring math center that contains insect books (that focus on counting & time), folder games, a Hungry Caterpillar roll, count, draw game, a Hungry Caterpillar graphing game, chick eggs number match up, sensory numbers, and a few other spring themed math games. I love using trays for center games with little cups on the trays. Trays help students be ready to play with easy setup and easy clean up! Before we play in new centers for the new topic of study we ALWAYS have a class circle time meeting about center procedures. We go through how to play every game (teacher and students model) and how to clean it up! This is so very important and helps center time to run much more smoothly and students learn practical life skills. Our new reading area! It contains a Hungry Caterpillar felt board for story retelling and sequencing, Hungry Caterpillar sequencing cards, pillows from Hobby Lobby, rug from Ross, two wicker Ikea children's chairs, insect puppets, books about gardens and insects, and also spring themed QR codes that lead to stories on the ipad. Our sensory tub is filled with flowers, magnet numbers, green and pink pots for patterning, gardening gloves, gardening tools, and watering cans. It also has mini vocab. cards that I laminated and then taped to the side. Sensory is such a fun center and quite popular too! There are hundreds of sensory ideas on Pinterest. I store sensory materials in large plastic bags in a tub. I like to sprinkle in plastic magnet numbers and letters and also post vocab on the outside of the tub. Tweezers, tongs, chopsticks, and shovels can be added to help with fine motor! This is our ABC center which now features Hungry Caterpillar word cards, Eric Carle stories, rhyming cames, and alphabet matching games. I have my writing center and ABC games combined this year and we call the whole center ABC center. The writing supplies are located next to this shelf and contain whiteboards, a variety of writing utensils, paper, and wikki stix. The ABC center games can include: letter matching games, letter bingo, alphabet beading, letter i spy sensory bottles, letter formations sticks, letter tracing, etc. Our spring pretend center filled with farmer's market items such as flowers, pots, seed packets, and vegetables! We incorporated literacy into this center by having gardening books, seed packets, an open/closed sign, and vocabulary displayed. Pretend is such an important center to have for students to explore community roles, practice life skills, and just experience "play." This is just a glimpse of all the fun and exciting things going on in our classroom for spring! Thanks for stopping by to check out our classroom! Only a few more months till school is out, then summer, and back to fall again!
Simple toddler activity ideas that promote learning.
Children move through predictable stages of drawing during their development. Here are the stages and characteristics, listed by age.
When you enter into the world of Early Childhood Education it’s no doubt just about play and teaching! Educator’s alike would agree that observing and documenting children’s learn…
Create a story basket full of storytelling props to retell favourite fairy tales together in a playful way! So easy to set up with items from around the house and beneficial for so many strands of early literacy development. As part of our on-going Playful Storytelling series, co-hosted with the gorgeous blog, One Perfect Day,...Read More »
First published July 2011. Updated 2018. I’m going to sound a bit like a textbook right now. I’m sorry. Bear with me. You’ll be glad you did…I hope. :) I was taught in my early childhood courses that there are 6 domains of early childhood development. I say there are 7, but we’ll get...
CHCECE010 Holistic Development of Children In Early Childhood-Open Colleges Australia assignment is to prepare a set of child development charts that summarise major achivement under each developmental area for children
Learning through play is not an added bonus, it is the most important type of learning for young children.
I loved reading Sandra Smidt's book, An ABC of Early Childhood Education: A Guide to some of the Key Issues. It's so wonderfully laid out and easy to read. It's based on research but written so that anyone can understand it with lots of stories and anecdotes to keep you glued to the page. Here
Children love playing with blocks and building new creations with them! Check out these 8 reasons your child should play with blocks often!
The importance of early childhood development should not be underestimated. The effects of learning in the early years are life-long.
