Inspiring Curiosity to Play: Creating Invitations and Provocations to Play! How do we create an environment that extends children's natural curiosity and interests in the classroom? How can we introduce new ideas, based on our observations and our understanding of possibilities for children? What activities can we do that promote play? Rooted in the emergent […]
What A Wonderful World! Culturally Diverse Practices in Child Care The world is full of adventure, possibilities and play! Our children and families come to us with different play experiences, backgrounds, traditions, cultures and values. Learning and understanding how children see culture is an important part of being a citizen in our communities. In this […]
Storytime Success: Building Relationships, Community and Memories Through Storytelling Creating memories while reading stories together is one of the most impactful experiences for young children. It sparks the imagination, builds literacy skills, and promotes a positive learning space. The biggest benefit for me... is the bond we create with children when we engage in storytelling. […]
Building Stronger Teams Together: Effective Team Communication in Early Childhood Programs Your team is the heart of your early childhood program. Strong teams build each other up, value each other's strengths and collaborate to reach goals. We establish professional friendships and learn and grow together. Building a strong team, though, takes time, intentionality and vision. […]
The Journey of Learning: Reflective Practices of an Early Childhood Professional One of the most impactful strategies I have learned as an early childhood educator is how to reflect on my practices. This is not something I did much of in my early years as an educator. After all, I was simply trying to survive […]
The Magic of Loose Parts: Promoting Play with Loose Parts Loose Parts! The possibilities are endless when we arrange loose parts (open-ended) materials for children to explore. Remember the possibilities of a cardboard box?! Was it a den? A spaceship? Or a 3D canvas to paint and draw on? The possibilities are endless! Join me […]
The Me, The You, The We: Facilitating Social Emotional Learning Feelings! Feelings! And more Feelings! The everyday struggle of identifying and understanding big emotions is a tough gig for young children. It’s all so hard! But with the right positive support and environment, children can thrive and build the skills required to manage these big […]
Playful Planning: Enriching your Emergent Curriculum Approach Playful learning experiences promote a sense of curiosity, exploration, and confidence, which are what we all strive to achieve when we plan for our early childhood environment and our children's experiences. One of the most popular and best approaches to achieve this is the emergent curriculum approach. This […]
Beautiful Oopsies: Exploring the Creativity of Open-Ended Art Experiences Creativity is intelligence having fun! Albert Einstein had it right with his quote on creativity. Children are natural artists, as all their masterpieces are a visual representation of how they see the world around them. Let us foster this self-expression through open-ended creative art experiences! For children, […]
Protectors of Play: Valuing the Pedagogy of Play Play. Playful Learning. Learning Through Play. Pedagogy of Play. These are just some of the terms we use to advocate for the importance of Play, not only in the early learning years but throughout our learning journey. For now, let's start with Play in the early years […]
