A great book I recommend for early education professionals to read is “Literacy Beginnings” by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene C. Fountas. Fountas and Pinnell are well respected educators who have published various books about literacy learning. This book is focused on literacy experiences in the preschool classroom; and as such, can be used as a professional development guide for teachers who want to
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After learning about the concept of an edcamp training during a course I am taking at the University of Saint Joseph; I knew this was something I wanted to organize for preschool teachers and staff in my local area. I put together the following educational video (below) to explain the idea of an edcamp; and how I applied the model to deliver a professional
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For programs who shut down over the summer or for those who run a summer camp program, it’s somewhat bittersweet to return to school in the fall. For me, it is always sad to see summer come to a close, but there is also something exciting about a new school year starting. Here are some things that I look forward to as a new
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I was inspired by the textured clothespin idea from Teach Preschool, so we used some other materials to make some textured clothespins of our own! Using these around the preschool classroom is a fun sensory experience and wonderful for fine motor skill development. You could use almost any type of collage materials that you can find (buttons, googly eyes, pom poms, beads, foam shapes) and
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I saw these adorable snowman treats on The Amazing Mess blog – so I made a bunch for myself and bagged them up as small gifts. But then I thought – this was so easy and fun … the kids would LOVE this! And even though making these are fun (and tasty) – there were other ways to extend this activity so that the children learn
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Caring for a small pet, such as a fish or reptile, can provide young children with the opportunity to learn more about animals firsthand. As preschool teachers, we know that young children are engaged and learn best by DOING. We can certainly teach about animals through books and pictures … but how much MORE will they learn when they can actually interact with one.
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A couple of Fridays ago, I was invited to attend a training for Educational Consultants on the Connecticut Early Learning and Development Standards (CT ELDS). As our state continues to encourage programs to use these standards, it is my job as a consultant to support programs when and where needed. During our 6 hour training, great conversations around early education, teacher responsibility, and child
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If you are lucky enough to live somewhere with winter weather – you can bring the outdoor in for a little snow day fun! Painting with (and ON) snow is a fun way to let children explore concepts of color mixing and the scientific properties of snow. First, we scooped up a small bucket of clean snow and brought it inside (if you scoop
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At this time of year, children get excited about all the holidays coming up. It is important to take some time before and during Thanksgiving to talk to young children about their blessings … what they have to be thankful for. Many children can easily talk about all the things they would like to have or “want” … but how about talking about how grateful they
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As we continue to enjoy the Fall season, we have explored pumpkins in our classrooms in many ways! We’ve opened them up, scooped them out, counted the seeds and made delicious pumpkin treats! I talked about some ideas in the “Learning about apples and pumpkins” post … but here are a few other ideas for ways to play and learn with pumpkins in
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