All posts by Sharon Carlson

Sharon's early years were supported at home by her Mum in Taranaki. She later became an ECE ICT facilitator for CORE Education, and then Storypark. Sharon has successfully supported the implementation of a diverse range of ICT products and services around the country and is helping make sure Storypark is awesome for teachers and children's development.

Community of Practice Guidelines

Community of Practice Guidelines Do you want to nurture the growth of your community, foster innovation, and support and share quality practice? A Community of Practice is a great way to network with like-minded professionals who share a concern or common passion.  Communicating and collaborating within a Community of Practice supports everyone in the community to be the best version...

/ November 9, 2022
educator reflecting on her work

Reflective Practice in Early Childhood Education

Reflective practice in early childhood education – growing as educators and learners Reflective practice in early childhood education has been described as a process of turning experience into learning. That is, of exploring experience in order to learn new things from it. Reflection involves taking the unprocessed, raw material of experience and engaging with it to make sense of what...

/ September 11, 2022
child using ipad with teacher

What is Storypark Child Mode?

What is Storypark Child Mode? If you are an iOS Educator App user, you now have the ability to safely record children’s reactions, voices, views and thoughts about their learning via audio or video using the new Storypark Child Mode feature! This exciting new feature enables you to capture not only children’s voices but their language, expression, intonation, emotions and...

/ August 23, 2021

10 tips for engaging and staying connected with families using Storypark during Covid-19

One of our Values at Storypark is Stronger together – We include, respect and generously support each other through the good and the bad. It takes a village. Simply put, Storypark brings families and educators together. We have 10 tips to help you use Storypark to engage and stay connected with families during COVID-19. Use the conversations or community post...

/ July 24, 2021

10 reasons why Storypark sets up educators with individual account logins

10 reasons why Storypark sets educators up with individual account logins  Storypark was created with the intention of educators having individual logins. We designed individual logins to support the following: Building an online professional relationship is paramount in this day and age. In Storypark this consists of a profile photo and name so parents, family and other educators can tell...

/ January 25, 2021
Child reading on couch

How to support children’s learning at home, through play

With more early childhood centres being closed around the world due to Covid-19, many parents are suddenly finding themselves in a ‘home-schooling’ situation. This sounds simple in theory, but the reality can be quite daunting. We want to help families navigate this, so our Education Team here at Storypark ‘virtually’ got together this week to provide some guidance and support...

/ March 31, 2020
Sorting shells

Learning at home – Music, creativity, loose parts & quiet time

These ideas from our education team will help get your children’s creativity flowing as well as some suggestions for relaxing, quieter experiences. Musical ideas Game: Statues, musical chairs or cushions Sing your welcome song together that you would sing at your early learning centre  Make your own musical instruments and create a song Clap and stamp to the beat  Make...

/ March 30, 2020
Child and adult baking

Learning at home – Everyday activities and dramatic play

Children learn best when engaged in fun and meaningful activities, and there are plenty of opportunities to be involved in this type of learning at home. Our team of educators have put together some ideas of experiences to do with children using everyday objects from home and inspiring imagination through role play. Cooking Recipes for play dough, slime, oobleck Process...

/ March 30, 2020
Making patterns in the garden

Outdoor learning: Outdoor adventures & using our senses

Some of the best learning can take place outdoors. We put together some ideas of activities you can do with your children that will help them use their senses and connect with nature. Outdoor adventures Gardening Discovering bugs – take photos and research them online Leaf and natural resource collection Vegetable or food garden, care for and record growth (track...

/ March 30, 2020
Boy mixing in pot

Learning at home – Literacy, math and science

It is a common misconception that children don’t learn math, science, language or literacy until they start at school. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth! Children practice and develop the foundations for these skills when they are very young, and the good news is, you don’t need any specific resources or activities to support this learning at home....

/ March 30, 2020