Category: Inspiration
Inspiration, tips and fun stuff
Planning and documentation in nature-based settings
Planning and documentation in nature-based settings Planning and documentation in nature-based settings are crucial if you want to embrace and support an emergent curriculum. But for many, the idea can bring up perceived barriers and challenges that can prevent you from moving forward with bringing nature and technology together. Dr. Claire Warden recently presented an online workshop that explored planning...
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...
Giving children authentic and specific praise and feedback
Do you often find yourself giving children feedback and hearing yourself use the same phrases many times a day? Do you often think your praise and acknowledgement sounds rehearsed, and non authentic? How does this make children feel about their work? Can you ever master the art of giving authentic and specific praise? Picture this…You have been working hard on...
OSHC – 5 benefits for children who attend out of school hours care
OSHC – 5 benefits for children who attend out of school hours care When children attend an OSHC service, they gain more than just exceptional care and supervision. Educators ensure children have a safe, stimulating and inclusive environment where their physical, social, emotional and educational needs can be met. They have opportunities to participate in activities that support their growth...
OSHC – More Than “Just” Care
OSHC – More Than “Just” Care With an increasing number of families working, studying or needing additional support, more and more 5-12-year-old children in Australia attend OSHC services for up to 5.5 hours per day. The positive impact these services have on children’s learning and development should not be overlooked. But there is a common misconception that children attend OSHC...
Setting professional goals in early childhood education
Setting Professional Goals in Early Childhood Education Teaching goals are slightly different from the usual ‘drink more water/walk more’ type of goals. Nowadays, there is a lot of advice about goal setting for early childhood professionals. Professional development goals for early childhood educators are deep, mindful, and have the potential to impact others around you as well as yourself. So,...
Learning in Nature – 5 Tips to Get You Started
Learning in Nature For young children, learning in nature can take place without an extensive collection of specific outdoor equipment and resources. In order for children to play and learn through nature play, they just need space, time and adults who are able to support them to take risks. When children have the opportunity to explore nature, they are able...
Building Trusting Relationships with Families
Building Trusting Relationships with Families 2020 and 2021 have presented us with many challenges, due to Covid-19. Although each of our challenges have been unique to our learning communities, there are some that are faced by many learning services all over the world. We caught up with Nicola and Dan from The Learning Enrichment Foundation in Toronto, to hear about...
Settling children back into your learning service after lockdown
Settling back into your learning service Having a strategy and procedures in place for transitioning children (and their families) back into your learning environment is of utmost importance right now. Many children will be straight back to business as if they had never been away. They may have had a great time, living their best lives at home in their...
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...