Tag: Learning Activities
12 Fabulous Picture Books Featuring Great Dads
Would you like to get your hands on some brilliant picture books featuring great fathers? Here’s a selection to look for in your local bookshop. Keys, by Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan (English version, Huia, 2014) Ngā Kī, by Sacha Cotter, translated by Kawata Teepa, illustrated by Josh Morgan (te reo Māori version, Huia, 2014) When you’re...
How to Teach Kids about Caring for the Environment
How can we support children to care for the environment? We’re brainstorming different ways an early childhood education centre could live its values out loud and make a big noise about these wonderful things we want our children to pick up on. Today we’re looking at caring for the environment, and we’d love to hear your ideas and tips in...
Values in action : Hospitality
Values need to be lived out loud I said at the start of this series on values in early childhood education: Children pick up on an awful lot without us saying it – they learn to talk, walk and jump without specific lessons, and they’ll pick up on lots of ‘the way we do things at our centre/in our family’...
Values In Action: Wisdom
Values need to be lived out loud I said at the start of this series on values in early childhood education: “Children pick up on an awful lot without us saying it – they learn to talk, walk and jump without specific lessons, and they’ll pick up on lots of ‘the way we do things at our centre/in our family’...
Values need to be lived out loud
Children pick up on an awful lot without us saying it – they learn to talk, walk and jump without specific lessons, and they’ll pick up on lots of ‘the way we do things at our centre/in our family’ unconsciously. But for some things, especially in the area of values, virtues, and character development, it’s necessary for us to live them...
Finding Common Ground
Finding Common Ground with Families from Different Religious Backgrounds Human beings are more alike than we are different, right? We all need food, rest, love, and laughter, as every early childhood teacher knows well. The good news, when considering how to cater for families from different religious backgrounds, is that the same principle applies. To a very large extent, all...
Dear Zoo – extending children’s interests is different to extending learning
A child would come to my Kinder room on a Monday morning and be very excited to share their stories about their trip to the Zoo on the weekend. So as a graduate teacher 6 years ago, I was so proud of my efforts in setting up a table with beautiful fabric, a range of animals, and some construction materials...
Enhancing Risky Play – Our Little Secret!
A guest post by Shannon Keane, with the support of the team at YMCA Early Learning Centre Manurewa – Awhina Taiohi. In 2016 YMCA Early Learning Centre Manurewa embarked on a journey to engage parents & children in a consultation process around risky play. This is their story… Change was coming with health and safety policy changes in New Zealand. ...
How imaginative play helps children learn
Many of the memories I have of my childhood include my two older sisters, who are close in age to me, and we played together often. On weekends and school holidays we would distract ourselves for hours, often outside on the small farm we grew up on – climbing old water tanks or spending hours in the cattle yards, pretending...
Art explorations for early learners
Art is often about the process, rather than the product – which is particularly important to remember when doing art activities with young children. As early childhood educators, we’re all familiar with the idea that if the end products all look identical, there probably hasn’t been much learning, creativity or imagination taking place. Pre K + K Sharing put it...