A Beautiful Cacophony

The Everyday Ece

Each year our school does an arts exhibition. The halls are covered with art pieces made by the children. It is a gallery. Each class puts on their best work. Some of our classes went all out. They created special arts activities and displays for it. I have to admit that we did as well. We created quite a bit though. We put out a showcase of things we were already working on. This week was more of a cacophony to me than any other. It was sudden, harsh, and (at times) brutal changes and amounts of work that  occurred all week. It seemed to be a lot of starts and stops. The moment that brought it all together was when one child came back for the arts night with her family (she made me realized why I put in all the work that I do). She breezed past each…

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Read – alongs Help Children with Reading

lclibrarykids

Learning to read begins with early literacy practices; talking, singing, reading, writing, and playing with your child. Reading with your child one on one is essential but for those times your child wants to read on their own you can use read-along books. The picture book comes with a CD so your child can read along with the CD as it tells the story. Your child will learn to recognize the written word while listening to the spoken words. These books are also great on car trips. Your child is entertained and learning to read while traveling.

The Main Library and Emerson Miller Library have a large assortment of read-along book/cd combos in easy to carry bags. All you need is a CD player to listen to the picture books and fun nonfiction titles. Check out a few titles today!

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Displaying children’s concept books in a public library

Lindsay Delaney

SABLE‘s Early Childhood Services is a self-paced module through Idaho Commission for Libraries. Last year, I completed the Alternative Basic Library Education. Now, I am working my way through a supplemental track: Early Childhood Services.

I love that there are so many types of children’s book collections and displays. Big books, picture books, graphic novels, Oregon Battle of the Books…

The new non-fiction book display might be my favorite. How else would I have learned about The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee or Starting From Scratch?

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A coherent pre to post policy

You may have seen some media coverage earlier this week about early years learning and how children as young as two could benefit from structured play based learning as part of a pre to post school continuum. I’m not talking about putting two year olds in traditional classroom settings, sitting silently at desks listening to the teacher talk (that’s not our idea of quality schooling anyway). I’m talking about authentic play based learning experiences for toddlers that include age-appropriate activities like singing, dancing and even learning to play an instrument or language.

It’s about rethinking the entire pre to post school structure, to create a more aligned and coherent schooling framework.

Last week, business leader Catherine Livingstone called for a ‘philosophical change’ in the way we think about education, noting that the traditional separation between schooling and work is no longer relevant for today’s world. Increasing numbers of educators…

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A Child’s Garden of Verses – Robert Louis Stevenson

SilentPhotoplay

Happy Thought

The world is so full of a number of things,

I’m sure we should all be happy as kings.

Robert Louis Stevenson

I have a little book published by Rand McNally & Company in 1943 of Robert Louis Stevenson‘s A Child’s Garden of Verses, which is what we will be talking about today! My copy has no back cover; it was ripped off long ago, I suppose.

Inside is the inscription, ‘To Glover from Mother, Daddy Xmas ’43’. There was a nice man from my church named Glover Robinson who passed away, and somehow this book went into an auction my church was holding. I’m so glad to have this as part of my collection, knowing this was his. It also has lots of pretty pictures inside!

This one conjures images of times when we stayed home sick, playing with our toys if we felt better…

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The State of Preschool 2014

Preschool Matters... Today!

NIEER released the State of Preschool 2014 today. State pre-K programs may have turned a corner in 2013-2014, but progress remains slow. If pre-K is to be made available to even all children under 200 percent of the poverty level within the next 20 years, state investments will have to grow at a much faster pace. At the 2013-2014 growth rate it would take about 75 years for states to reach 50 percent enrollment at age 4 and 150 years to reach 70 percent enrollment. Even a return to the average rate of growth since 2001-2002 would leave the nation 25 years away from enrolling 50 percent of 4-year-olds in state funded pre-K.

States should set goals to increase enrollment much more rapidly than has been the case in the past, while raising quality standards and providing funding at the level needed to support those standards. Every state is capable…

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Teacher Feature: Kindergarten Classroom Explores Sol LeWitt

It’s Teacher Feature Thursday!

This week we are featuring Rebecca Adams. Rebecca is the Arts Enrichment Educator for kindergarten and has been working on a large mural with the children for the classroom. For inspiration, she decided to spend a day learning about Sol LeWitt. Below you will find a reflection from Rebecca and images from her lesson.

What were your topics of exploration?

We used the wall drawings of Sol LeWitt to explore the collaborative nature of large-scale artwork, and how using teamwork leads to a successful experience of the creative process in addition to an eye-popping product. This was also a technical exercise in one approach to handling a new medium (professional grade acrylic paint and medium on heavy weight watercolor paper) that mimics the skill set we will employ in painting the classroom mural. The limited palette and ‘hard line’ approach refine (fine motor) brush control and prepares participants to use…

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Decisions, Decisions

bright spot parenting

Every parent has a parenting albatross.  That thing about parenting which feels stressful, overwhelming, maybe even burdensome.  Years ago, I remember hearing that air traffic controller is one of the most stressful jobs, not just because you have passengers lives in your hands, but also due to the sheer number of decisions that must be made in a single shift.  Making all of those decisions can practically overload one’s capacity to think clearly.  I thought to myself, “I totally get that!”

One of the most surprising aspects of parenting for me has been the sheer number of seemingly never-ending decisions that must be made.  At every stage, there are daily decisions; many of which are inconsequential, but can still feel overwhelming simply due to volume.  Some weigh a little more heavily – daycare or preschool decisions, for example.  Then there are discipline decisions, nutrition decisions, decisions about culture and traditions, financial decisions, public school, private…

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How to Teach Reading to Children with Special Needs

The number of facts are so useful, to be a good teacher. #nicepost #Learn and play school

Shari Duddy - How to Be A Teacher

Reading is perhaps the most important skill a child can learn in school. Without the ability to read, a child will flounder in his studies throughout his entire education, being perpetually left behind. Naturally, if this continues into adulthood, the challenges become even more overt and impeding, often leaving an individual with very little means of even making a living, let alone achieving his potential. This is why special education teachers in New Jersey like Shari Duddy stress the necessity of using the most ideal and effective strategies when teaching children with special needs not only to read, but to fully comprehend what they’re reading. Following is information from special needs educators regarding teaching reading to children who possess special needs.

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How to Improve Eating Behaviour during Early Childhood.

Thanks, it’s really useful for children’s health. eating behavior is must to be improve.

#Early Childhood Education

Child Mental Health Horizon Scanning

Source: Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr. 2015 Mar;18(1):1-9.

Follow this link for fulltext

Date of publication: March 2015

Publication type: Journal article

In a nutshell:  The aim of this review is to clarify terminology of eating behaviour problems during early childhood; including benign picky eating, limited diets, sensory food aversion, selective eating, food avoidance emotional disorder, pervasive refusal syndrome, tactile defensiveness, functional dysphagia, neophobia and toddler anorexia.

Some important notes: In case you experience difficulty obtaining this article,  please ask your local health librarian to locate this for you.

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