Engaging families and building partnerships with parents: How does your program score?
Parents are key to program success. But how do you engage them? How do you help to build family capacity?
Engaging Parents, Developing Leaders is a tool for schools and non-profits. You can use it to assess how well your program is doing, and to get ideas on how to improve!
Video: Identifying Feelings
Through a read aloud, Jennifer Hawkins has her students identify and describe the feelings of fictional characters. Jennifer reads the book
No David and asks her students to hold up face puppets that show the emotions of the characters in the book.
Watch how this lesson helps students to develop empathy!
Burnout – Are You at Risk?
Working with immigrant and refugee children and families can be incredibly rewarding, but we shouldn’t ignore the toll it can take on the physical and emotional lives of Care for Newcomer Children (CNC) staff.
This toll can lead to burnout - a common side effect for those working in the helping professions.
The good news is that it can be prevented if you know what to watch for. Click
here for more...
Helping young children rebound after traumatic experiences
Helping Children Rebound was developed to help early childhood educators support children after the trauma of natural disasters, but the books are full of great information on how
infants and toddlers, and
preschool children are impacted by traumatic events of all kinds. The books also provide hands-on tips and strategies that you can use to support young children's recovery and development in your program.
Bundle Up and Get Outside: Why is Outdoor Play Important in Winter?
In the winter weather, play is often limited to the indoors - especially for newcomer children! Adult fears about safety and negative attitudes towards the cold are often a barrier. But outdoor play shouldn't be restricted to warm weather - try these
ideas to welcome the winter with a playful attitude!
‘Healing after trauma is possible for both children and adults’
Syrian refugees coming to Hamilton carry little when they arrive, but one thing many will carry is emotional and mental scars from the war zone they fled. The intensity of trauma is affected by many things: "The longer you're exposed, the more kinds of traumatic experiences you're exposed to and the age and stage of development of that child, that's going to have different effects on different kids," explained Smith. However, she adds: "When the right help is there and regardless of how long it takes, healing is possible after trauma for kids as well as adults."
Read more...
Online Learning Opportunities in Early Childhood Education
If you are looking for ways to upgrade your skills in early childhood education, this is a good place to start! The
Canadian Child Care Federation has a list of ECE learning opportunities across the country - part time, full time and distance learning.
Winter Workshop Series in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Are you looking for local opportunities for professional development? In this edition of
Tuned In, early childhood educators and early years professionals in Nova Scotia will find information about over 20 workshop opportunities, the local lending library, curriculum supports and more!
Wouldn’t it be fun to sing O Canada with children in their home languages?
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra recorded our national anthem in 12 languages: Arabic, American Sign Language, Cree, English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog, and Tamil. This is part of celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday (sesquicentennial) starting in 2017.
Video: Building Emotional Literacy
Jennifer Hawkins teaches students to identify and describe feelings by reading Go Away Big Green Monster and engaging in related activities. In
this video, we see students looking at themselves in mirrors and developing an understanding of what different emotions look like when expressed on faces.
