Do you have a staff who likes to knit or sew?
The CNC team at Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s Bayshore site found plenty of ways to stay busy and get creative with their knitting and sewing skills during the pandemic. They worked on a variety of inspired projects for their program and families. They made fun additions like doll clothes and activity aprons for the children. They also created practical designs like masks, handmade scarves, ear warmers, and mug warmers that brought families comfort in winter. And an added benefit is that all their creations are higher quality and longer lasting than store-bought!
Click here to see.
Let’s team up with Active for Life!
Research shows that the pandemic may have a lasting impact on the physical activity of children - and we need to get kids active! So we’ve teamed up with
Active for Life to promote physical literacy in our programs. Active for Life is a privately funded national charitable initiative that helps Canadians raise kids who love to move. At
Activeforlife.com parents and educators will find fun activities, engaging articles and free resources to get kids active, healthy, and happy. Get all you need by connecting with Active for Life via their social media channels and subscribe to their parent and “pro”
newsletters. Watch for an upcoming webinar as well as Active for Life articles and resources to help you incorporate active play into each day.
WEBINAR: Culture and Children’s Challenging Behaviour
Like the children in our care, every teacher is different. We come from different contexts and cultures, and everything we think, say, and do is processed through the filter of our own culture. Culture influences our values, beliefs, gender roles, family structures, language, and even our teaching styles. The ability to understand and celebrate differences is more important now than ever. In this
webinar, participants will explore the dynamics of culture in shaping teachers’ expectations and children’s behavior.
Multilingual Activities Guide: Enhancing and Practicing Executive Function Skills with Children from Infancy to Adolescence
This
activities guide offers a variety of age-appropriate activities and games to support and strengthen various components of executive function and self-regulation in children. Each chapter contains activities suitable for a different age groups, ranging from infants to adolescents. The full guide is also available in
Arabic! And two sections—5 to 7 year-olds and 7 to 12 year olds—are available in
French.
Teaching Emotions to Young Children: Tips and Tricks
With all of the research out there on emotions, the studies are far from complete, but one thing is very clear – naming our feelings helps us develop skills to manage our emotions. This article is full of
tips and tricks to help us give the children in our programs the important emotional tools and language they need.
Handling uncomfortable conversations with parents
Effectively communicating with parents and caregivers of the children in your care is an essential part of the job. Because parents aren’t in the program every day, they rely on educators to tell them how their child is managing classroom routines and expectations. Many parents also want to know how their child is doing and how they can support their child at home. But what's the
best way to handle the uncomfortable conversations that we sometimes have to have with parents?
Webinar: Early Childhood Behaviour Guidance Practices and the Role of Implicit Bias
In this paradigm-shifting
webinar, participants will learn about implicit racial bias and its role in behavior management practices and policies in early childhood programs. This training is a great opportunity for us to examine how our own implicit biases may affect how we manage the behavior of young children of color in our programs.
Being a Teen in Canada – Available in 7 Languages
The
Being a Teen in Canada tips sheets, video, and facilitation guide are part of the Family Life in Canada resource series. The goal of this series is to help newcomers adjust to life in Canada and encourage them to access information, programs, and services in their community. All you have to do is sign up to get access to the free resources that are available in 7 languages - making them easy to use with the newcomer families you work with!
Learn with Natural Curiosity: The Importance of Indigenous Perspectives in Children’s Environmental Inquiry
Natural Curiosity is a beautiful website full of
educational resources and
professional learning opportunities for educators who wish to deepen their own inquiry into inquiry-based learning, the four-branch environmental inquiry framework, and Indigenous perspectives.
How to Help Young Children Heal from Pandemic Trauma
As we move out of this pandemic and many of us cautiously emerge into public life again, you can almost feel the collective exhale. Yet, we cannot gloss over the trauma our society has experienced over the last year and a half. Moving forward, educators will replace healthcare workers on the front lines as they support and address the pandemic’s lingering impacts on children’s emotional health and how this will play out in the classroom. So,
keeping your program and space feeling safe and predictable for children is going to be key over the coming months.
