200+ activities you can do with kids at home
Children have been home a lot over the last few years. Here's an epic
list of over 200 full of play ideas that you can share with parents: games to keep their minds and bodies moving!
What is high-quality childcare?
Besides the obvious reasons, research shows that high-quality childcare is associated with an incredible variety of benefits for children of all ages. In short, quality care really matters!
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recently did a comprehensive study on
what makes quality care, and here's
a summary of what they found.
7 Strategies to Support Children’s Emotional Development
Did you know that every person has five emotional needs that must be met before they can be in a position to learn and grow? As an educator, it's important to set children up for success. In order to do this, you need to consider... what are things that trigger you or your children in the classroom? Children’s behavior gives us information that helps us understand how they are feeling - and there is a difference between reacting and responding! Here are
7 tips that can help!
Have you tried the Active for Life Build Your Own Lesson Plan tool?
Do you want to build more physical activity into your CNC programming? You can use this
Lesson Plan Builder to create custom lesson plans. Simply start by choosing your desired age range, and then click the skills you want to develop and the activities you want to use. When you are finished with your selections, you'll have a lesson plan that you can print out with a simple click of a button!
Active Start newsletter for parents
Do you work with parents of young children? Active Start is a monthly newsletter, by our partners at Active for Life, for parents with children under the age of 4. It’s tailored specifically to the age of the child and filled with activities, games, ideas, and tips designed to help children fall in love with physical activity. And it’s all presented in a fun way for parents and children to enjoy together. You can preview the program and parents may subscribe here.
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.
