Free Picture Book Shares First-Time Experiences of Immigrant Children in Canada
New Canadians Centre in Peterborough has published a new children’s picture book that shares the experiences of immigrant children when they arrive in Canada - and it's
available online in 7 languages! Written and illustrated by Peterborough artist Casandra Lee (herself a recent immigrant),
Building A Home was inspired by the stories of six local newcomer children — including learning English, going to school, visiting large supermarkets, experiencing winter and snow, eating pizza, and more.
Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers and Toddlers
During the early years, children need to be exposed to many activities that strengthen their large motor muscles. As babies, it begins with their trunk, neck, and head control, and then they strengthen their legs and feet. As preschoolers, once body control is achieved, you can help them work on throwing, running, and climbing! It's important to intentionally integrate fun, physical activities that kids can do to strengthen these muscles into your program. And since most gross motor activities center around physical fun, it won’t be hard to get the students excited about them!
Here are some examples of ways to enjoy gross motor activities with children.
Shifting How We Manage Challenging Behaviours: Try Viewing Behaviour in a New Light
When you look at challenging behavior as an indication of the skills children still need to build, you can move from constantly reacting to behaviors to identifying missing skills and intentionally working with children to strengthen these skills.
Here are a few different ways that we can look at challenging behaviors that might shed new light on what we see in our programs.
October is Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Month in Canada
Canada takes the protection of children very seriously. Each year thousands of children are subjected to abuse and neglect. All of us who work with families need to understand our duty to report and role in protecting children. This includes knowing how to identify different types and indicators of abuse, cultural considerations, and steps to report and document suspected abuse–as well as strategies to support staff, parents, and children after a report has been made. Take this opportunity to refresh your training and complete our webinar on Understanding Child Abuse and Your Duty to Report. This important webinar includes resources, helpful contact information, and links to legislation, as well as questions for reflection and/or discussion, and it's available in both
English and
French.
Math All Day: 14 Ways to Teach Young Children Math Skills During Daily Routines
Getting young children ready for long-term math success requires more than a great preschool teacher. For young children, developing a strong foundation of basic math concepts is easier when their families join in too, finding fun and creative ways to slip little math-related lessons and challenges into everyday activities. Here are some specific
ideas for infusing math into a typical day’s schedule with a young child.
Preventing and responding to children’s exposure to intimate partner violence
The risks of intimate partner violence intensified due to the pandemic context. The Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development has launched an
infographic summarizing the latest knowledge on the consequences associated with children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) and on ways to mitigate and avoid them. We invite you to share this infographic with your networks, as we all work together to put in place, as quickly as possible, the most promising interventions to reduce the distress and hardship of domestic violence.
49 fun physical activities to do with kids
Children between 2-4 years old don’t only need a lot of movement, they also need a lot of variety of movement. So while it’s essential to make time for unstructured, active playtime, it’s also important to have access to plenty of fun, simple activities that you know will help them get active and develop skills in a variety of ways. This list of
49 fun activities for kids is the ultimate go-to for any playdate, home child care setting, or a morning or afternoon with a caregiver. Whatever the situation, short attention spans mean that it’s a good idea to have a few of these up your sleeve!
25 Ways to Have Big Fun in Small Spaces
Small spaces don’t have to equal small fun! Here's a list of
25 ideas to share with parents to help them get the kids moving in small spaces.
Share 8 Great Reading Tips with Families (in 16 languages)
There are many ways that families of English language learners (ELLs) can support language and literacy at home. Colorín Colorado has a beautiful new series of
8 posters and reading tips for families - and they are available in 16 languages so you can easily share them with parents!
Multilingual COVID-19: Vaccine Resources
Looking for resources about COVID-19 vaccines in different languages? City of Toronto has developed this
series of COVID-19 vaccine-related posters, graphics and other resources such as videos in multiple languages that you can download and share with families.
