Programs and Activities
16 Resources for Finding Diverse Books and Classroom Materials
These 16 helpful resources can help you ensure that your bookshelves reflect the diversity of the world around us. Some focus more on school-age programming, but there are lots of great resources to support the early years too!A Trauma-Informed Approach to Teaching Young Children
It’s estimated that over half of all children aged 2–5 have already experienced a severe stressor. However, early childhood educators and other support staff don’t necessarily need the details of what happened, as long as they are being faithful to the concept of trauma-informed care. This includes developing an awareness of the impact of preverbal trauma and how it may present in early childhood.8 Tips for Making Your Program Culturally Inclusive Year Round
Celebrating diversity is a huge part of building the empathy and perspective-taking skills necessary for the development of kind, inclusive, caring human beings. As educators, we have an incredible opportunity and responsibility to support the development of these skills with even our youngest learners. Here are 8 tips for making sure your program is culturally inclusive year-round!NEW! LET’S PLAY: Dinosaur Activity Ideas
Dinosaur play sparks a child’s natural curiosity about the world, history, and animals. It also is a great creative outlet, where they can imagine and set up whole new, awe-inspiring environments. A team of CNC staff put their heads together and came up with over 80 dinosaur activity ideas for CNC… and now you can find them here! Special thanks to the CNC team that worked on the new content.
Try some holiday fun physical activities!
Active for Life has a fun list of holiday activity ideas for families that are always popular this time of year.New Activity Ideas have been added to LET’S PLAY!
New activity ideas are being added all the time! Do you have a child who’s really interested in textures? Or maybe you have a group of children who really love to dump and pour? Do you ever feel like you’ve run out of activity ideas to extend their play and learning? We gathered a team of experienced CNC staff to put their heads together and our collection of inspiring play extension activity ideas for CNC is growing every month! You can find them here, in LET'S PLAY: CNC Activity IdeasHave you explored the Devereux Centre for Resilient Children YouTube channel?
Devereux Center for Resilient Children (DCRC) promotes resilience, social and emotional development in preschool children, and promotes the resilience of the adults who care for them. Their YouTube channel provides helpful videos that share guidance and tips, as well as a new 4-part series on culturally responsive care and teaching practices!
Have some soccer fun during FIFA World Cup!
The FIFA World Cup is one of the world’s most widely watched sporting events, with countries around the world participating. So it's a great time to have some soccer fun with the children in your program! Just about any sport or physical activity will help to develop physical literacy and good movement skills. However, if you had to pick one sport that developed the most skills and capacities for little ones, it would have to be soccer.CMAS Tutorial: Invitations to Play
An invitation to play can be a simple way to spark children’s curiosity and imagination! They offer children opportunities to explore and direct their own play, follow their interests, learn more about the world around them, express themselves creatively and use their imagination. In this tutorial, you’ll find 10 tips for creating your own Invitations to Play for the children in your CNC program. At the end of the tutorial, you’ll also find resources, references, a Facilitator Guide and Questions for Personal Reflection/Group Discussion so that you can easily facilitate your own team training.