Free Teachers’ Toolkit: Including Refugees in the Classroom
Teachers are facing new challenges in making sense of forced displacement and its complexities. Teaching newcomers often comes with specific needs relating to language acquisition and adaptation to a new culture and environment. Some refugee children may suffer from stress or trauma preventing them from participating fully in school activities, and requiring specific support. To help, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released a free
Teachers’ Toolkit, professional development and guidance to help teachers understand the needs of refugee children, as well as a collection of
adaptable teaching materials on refugees, asylum, migration and statelessness.
10 Activities to help young children express and label feelings & emotions
Children can have a difficult time understanding their emotions and the way certain events make them feel in the early years of life. As educators, it is our responsibility to help and support them to manage their emerging and often confusing emotions. Here are
10 strategies and 10 activity ideas for helping children express and manage their emotions.
How to Facilitate Risky Play
Risky play is when children engage in risk-taking activities. This benefits the child because it helps them build essential skills for their development; for example, their confidence, self-regulation, and independence. But how can we
facilitate risky play safely in our programs?
How to Transform Challenging Behaviour
Are you struggling with children's behaviour and looking for ways to teach social-emotional skills in your CNC program? Here's a website and resources might help! You can even
download a free resource that's full of simple, practical strategies to help you create positive changes in your CNC program.
Dos and Don’ts of Classroom Decorations
What you put on your classroom walls can affect your students’ ability to learn. Heavily decorated classrooms can bombard students with too much visual information, interfering with their memory and ability to focus, a new study finds.
So what do researchers say teachers should do?
WEBINAR: Finger Plays-Fun, Free, Focus, and Skills!
In this webinar, you'll
discover the fantastic world of finger plays! Have you ever watched children when they are doing a finger play? You can almost see the synapses firing in the brains. Finger plays are a natural way to engage children and develop oral language, auditory memory, small motor skills, social skills, and their imaginations. Best of all, they are FREE and FUN!
Toddler Activity Idea: Colour Run & Sort
With the long winter months, many children are missing outside play… so this
fun toddler activity idea that combines gross motor and colour recognition might be just what your program needs!
Great Activity Ideas from JIAS
JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services) shared some great activity ideas for both inside and outside of the classroom.
Read about their latest get together with the local seniors and creative projects with the toddler group.
Introducing StoryMaking into your CNC Program
StoryMaking provides opportunities for children and families to play and learn together. It can lead to increased vocabulary; development of agency; opportunities for character building; the discovery of identities (author, maker, artist, etc.); learning by engaging in the practices of making; all while immersing in play and having fun!
Open-Ended Art: Setting Up for Success
Open-ended art is defined as an art activity where children are free to use their imagination as they explore a variety of materials without a planned idea of what the final project will look like. This usually takes place in the form of an art centre where children have large blocks of uninterrupted time to explore art materials and create projects at their own pace. However, when children have free access to an art centre, teachers may be challenged by mess and waste.
The key is setting up the environment for success.
