Let Us Give Thanks

We are thankful for children who:
• tell their own jokes and laugh out loud at them.
• create ooey, gooey art projects.
• fall down but jump up ready to go.
• smile.
• build stupendous block structures over and over again.
• comfort a friend with a gentle touch.
• try things over and over again.
• give you a hug for no apparent reason (except they know you need
one!).
• are curious.
• will have the comfort of family and home this Thanksgiving.

A Fantastic NAEYC Conference

Last week brought early childhood educators to Orlando, Florida, for The National Association of the Education of Young Children® conference. Over 8000 excited and enthusiastic individuals travelled from their homes and gathered for a few days of learning, listening, networking, and soaking in all the early education world has to offer.
The conference kicked off with a concert by true legends in the early childhood music world. Hap Palmer took the stage first followed by Ella Jenkins, The Learning Station, and Greg and Steve. With thousands of young children in the audience, these music heroes had everyone singing, dancing, and moving to the beat!
The Exhibit Hall opened at noon, a change from previous years, to huge crowd of anxious shoppers. Booths were busy with attendees eagerly looking at new products for their classrooms. The excitement continued to build with the opening keynote by Vivian Gussin Paley, reknowned author, whose presentation on “Who Will Save Kindergarten” was filled with inspiration and hope for the future. With that inspiration, the Exhibit Hall reopened to attendees seeking new and innovative equipment and early childhood education supplies.
The conference was then in full swing with hundreds of fantastic sessions to attend on topics ranging from Language & Literacy to Professional Development to Environmental Education for Children. Many quality presenters shared information with conference attendees and fostered group discussion and sharing.
The energy from the people at the conference was amazing. It’s refreshing to see such hope and promise in the early education industry. As the conference drew to a close, there is optimism that the energy will continue to flow back to the children.

Using Manipulatives in Early Childhood Classrooms

Young children learn through hands-on experiences.  Providing children with a variety of  objects to actively learn is integral to development.  When setting up a classroom, teachers should consider the variety of early childhood educational supplies available.  Setting up different themed areas in the classroom, or “centers”, is an approach many schools have found successful - having tactile objects, or manipulatives, at each center.  Manipulatives are particularly useful when teaching new concepts, especially in math.  While they are more commonly used for younger children, students of every age benefit from manipulatives. 

•  When introducing a new concept such as counting, a teacher might hand a student a bag of colored buttons. The child can count all of the buttons or sort and count them by color.  Peg board manipulatives allow children to start graphing and patterning. This hands-on learning will enhance the child’s understanding of the concept.

•  Other early childhood educational supplies important for learning are building objects.  These manipulatives come in all sorts of colors and connectors.  When building with blocks, a child quickly learns about balance, weight, gravity and stability -basic concepts in science.  Math skills are taught through block measurement, volume, symmetry and shape placement. Learning to cooperate is key when children are building together, this helps in social development, self-esteem and life skills.

•  Combining creativity and learning in the classroom is essential and fun for both students and teachers. There are many art manipulatives for early childhood development.  Lacing cards, boards and shapes work on fine motor skills while white boards, magnetic shapes and letters facilitate writing, designing, shape sorting and letter recognition.

Using manipulatives enhances learning in many ways whether it’s learning to read or count to 50. Integrating manipulatives into the classroom with other early childhood educational supplies will offer children a wonderful hands-on learning experience.