Bee-Blog

Thank you VegFest! VegFest Meets Creative Kidzzz Cafe a learning category of Children First Curriculum, USA, LLC.

8/28/2015

This was a great practice exercise for me as a presenter on how to make Natural Learning Through Play connections with the PA Learning Standards. Oh, the children were totally engaged with my food patterning demonstration and looking through "Busters" Bee Lens for Learning, that I could see every light bulb go on. Naturally and through conversation, we covered many learning connections in one half of an hour:

Shapes
Patterning
Sequencing
Colors
Sorting Kinds of Fruits
Gooey Plant Science and Seeds
Measuring
Equal Amounts
What is Whole?
What is 2 Halves that Make a Whole Again?
Sharing is Caring
Adding
Subtracting
Reading Symbols
Kitchen Safety
Kitchen Tools
Healthy Living
Recycling
Conservation of Foods
Reading Recipe Together
Table Time Conversations

If you would like to form your own Creative Kidzzz Cafe Workshop that is a hands-on learning experience for early learners. Sign-Up today:

VegFest is tomorrow and we will be the Fruit & Cheese Kabobs for Learning presenter. Presentation times are 2:30 & 3:30 at the "Greenway" in Bethlehen, PA. See you there.....

8/21/2015

Creative Kidzzz Cafe a learning category of Children First Curriculum, USA, LLC~Deborah Barnes, Early Childhood Specialized Curriculum Consultant, Teacher & Tutor.

Quote of the Day: "There is a first time for every learning experience, so hang onto your thinking caps because this should be quite entertaining!"~ Author Unknown or not claiming this modest medley of words.

5 ways to send your smart child to Kindergarten.

8/19/2015

Zzzpectacular Parents going wild into Kindergarten. As our children transition into Kindergarten, so many questions come to mind for the first day of school. Parents notice that their child seems to be more prepared for the academic setting than other children. Your child may be sounding out words and reading already. They may be writing their name and have all the foundations for an academic setting, while other children seem to be less prepared for Kindergarten and may need more support to transition well into their new school year and new school. The biggest question that comes to mind for a parent who may have a gifted child transitioning into Kindergarten is:

Question:
Will my child be bored in Kindergarten and what can I do to keep the magic in learning?

Answer:
1. Never stop working with your child to even out learning abilities for another child. What you have been doing with your child is obviously working nicely with your child's learning style. Every child learns at their own rate and every child has their own unique strong areas of abilities that they all can share and learn from each other.

2. Keep communication open with your child by asking positive scaffolding questions every day. Ex: "How was your day?" "What very awesome activities did you do today?" "Did you meet a new friend today and what is their name?" "If you were to guess; what is the best thing that happened in school today?" Stay consistent, so your child will expect open communication as the norm and prepare to answer them with you. Awareness of their day brings meaning and purpose in what they do during their day as well. This can be on the way home, during dinner, looking through their backpack together and celebrating a job well done or while making dinner together. Stimulating open communication will allow your child to express their feelings about learning and about learning in their new environment. This will also give you the opportunity to instill good positive outlooks toward learning in an academic setting and with new friends.

3. Teach your child to be helpful at school by bringing their talents and creativity to light in their world confidently. When children are aware of their talents and creativity, they will share this with other children. And when a child feels useful, accepted and comfortable in their own classroom, they will flourish and survive through anything that comes their way. It's our job to help our children to use their knowledge to help others and to realize that this is just the beginning of something even greater. A futuristic approach with our new explorers and discoverers stimulates curiosity and a thirst for more knowledge. To keep it fun, we need to express and show fun while learning new things in everything we do every day.

4. Keep communication open with your child's teacher throughout the school year. Attend back to school events, parent teacher conferences and volunteer for class events and trips. Being a presence in your child's education will not only please your child, but will allow you to watch your child in the classroom setting. Is your child an introvert or an extravert? Is your child helpful or seems to be the last one to offer himself as a team member? Is the classroom environment instilling family togetherness and working together as a group? These are all dynamic building questions that may have an effect on your child's happiness in this new setting. Realizing that every child adjusts to new settings differently, the magic is finding ways to help an intelligent child to work well with others as an equal and to find friends to share their learning experiences with during their day. Ask your child's teacher to recommend any suggestions that may help your child to transition into his/her new setting easier. It's ok not to be perfect, because that's what humans do best and naturally. We make mistakes and find new ways to survive in a complex world whether we are young or old. So, show perseverance, flexibility and kindness by role modeling problem solving techniques in a positive way. This is how they learn, by your example.

5. Most important, relax and enjoy your child as a child and not as a robot. Smart children tend to be more sensitive to their environments and new situations. Knowing that their environments throughout their week are all part of bringing to them their learning processes so that they can grow and to develop in a healthy way. Children have a funny way of taking a situation and making it fun without our help. How we can help, is by showing strength during difficult times ourselves. This will help your child to see their world in a positive and in a fun way too. Also, this will help you and your child to approach changes in schedules, environment, curriculum and even teachers with open arms and minds. Knowing that it's ok to have feelings of fear, uncertainty, anxiety on the first day in a new school and knowing that they have control of these feelings with a good positive approach for preparation and support can make the difference in their day.

Note: Good family values to build your own cultural integrity is the key to setting the foundations for any child at home and in the academic environment to succeed in their world around them. Keep it fun by bringing out their talents and creativity. This will build a positive foundation for learning for any child. Have fun the first day of school and we're available to make your day easier with our unique Natural Learning Through Play extra-curriculum program for Preschool, Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, Grade School and beyond. ~ Deborah Barnes, Early Childhood Specialized Curriculum Consultant, Teacher and Kindergarten Readiness Tutor.

For a Free Consultation and Evaluation of Transition Services: Sign-Up today for a Fall Kindergarten Readiness Tutor.

2015 Copyright. All Rights Reserved

Back to School Health & Safety Inspection from a Licensed Home/Commercial Inspector. Contact us for Appointment.

8/13/2015

Dave our Environments Health & Safety Evaluations prepare the childcare environment for the first day of school. Call for your free consultation today.

Back to School Check List from the Teachers Bee Lounge and Zzzpectacular Parents. ECE Made Easy!

8/8/2015

Can you guess what language Fred the Reading Frog is speaking?

8/7/2015

Can you match the language to Fred's words, "My name is Fred"?

English
German
Italian
Spanish
French

Bringing culture into your classroom can be fun. Statistics have proven that during the first 5 years of a child's life, the brain grows and develops at an incredible rate forming all the crucial elements for cognitive learning. Learning a second language increases brain growth and development during these 5 years as well. So, if you know a second language, incorporate this into your curriculum. The parents and children will love you for it.

Deborah Barnes
Children First Curriculum, USA, LLC
Lesson Planning Made Easy!
Email: ChildrenFirstCurriculumUSA@gmail.com

Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved

4 Ways to Teach Creative Thinking. Lesson Planning Made Easy!

8/6/2015

1. (Play) Natural Environment

To provide a natural environment; we must always have the understanding that nothing is perfect, but that we live in an environment that can be influenced with either negative or positive learning experiences. To provide an environment filled with positive learning experiences, we need to provide the opportunities and tools to blossom a child perfectly with exactly what they need to grow and to development normally. For early learners, their world is a classroom filled with discovery and exploration. They are learning simple concepts that emerge into more complex learning experiences for the first time. It's very easy for us, as educators or caregivers, to take a meaningful moment for granted and miss it's potential for learning. To look through the Bee Lens for Learning opportunities in a natural environment, we need to train our eyes to recognize a meaningful moment by what kind of visual connections we can make with ordinary play during yours/their day. Are we connecting a child to child discussion over a crayon as a disagreement or a classroom issue that has made chaos in your perfect classroom environment? Or are we establishing the freedom for expressive communication, but observing behaviors of playful learning now in a more useful and calm way? Recognizing weaknesses and strong areas with children that we can build on, helps our children to feel accepted, heard, respected, confident and balanced. This will not only help you to provide opportunities for learning by knowing how they learn best, but will help you to connect their way of learning best with learning opportunities and tools to build on. This will naturally create a positive learning environment during this learning moment and set the example for their future as well. Once we tap into their natural way of learning through play, we have began the ECE journey with them.

How can we bring Natural Learning Through Play in the classroom, home school or home environment that will stimulate creative thinking naturally?

Sounds like a lot of work! Actually, it's Lesson Planning Made Easy! To create an environment that will nurture creative thinking, we must provide the freedom to express themselves naturally. Every child learns differently and in their own way. Freedom for Learning Styles, like this one, will help create an all-inclusive environment so every child can learn at the same rate as the next child. A structured and ridged environment may stifle creative expression through play. It could even prevent this very important learning ability to grow, expand and develop crucial problem solving/critically thinking skills for the academic setting or in Life. Too structured of an environment for an early learner could miss the essence for providing opportunities to retain information naturally. Freedom to play in a natural environment will, no doubt, put their senses into overdrive to explore and to discover their world around them. It's as simple and easy as Natural Learning Through Play.

2. (Observe) Lesson Planning

Creating lesson plans that will stimulate creativity may be hard to capture during our lesson plan template stage. But with our new template series, you will be able to create a lesson plan portfolio that will help you to visually observe and document it's direction, trends, likes and dislikes, meaningful moments, webbing out ideas, scaffolding questions and a mutual topic to build on.

Why do we need to stimulate creative thinking during play?

A. Problem Solving:

Understanding the Problem
Creating Other Ways to Solve this Problem
Evaluating Options and Selecting a New Way to Solve this Problem
Putting this New Way into Action

B. Critical Thinking Skills:

Analyzing
Applying Knowledge/Standards
Recognizing Differences and Similarities
Information Seeking and Researching for Evidence, Facts and Knowledge
Finding Conclusions that are Supported by Evidence, Facts and Knowledge
Making Predictions
Taking New Knowledge and Applying it

3. (Connections) ECE/ECI

When looking through your Bee Lens for Learning while observing your children freely playing during your day. You will easily see their meaningful moments for learning and will easily stimulate not only their creative thinking, but will stimulate your creative thinking to apply learning opportunities and tools as well. Creating a natural environment for learning through play takes practice and building observation knowledge to implement the lesson plan that will create the perfect outcome. But remember, nothing is perfect and neither is your outcome. In a natural learning environment through play the learning opportunities are endless. Today, we begin planning for an amazing day playing with our friends and family socializing, exploring and discovering the world around them. But children have an amazing way of adapting to learning experiences and finding new ways for knowledge and applying it together. They move with the world around them. Just observing through our Bee Lens for Learning will teach us new learning concepts for professional development as well.

4. (Create) Cultural Integrity

Establishing your own style for Natural Learning Through Play plays an important role by staying focus for the best learning outcome for your children and creates cultural integrity at the same time. Taking your existing curriculum program and integrating a new specialized curriculum to create a custom made learning environment needs guidance with mentoring to succeed. For a free consultation to establish your style and vision: ChildrenFirstCurriculumUSA@gmail.com (Put in email subject line "Lesson Planning Made Easy!") Phone Consultation Are Available ~ Written by Deborah Barnes, Early Childhood Specialized Curriculum Consultant, Teacher and Tutor. ECE Solutions Made Easy!

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Natural Learning-Is a meaningful moment in their natural learning experience and environment (FNL/SNL) that is brought forward through purposely thought out engaging activities, opportunities and learning tools that are implemented through free movement to explore and to discover their world around them. Hence, the ability to play in a natural learning environment is the best way to freely teach creative thinking for analysis and problem solving skill building.

Final Reflection: Natural learning for survival for an early learner is an inner call to learn their environment. Nurturing their natural senses to want to learn will expand on your own Bee Lens for Learning for personal/group professional development too. Call for workshop times and dates.
Copyright 2015 All Rights Reserved

Mission Statement: Our goal is to provide an Early Childhood Specialized Curriculum Program that will meet state standards, management standards, staff compatibility and will meet the growing demands of the parents by developing and maintaining a well balanced environment for positive learning for your child/ren. Our new outlook on early education will bring a "Children First" objective that will bring your vision to life.

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Solutions Made Easy!TM, Learning Categories, Natural Beginnings, Alternative IEP Theory, Natural Learning Through Play, Freddie & Fritzi the Reading Frogs, Buster & Belle the Busy Bees, Beesentials & Pre-Kinder Plus Learning Center