SCC ECED Student Group

Great ideas! What household tool do you like best to work on small motor skills?

Build fine motor skills using household utensils? You bet!

Here's my favorite collection for toddlers and preschoolers: https://teaching2and3yearolds.com/how-to-build-fine-motor-skills-development-using-household-utensils/

Which will you try??

Over 10 different ways for children to get their bodies moving to music, including how to make your own instruments and dancing props!

See it now: http://teaching2and3yearolds.com/music-and-movement-for-preschoolers/

This….. is creative art!

If Every Piece Looks the Same, It Wasn’t Theirs to Begin With.

Walk into many early childhood classrooms and you’ll see a familiar sight... rows of identical art projects. Twenty penguins with the same cotton-ball belly. Twenty suns with exactly eight rays. Twenty perfectly traced rainbows in the exact same color order.

To an untrained eye, this may look like success. But what it actually reveals is that every child followed the same adult-led instructions to reach a pre-determined outcome (And let's not forget how much work the adult did compared to the child).

That isn’t creativity. That’s compliance.

When we give children a model and ask them to copy it step-by-step, the thinking has already been done for them. There is no real decision-making, no problem-solving, and no opportunity to explore. The child’s job becomes ex*****on instead of expression.

Now picture a different approach... Children are offered the same materials (paper, scissors, paint, etc) but no final example to replicate. One child makes a swirling abstract pattern. Another creates something that looks like a face. A third mixes colors just to see what happens. Every piece is different because every child brought their own ideas, choices, and perspective into the process.

That is what learning looks like.

Children are already spending much of their day following directions—cleaning up, lining up, washing hands, transitioning between activities. Instruction has its place, but if we want children to become thinkers, they need consistent opportunities to make decisions. And the only way to learn how to make decisions is by making them.

Open-ended art is one of the most powerful ways to support that growth. It invites experimentation, risk-taking, and reflection. It allows children to try, revise, and discover what works for them. When every piece looks the same, what we’re really displaying isn’t the child’s work. It’s ours.

Real learning leaves room for mistakes, surprise, and difference. If the walls are full of matching projects, we’re not celebrating creativity. We’re replacing it.

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), and the children’s book world, is saddened by the news that author, mentor and friend, Jane Yolen, has died. She was 87 and her loss cannot be measured.

Please find the full obituary here: https://www.scbwi.org/remembering-jane-yolen

Let’s play! Here’s some fun ideas for infants and toddlers.

Happy International Day of Play! 🌟 🎈

From infancy on, play is an important part of a child’s life. For babies and toddlers, simple, playful interactions with adults support brain development, the foundations of lifelong health, and the building blocks of resilience. Play is also a great way for children to practice and strengthen executive function skills, including focusing their attention, improving their memory, and developing basic self-control.

If you're looking for simple games for children of all ages, check out our play-based handouts here: https://bit.ly/4h4kPFF

UNICEF

“My brain is growing faster right now than it ever will again.”
– Baby Joshua

Joshua is full of energy, laughter, and curiosity. His mom, Trisha, knows the little things like snuggles, bedtime songs and banana breakfasts are shaping his future.

But not every baby gets the same strong start. And not every parent has the support they need to give it.

Believing in babies means investing in the relationships, moments, and care that fuel early brain development. Because love and connection in the first years change everything.

Join the movement. Help more babies thrive: https://bit.ly/4txHq4n

Go for it!

LMAOOO 😅😂

Now’s the time to grab those pool noodles for this project or others later on. What fun ways have you used pool noodles?

POOL NOODLE MONSTERS
https://happytoddlerplaytime.com/pool-noodle-monster-summer-craft-for-kids/