Social/Emotional Development

10 Outdoor Pretend Play Ideas for Summer

| FunShine Express

by Katie Brazerol

Pretend play is fundamental to children’s development. During pretend play, children practice and try out new skills. Pretend play gives children an outlet to explore and process feelings. Taking pretend play outside can inspire children in new ways. The outdoor environment lends itself to new curiosities and different challenges. Outdoor pretend play may also enable you to incorporate props that may be hard to manage inside and leave children’s constructions set up in ways you cannot always accommodate. Head outside and celebrate summer by offering one or more of the following pretend play ideas: Continue reading →

FunShine Tells: Maintaining an Inclusive Classroom

| Chalimar Rios

This post will explore how to best support young children with disabilities. Let’s start by simply defining disability. A disability refers to a condition that makes it challenging for people to do certain activities or interact with their environment. Particular requirements may include the need to support mobility, communication, feeding, behavior, or any other skill or function so that the person can thrive and learn in everyday situations and environments. This is where inclusion, classroom adaptations, and developmentally appropriate practices play an essential role in early childhood.

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FunShine Tells: Understanding Child Development

| Chalimar Rios

When we talk about child development, we talk about the different steps and stages of growth and learning that a child goes through from birth to adulthood. It is important to understand that while there are many frames of reference, goals, and expectations for what children should be doing at a certain age, each child grows and develops freely and at their own pace.

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Charlie’s Cues: Using the All About Me Cards

| Chalimar Rios

Independence, perseverance, attention to detail, and taking interest in a variety of tasks are some of the lessons that we want to teach children from an early age. We can do this through modeling behaviors, reading books, observing images, and last but not least, through experience.

FunShine Express makes this process easier for you by including All About Me Cards as part of the bimonthly toddler curriculum kit, Buttercups. The All About Me Cards is a series of cards featuring real images included in the Teacher Pack. Through these images, children observe peers performing daily tasks and activities that relate to the monthly themes. The cards usually focus on tasks children can help with, feelings they experience, wonderful things their bodies can do, and exploring the world with their bodies and senses.

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The Power of Persona Dolls

| Teresa Narey

Dolls are a common toy in early childhood settings. Children can often be found dressing, feeding, or reading to them in the dramatic play area. Dolls are universally recognized for their ability to support children’s developing social-emotional skills. It may come as no surprise that dolls also make great teaching tools, known as Persona Dolls.

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