The world of Early Childhood Education

What is STEAM?  STEAM stand for Science, Technology, Engineering Art and Mathematics. It is mainly focused on the integration of mathematics, science and technology. This topic includes so many wonderful starter points. You are more working around steam then you sometimes realize. In this blog post I will explain more about robotics and how they include in steam.  ROBOTS in the classroom YES or NO? When you read ROBOTS what are the first things you think about? Robots are not only the play toys that children have at home. Your radio is a robot your TV, vacuum cleaner, car, washing machine, ... all things that are designed to help us to make things easier. Think about people that have a knew robotic arm or leg. When you work around robots in your class, I think it is important to include and tell about those things too, there will be more then I just named.  In my opinion working with robots is something that you almost can not avoid anymore in t...

Why using loose parts in the classroom Loose parts are great to work with. What are loose part? Just everything that you can find. You can make amazing artworks. Let the imagination of the children speak. This picture is made in BSB. They have natural baskets with a variety of materials. The children can take a frame and start creating something in the frame. When they finished there art work, you can make a picture and put it in their diary.  I was amazed by there creative minds!

What or who is Mila Lila?  It's a program to bring children in contact with french. The purpose is not learning french, they will definitely learn but that's not the main goal of the two kindergarten teachers (Suzi and Sofie) that made the whole program. I'm super bad in french but I have seen what a good impact Mila Lila has on the children. Mila Lila French language initiation for young children It is created by two teacher, who still work as teachers. It started as a hobby in their own classroom and is now becoming a success in more schools Mila Lila developed into an educational project that focuses on multilingualism and diversity. As we live in a multi-cultural world it is fantastic to introduce a foreign language in the classroom at a young age. Young children pick up a new language much faster when it is introduced in a natural way. As we all know that children learn new words every day. I had the pleasure to be an English teacher when I was in...

Fashion Museum in Hasselt Step into an interactive world full of glitter and glamour, between the historical and contemporary decoration techniques that define luxury fashion. SMUK shows you clothes, accessories and couture embellished with embroidery, feathers, pearls, stones, sequins, shells and other curiosities. Not only well-known studios such as Hurel, Lesage and Lemarié are given a central place in the exhibition, visitors also play a leading role. Because in the wonder rooms you can get to work with high-quality decorative crafts yourself. Here I got inspired to use different materials to make clothes in the classroom. You can use feather as decoration, make a hat of cardboard, paint a T-shirt, ... I would say: use your imagination and a lot is possible.

Mechelen conservatorium  This fairy tale is usually performed as a concert piece or ballet. Now Bette Westera and Willem Verheyden decided to turn it into a theatre performance. A story told with a "real" firebird and puppets. The performance was accompanied by a classical concert. After watching this performance it gave me inspiration to develop a story musically with classical music. This way they can discover what kind of emotions music can bring to a story. You can let children move freely on the music to express their feelings. After the performance we could also study the puppets up close. So I saw that these were made of recyclable material. So another good idea to use in your classroom. 

Toddlers lab  In Thomas More University of Applied Sciences is a toddlers lab where students have the possibility to try things out with toddlers to see what works. Students of the evening course gave several performances to make toddlers wonder about what they saw. Musical story of the Gruffalo  Shadow play with two blackguards  Without words Tik-Tak about autumn  Experiencing textures with washcloths Most of the performances were based on sounds without spoken words and music rhythms. In my opinion interesting and useful in an international context. 

What do you do when you don't have a book corner in your class? Lets make one! Why are books important for children?  Sharing stories, talking and singing every day helps child development in lots of ways. It helps your child to get to know sounds, words and language. It will spark your child's imagination and stimulate curiosity. Stories can be therapeutic to process things that happen in their daily life.  Why is it important to read to your child?  Reading to your child is a wonderful shared activity you can continue for years to come. It teaches about communication, numbers, letters, colors and shapes in a fun way. it encourage listening, memory and vocabulary. What sort of books and how to present them? Search for different books. Do not only place children's books or age related. Include also science books, art books for adults. It is not a problem that they cannot read them. Try to introduce the books on a nice way so they can see th...

Hand-made sensory bags  These hand-made sensory bags are ideal to use in nursery school. If you want to make it yourself, you can easily buy some small towels, fold them together and stitch them up. Don't forget to keep a small opening to put their hands in. Don't make the holes too big so the children won't be able to take anything out to easily. On the top side you can use Velcro like I did, but you can also put a zipper or buttons on it. By placing hands on it, you make it visually clear what it's for.  I used sticky textiles that you can iron on them. Why are sensory bags good to use. How does it help them in their development? When you use this bags children need to try to focus only on what they feel and let there imagination   speak because now they can not see . You can let them experience  different textures, shapes, warm cold, ... 

At the fair I bumped into this bench that would be interesting for schools. it would give children more physical outdoor exercises. I'm really into outdoor learning as teachers we need to give the children much as possible time outdoors. IPitup  The IPitup activity bench is a multi-person bench with multiple activity functions. It is an innovative and compact all-in-one device that enables a unique range of physical exercises. Six different activity stations can be distinguished, three on each side. All these fitness elements can be practised simultaneously. IPitup introduces, among other things, an innovative suspension trainer unit, an advanced step and balance board, a knurled pull-up bar with step and an arm dip station on both sides. There is also a free activity app as a virtual coach and motivator.

I participate in BSB (British school of Brussels) for a few days. I loved the idea at the entrance hall of the class. Here are four glass bowls. Each bowl represents another feeling. Red: angry, yellow: happy, green: calm, Blue: sad. This is in relation to the book "The colour monsters". When the children come into the classroom, they take a punpon of one of the four colours and put it in the bowl. In this way the teacher can see how the toddlers are feeling today. I would immediately take this idea with me to my own classroom. Feelings are so important. It is a difficult given feeling for children. That is why I believe that working around feelings is very important.

Why a fine motorics boxs? The fine motorics box is a fun way to bring technic s into the class. You will be able to introduce  this in every topic you are teaching. In the example here, the box's material is linked with nature and the forest. What can you find in the box? Four wooden planks with various holes of different sizes.  Four boxes with nuts and bolts of different thicknes and shape.  Wrenches, English keys and screwdrivers The relative simple tools allow for many small but motorically and logically challenging games to be played by your toddlers. Take the bolts as an example, you could let them sorth them from small to large or sort the different sized bolts in different boxes. For older toddlers an interesting challenge is to try and fit the bolts into their respective holes and nuts. Just like the bolts, the English keys also fit specific nuts and they have specific sizes (numbered even!). They can also be used as an addition to the bolt games ...

Why a NATURE BOX?   When my class showed great interest in nature and the forest, I started looking for different materials and approaches to challenge my class and bring reality into the classroom as much as possible. What can you find in the box? Instruments to explore: Pincers Magnifying glasses Pots Stones Binoculars Leaves (laminated) This list of tools gives you a whole range of exploring opportunities such as seeing the veins of leaves, feeling the texture of pine cones, twigs, snail shell and dried insects (dragonfly, beetle, cockchafer, spider, fly, moth). Furthermore clear determination guides give you insight in the different eating and living habits of these insects. The box also includes drawing paper so the toddlers can draw details of everything they see. Finally I also added some laminated cards which you can use as extra stimuli for tasks that require seeing, smelling, feeling or hearing. Next to these task cards, are a few more cards they ...

I went to visit the Antwerp International School in Ekeren where a teacher shared her knowledge about the Reggio Emilia approach. This was so inspiring that I wanted to share their philosophy. Their philosophy The Reggio Emilia Philosophy is an innovative and inspiring approach to early childhood education, which values the child as strong, capable and resilient; rich with wonder and knowledge. The Philosophy rides on the coattails of the innate curiosity of children and aims to assist them with understanding their world and who they are in it. Started by parents in Reggio Emilia, Italy after World War II, the parents believed that a new better approach to teaching their children was required. The program they developed emphasised respect, responsibility and community involvement. Children are allowed to explore and discover in a supportive and rich environment, where the curriculum is created around the children’s interests. First, It is important to realise that the...

On an open day I went to the  ABC-house of brussels . It is a paradise for children. How everything is represented is similar to Montessori. A bunch of materials were made out of wood. This gives a warm and inviting feeling. It's much more relaxing than when everything is in bright colors. Too much color is overwhelming for kids. It's a great environment. The ABC-house is divided i n different rooms.  Cooking  Reading corner  textile  wood craft  ... And so many more that you need to explore by yourself. I strongly recommend to go.

Mission and vision You enter an old charming mansion full of words and images. Everyone is welcome to enjoy the imagination of writers and illustrators, to dwell in the worlds that are imagined. You are invited to read, think and look beyond the everyday. In short: it is a house that stimulates the imagination. Villa Imagination  wants to be a unique place in Flanders where young and old experience quality exhibitions and participate in activities around books and illustration. By working around books and illustration, Villa Imagination  opens up other worlds for visitors of all ages. They playfully come into contact with other cultures and socially relevant themes. Through a tailor-made educational program they strengthen their literary reading skills and visual literacy. They explore their own creativity. Villa Imagination  aims for a sustainable effect: the visitor is enriched and inspired. For young children, Villa Imagination wants to lay the found...

Breaking the Sound Barrier I joined a workshop of Gianfranco Conti about "Maximising Learning in Modern Foreign Languages" at BSB. This lecture was very interesting.  He explained a lot about how the brain works and gave us several exercises, to show what kind of activities work to learn a language. In a couple of hours he taught us Indonesian and it work because I still remember some words from that day. When learning a language you need to learn in chunks, not separate words. Why should we? We never speak in words but in sentences, so it makes sense to learn chunks. This gives you the ability to communicate  from the beginning.  You want to know more about his techniques and vision? I would recommend to go to his lecture and  to read his book "Breaking the sound barrier". 

What is Adobe Spark video?  It is a very useful app to make easy and quick educational videos that you can use immediately in your class. You don't have to be a computer expert to learn to work with Adobe Spark video. In my opinion it is very user friendly . Animals  The first video I made is about animals, I put sounds to it that the animals make, To learn the Spanish children at my internship the English words of pets. I’m convinced when you use realistic images and sounds that the children will remember it better. You can also hide the images and let them hear only the sound and then they need to guess which Animals that they hear. Pictogrammen about clothing. The second video I made of pictogrammen about clothing. They can hear the word how you need to pronounce it. The children can explore the videos by themselves or you can play it on the smart-board. Numbers The thirth video is about numbers. On the left side you have the number and the other side you ...

Let the children explore first all of the tools in this app. Different exercises:  Draw two circles Draw one blue and one red circle Try to write your name Draw hot weather Draw cold weather Make a rainbow Make pencil as big as possible, what happens? Make curls and continue the pattern Game with the teacher: the teacher is drawing something and the children need to guess what she is drawing. You can let the 5 years old try to draw something and other kids need to guess. Prepare some cards with objects they can draw. Individual: let the children make their own creation and afterwards they can talk about their creation.