Welcome to the Week of the Young Child 2016 Guide!
If you have questions about this guide, please contact Cassie Sampson, Librarian for the Schools of Education and General Education, or Tammy Hopps, Learning Services Coordinator for the Schools of Education and General Education.
Be sure to click and explore through all of the resources!
2016 theme for Week of the Young Child:
Celebrating Our Youngest Learners!
April 10th - April 16th, 2016
Rasmussen University's theme:
Exploring the World Together Through Nature!
Check out NAEYC's Tweets for Week of the Young Child events and activities!
The Week of the Young Child™ is an annual celebration sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), the world's largest early childhood education association, with nearly 80,000 members and a network of over 300 local, state, and regional Affiliates.
The purpose of the Week of the Young Child™ is to focus public attention on the needs of young children and their families and to recognize the early childhood programs and services that meet those needs.
NAEYC first established the Week of the Young Child™ in 1971, recognizing that the early childhood years (birth through age 8) lay the foundation for children's success in school and later life. The Week of the Young Child™ is a time to plan how we—as citizens of a community, of a state, and of a nation—will better meet the needs of all young children and their families. https://www.naeyc.org/woyc/faq#
Information coming Soon!
Information coming soon!
Monday, April 11th: Music Monday
Sing, dance, celebrate, and learn! Through music, children develop math, language, and literacy skills - All while having fun and being active! This year's song is "One Love," as performed by Aaron Nigel Smith and the One World Chorus. You can record the song with the official lyrics, or make up your own unique version and share it on NAEYC's Facebook page or post to Twitter using the hashtag #woyc16.
Try this: Find the beat to connect music, movement, and math! Practice clapping, drumming, or stomping to the beat of the music while counting.
Music resources for families and teachers
Tuesday, April 12th: Taco Tuesday
Healthy eating and fitness and home and school! This fun, food-themed day is more than just cheese and salsa. With the rise in childhood obesity, teachers and families can encourage healthy nutrition and fitness habits at home and in the classroom. Cooking together connects with math with literacy skills, science, and more. On Taco Tuesday create your own healthy tacos and then share the recipes and photos of your creations on NAEYC's Facebook page or post to Twitter using the hashtag #woyc16. Your unique recipe could even end up in the new WOYC Taco Tuesday Cookbook!
Try this: Measure your ingredients while making your tacos! Ask children if they'd like the same or different amounts of each ingredient.
Cooking and nutrition resources for families and teachers
Wednesday, April 13th: Work Together Wednesday
Work together, build together, and learn together! When children build together they explore math and science concepts and develop their social and early literacy skills. Children can use any building material - from a fort of branches on the school playground, a block city in the classroom, a hideaway made from couch pillows at home, to a lego creation. Build and share pictures of children’s creations on NAEYC's Facebook page or post to Twitter using the #woyc16 hashtag.
Try this: Practice organizing blocks by size! Try building a block tower with large blocks on the bottom and little blocks on the top.
'Building Together' resources for families and teachers
Thursday, April 14th: Artsy Thursday
Think, problem solve, and create! Children develop creativity, social skills and fine muscles with open-ended art projects where they can make choices, use their imaginations, and create with their hands. On Artsy Thursday celebrate the joy and learning children experience when engaged in creative art making. Use any materials - from crayons to paint, clay to crafts! Create and share photos of your child' creation on NAEYC's Facebook page or post to Twitter using the #woyc16 hashtag.
Try this: Bring art outdoors! Offer dark and light paper, chalk and pastels, and suggest children create their own versions of the day and night sky.
Open Ended Art resources for families and teachers
Friday, April 15th: Family Friday
Sharing family stories! Engaging and celebrating families is at the heart of supporting our youngest learners. NAEYC applauds family members' role as young children's first and most important teachers. Share pictures and stories about your family on NAEYC's Facebook page or post to Twitter using the hashtag #woyc2016 as we celebrate the unique role families play in their children's learning and development.
Try this: Invite parents for a Family Friday breakfast where children can prepare and share breakfast treats with their families!
Resources for engaging and celebrating families
Students and faculty and/or staff from the School of Education will hold story times and activity events featuring the book:
The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle
Events will be held at local child care centers or other organizations. Contact your campus for further information.
Integrating Nature Across the Early Childhood Curriculum by
Nature Education with Young Children is a thoughtful, sophisticated teacher resourcethat blends theory and practice on nature education, children's inquiry-based learning, and reflective teaching. The book s guiding conceptual framework is founded upon the integration of four key ideas for effective and transformative nature education: The power and value of equity and access to nature education Effective teaching encompasses child development domains and integrates ECE curriculum Children learn best through inquiry-based and child-centered teaching Powerful teaching is founded upon teacher inquiry and reflection. Implementing nature study is one critical way that educators can integrate more science learning across the ECE curriculum and do so in an active, discovery-based manner.Nature Education with Young Childrenstrives for an American version of what the Reggio Emilia educators do so well: creating a seamless integration of science concepts into the daily intellectual investigations that occur in classrooms everywhere. "
Nature and Nurture in Early Child Development by
For developmental scientists, the nature versus nurture debate has been settled for some time. Neither nature nor nurture alone provides the answer. It is nature and nurture in concert that shape developmental pathways and outcomes, from health to behavior to competence. This insight has moved far beyond the assertion that both nature and nurture matter, progressing into the fascinating terrain of how they interact over the course of development. In this volume, students, practitioners, policy analysts, and others with a serious interest in human development will learn what is transpiring in this new paradigm from the developmental scientists working at the cutting edge, from neural mechanisms to population studies, and from basic laboratory science to clinical and community interventions. Early childhood development is the critical focus of this volume, because many of the important nature-nurture interactions occur then, with significant influences on lifelong developmental trajectories.
Nature and Young Children by
From adding richness and variety to learning, to redesigning a playground, this highly accessible text will provide early years practitioners with a wealth of ideas on how to foster creative play and learning in the outdoor environment with a focus on interacting with the natural world.
How to Get Kids Offline, Outdoors, and Connecting with Nature by
Full of ideas, activities and exercises, this book provides imaginative ways to inspire young people to put down the computer games, disconnect from social media, and spend more time away from a screen. In an increasingly electronic world, creating enthusiasm for the great outdoors can seem an impossible task. Yet, the benefits of nature are endless, and they extend further than just improving physical health; being in natural surroundings is also an effective way to boost imagination, creativity and overall wellbeing. In whatever capacity you work or care for children and young people, this book will help you motivate them to reboot their connection with nature and become healthier for it.Addressing how nature-based activities can be used for improved mental health, this book will be an invaluable addition to the library of any professional who works with young people including counselors, educators, youth group workers, social workers, and childcare providers. It is also a useful resource for parents.
Learning with Nature by
An extensive book of outdoor activities suitable for a wide range of children and environments Learning with Nature is full of fun activities and games to get children outdoors, to explore, have fun, make things, and learn about nature and help them grow up happy and healthy. Suitable for groups of children between ages 3 and 16, the graded activities help children develop key practical and social skills, awareness of their place in the world, and respect for the natural world, all while enjoying the great outdoors. Written by experienced forest school practitioners, using tried-and-tested games and activities, it provides comprehensive information for enriching children’s learning through nature. The games and activities are clearly categorized, with step-by-step instructions, an age guide, a list of resources needed, and invisible learning points. This book is a unique must-have resource for families, schools, youth groups, and anyone working with children.
Gardening for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and Special Educational Needs by
Winner of the American Horticultural Therapy Association's Book Publication Award 2014 A garden or nature setting presents the perfect opportunity for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and special needs to learn, play and strengthen body and mind. This book empowers teachers and parents with little gardening know-how to get outside and use nature to motivate young learners. Using a mindfulness approach, Natasha Etherington presents a simple gardening program that offers learning experiences beyond those a special needs student can gain within the classroom. The book outlines the many positive physical, cognitive, sensory, emotional and social benefits of getting out into the garden and provides specially adapted gardening activities for a variety of needs, including those with developmental disabilities and behavioural difficulties, as well as wheelchair users. With a focus on the therapeutic potential of nature, the book shows that gardening can help reduce feelings of anxiety, provide an outlet for physical aggression, build self-esteem through the nurturing of plants and much more. With this practical program, teachers and parents can easily adopt gardening activities into their schedules and enjoy the benefits of introducing children with special needs to nature and the rhythms of the seasons.
Nature Sparks by
Nature has monumental power on children’s growth and development. Recent studies show that as children spend less time in nature, they miss out on the profound benefits that outdoor play and learning experiences provide. Nature Sparks is filled with inspiration and instruction to help educators and caregivers of children ages three to eight reclaim and strengthen connections to the outdoors. This resource supplies ideas to create a nature-oriented classroom and curriculum, incorporates Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences to encourage children’s individual talents as they experience the natural world, and includes more than fifty sensory-integrated activities, crafts, and instructional strategies.
For more Early Childhood Education resources and support, be sure to visit the School of Education Guide. Click here!
