After a wonderful afternoon of Training on Infant and Toddler Insights and Strategies with the Early Childhood Professionals from the Montgomery Early Learning Centers, I am excited to post and share this fantastic article that not only offers activities, but includes details pertaining to the outcomes to "see the learning happening" and differentiation of those activities for varying developmental levels.  Play, Play, Play...
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Enjoy other great articles from Texas Child Care Quarterly:  http://childcarequarterly.com/backissu.php
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This is a great example of the concept communicated via a recent Buzz Word in Education: "Intentionality".  Although the word itself has been around longer than you can imagine, it has, in the last decade, become a term to reckon with in the classroom.  More on the concept, after we see just how fun it can be in early childhood!

The children were "Intentionally" taught some basic cookie decorating skills to ensure they could: produce beautiful cookie gifts; keep the mess to a minimum; plan and execute a project; and exercise some fine motor coordination techniques.   A lesson taught with Intentionality, which, in turn, taught the children to approach the project with Intentionality.  They were required to think ahead about colors and design, and we used demonstration and hand-over-hand practice to understand the skills...the technique and the outcome of using the techniques.  There were No Mounds of Icing, there were No Big Spills, there were No Sprinkle-Doused Cookies!  There were a lot of little fingers working hard for the correct positioning, there were many thoughtful pauses prior to taking the next step, and there were happy, proud faces enjoying the holiday music and their own Edible Christmas Masterpieces!

Be enlightened!  Click HERE for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's definition and explanation of "Intentionality".    And make it FUN!! :)

We found a GREAT opportunity to begin our school year with STEAM learning objectives plus:

• Cooperation, Collaboration, and Communication
• Fine and Gross Motor Skills
• Literature and Journal Writing
• Presentation Skills
• Map Reading
• Community Interaction
• ...and more!

Our Kindergarten Enrichment classes built a giant, STEAM-themed scarecrow and entered it into a local contest!  While on display, we took a class trip to visit our scarecrow and have some fun viewing the other scarecrows in the competition.  It was a fantastic, pride-filled project to propel our students into an exciting year of collaborative, project-based learning!  See what's going on in your local community for your students to participate in... or to create their own school-based spin-off of!
Happy STEAMing! :)

Colleen Mantell is a Certified Sign2Me Instructor
Visit the Sign2Me site for Sign Language Research Articles and
 Contact Colleen at www.BeyondTheStandards.com for Sign2Me Workshops and Materials!
We will have Sign2Me Products Available at our Exhibit Space during the DVAEYC Conference in March!

These and so many other inquiries from our students drove the research and learning involved in our Great Barrier Reef project.  Preparing for a new project, wondering if we could find anything more fun and exciting than our recent North Pole and Santa's Workshop, we laughed about needing a little beach time with all of these "too cold to play" days.  That thought, coupled with a recent obsession with magnets, led our group to a debate over whether we should create a beach or a science laboratory.  Let the voting begin!  

The beach was the winner, and all of the students whole-heartedly embraced our virtual trip to the Coral Sea.  The students' brainstorming eventually led us to exploring the land down under, a beach on Australia's East Coast called Lizard Island, and finally, The Great Barrier Reef.  Students were attracted like their magnets (opposite poles, they will tell you) to the incredible world that exists under the sea.