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Coach's Column Amanda Gooch April 1, 2024 The spring season of our school year comes with high expectations. Many students are excited and motivated to learn. Several, however, need to have strategies in place that will allow them to continue to build up relationship skills and encourage them to work together. The activities below can encourage students to build their relationships with each other through team-building activities that are fun and engaging and reinforce collaboration, communication, social interaction and creativity. Here are some engaging and developmentally appropriate team building activities: Animal Charades - Children take turns acting out different animals while their peers guess what animal they are pretending to be. This activity encourages teamwork, creativity, and non-verbal communication. Obstacle Course - Set up a simple obstacle course using cones, hula hoops, tunnels, and balance beams. Children work together in teams to navigate the course, helping each other and cheering on their teammates. Group Art Project - Provide a large piece of paper or canvas and art supplies such as paint, markers, and collage materials. Children collaborate to create a mural or collage, taking turns adding their own artistic touches. Outdoor Scavenger Hunt - Create a list of natural items for children to find and collect outdoors, such as leaves, rocks, flowers, or sticks. Children work together in small groups to search for items and check them off their list. Team Challenges - Set up group challenges such as building the tallest tower using only spaghetti noodles and marshmallows or creating a bridge to span a gap using only paper and tape. Children collaborate to brainstorm ideas and work together to complete the challenge. These team building activities provide opportunities for children to develop important character skills while having fun and building positive relationships with their peers. To learn more about team building activities and games for kids, visit this link: Team Building Activities We are excited to help end the year strong with you all as we continue to be “bucket-fillers” for our students. We truly believe many of these team building activities and games are a reflection of Tammy Pawloski’s focus on how much we matter to the field of education. Our play based bucket filling activities set the foundation for our student’s futures as we help them to reach their goals and dreams every day. For more bucket filler activities that encourage kindness in your classrooms, visit this link: Bucket Filler Activities If you have an epic team building or bucket-filler activity that you do with your students please let us know. We would love to come to your centers and see the incredible work that you do for children in Indian River County. Back to Coaching Back to Newsletters

Beth Dingee MSW Director, Development Fundraising Joined Childcare Resources in 2024 Contact 772-567-3202 ext. 108 ​ Back

Coach's Column Amanda Gooch March 1, 2024 We are hearing some incredible take-a-ways from our latest workshop with Coy Bowles as he presented “Connect to Your Calling.” Many of you are still singing along to his classic hit CD “Music for Tiny Humans .” Together we gained an understanding of the key factors in investigating the root causes of success and fulfillment. Coy shared his personal philosophy on the importance of the “Butterfly Phase/Window of Opportunity” for child development and the implications of that for teaching and learning. We learned the significance of a social emotional foundation for every student and reflected on how connecting to our calling and sharing our origin story is crucial in regaining clarity, passion and purpose for being an early childhood educator. If you would like to learn more about Coy Bowles and his mission and advocacy within early childhood education, please click here: Coy Bowles We are enjoying the excitement as we deliver Coy Bowles’ “Behind the Little Red Door Activity Kit” presented by Lakeshore Learning to those organizations represented at the workshop. Those organizations that have received the kit have committed to follow up technical assistance that includes our support as early childhood education coaches. We can’t wait to see evidence of kit utilization as you implement and share the tools and resources you acquired from attending the workshop. In addition, throughout this next month we will be visiting your school sites and following up on our technical assistance from our workshop Wunderled with Sally Haughey. We will be sharing information on Sally’s Materials Wheel as we explore loose parts play based learning in your classrooms. An emphasis will be placed on understanding brain science research around learning environments, children’s play, and why choice matters. So what are loose parts and why are they important for play? Loose parts are any collection of open-ended natural or manmade objects that children can move, combine, transform, take apart, redesign, and line up, in ways that support, extend, and further, their ideas while playing. If you want to know how loose parts help us as educators discover what is really capturing children’s engagement and what is the true play urge/schema that is driving the children’s activity, click here: Wunderled Loose Parts We hope this spring season allows many of you to embrace play based learning as we elevate and promote the highest quality early childhood development and education in Indian River County. Wishing you the best, Amanda & Todd Back to Coaching Back to Newsletters

Amanda Gooch M.A.T. Early Education Coach Educator Coaching Joined Childcare Resources in 2022 Contact 772-567-3202 ext. 115 ​ Back

Stephanie Harmody ​ Higher Education Program Coordinator Credentialing | Higher Education Joined Childcare Resources in 2021 Contact 772-567-3202 ext. 114 ​ Back

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Sophia Olsinski ​ Development and Outreach Coordinator Grants Joined Childcare Resources in 2023 Contact 772-567-3202 ext. 101 ​ Back

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Diana Pena ​ Family Support Specialist Student Wellness | Family Support Joined Childcare Resources in 2021 Contact 772-567-3202 ext. 113 ​ Back

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