HILLSBOROUGH PROVIDER’S FALL 2014 FOCUSa quarterly publication for Hillsborough early childhood care and education professionals EVERYDAY The Importance of SCIENCE Not in the activity, but the PLAY approach! MINDFULNESSHow do we model this behavior to our early learners? E L C WEWE AREARE MOVINGMOVING After many wonderful years in historic Ybor City, we’ve outgrown our space! We’re packing our boxes and moving our administrative offices to a new location. We will be closed to the public from Monday, August 25, 2014 to Friday, August 29, 2014. Our website, phones and staff email will be down from August 28 - September 1. But we’ll return to full operations and regular business hours on: SEPTEMBER 2, 2014 Our phone numbers and emails will remain the same but our new address will be 6800 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Suite 158 Tampa, FL 33614 PH (813) 515-2340 FAX (813) 435-2299 www.elchc.org TABLE OF TEACHING MINDFULNESS 04Lessons from Pete the Cat and Wise CONTENTS Old Owl. FALL 2014 - JULY/AUGUST/SEPTEMBER THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY 05Sharpen your definition of play and PROVIDER’S FOCUS MAGAZINE EXECUTIVE EDITOR what it means in early childhood. Tracie T. White CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Elizabeth Appleton Shabel Hastings Lynn Mendelsohn Karen Perkins SCIENCE EVERY DAY Tracie White Anne Wimmer Science isn’t in the activity, it’s about the approach. PUBLISHER 06 The Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County The Provider’s Focus is a quarterly publication of the Early Learning Coalition of Hillsborough County. It is printed in limited quantities and THE MORE WE COME distributed to readers at no charge. It is also available online at www. elchc.org under the Downloads tab. TOGETHER 10Making the most of infant toddler SUBMITTING AN ARTICLE If you would like to submit an article to be included in the Provider’s circle time. Focus, listed below are the submission deadlines for the 2014-2015 publication year. THE BUZZ ABOUT A Articles should by typed, double spaced in 11 or 12 point Arial, Calibra or Times Roman font. Any accompanying photos or artwork should be in high resolution JPEG format (300 dpi) and sent as a seperate NEW CREATIVE SPACE attachment along with the article (not inserted in the article). Photo 13New creative space opening this fall releases should accompany any photo submissions. Submit all to called The Hive! [email protected] by noted deadlines. Please note that submission does not guarantee publication. Submission The Early Learning Coalition of Deadline For Issue Will hit mailboxes: Hillsborough County October 8, 2014 Winter 2014 Mid November 2014 6800 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Suite 158 (Oct/Nov/Dec) Tampa, Florida 33614 January 14, 2015 Spring 2015 Mid February 2015 PH (813) 515-2340 FAX (813) 435-2299 (Jan/Feb/Mar) www.elchc.org April 8, 2015 Summer 2015 Mid May 2015 This publication funded by: (Apr/May/Jun) July 8, 2015 Fall 2015 Mid August 2015 (Jul/Aug/Sept) “....how do we become mindful so as to model this behavior to our early learners?” LESSONS FROM PETE THE CAT & But this is an oversimplified view of a WISE OLD OWL very important and difficult process in children’s lives. While “looking Pete the Cat, the lovable main on the bright side,” as Wise Old Owl character in Pete the Cat and suggests, certainly helps to frame His Magic Sunglasses, as told by a more positive outlook on life, as authors Kimberly and James Dean, parents and professionals, we have has the “blue cat blues” until his to help our growing children learn friend Toad gives him cool, blue, to center themselves, manage their magic sunglasses with which to emotions, develop perspective view the world. When Pete puts on taking and trust themselves to the sunglasses, his world changes; keep balanced in a stressful and suddenly, “the birds are singing; the unsettling world. sky is bright; the sun is shining and he is feeling ALRIGHT!” Crash; just as This is a tall order and these are abruptly, the glasses fall off, crack, learned behaviors that are harder to and Pete doesn’t know what to do. master than just telling children to He feels lost without his “magic” find the good in everyday situations. sunglasses as a crutch. Wise Old Owl We have to give them real life tools, tells Pete he can rely on himself to not just hand them rose, blue or see the good in every day without his other tinted spectacles. This seems TEACHING special sunglasses. When Pete looks overwhelming; how do we do this on 4 | Focus Magazine around and finds that he can trust top of our regular curriculum? The www.elchc.orghimself to see the world positively, charming Pete the Cat book series and in a whole new way, he goes on provides a good discussion starter his merry way and the world is right. among professionals and with the ‘Mindful’ continued on page 8 The Importance of By Shabel Hastings Early Childhood Council - Inclusion Support Services I’m sure it’s happened a couple of times, a family is visiting and considering your center or family childcare home as a place of care for their child and they comment, “It looks like they are just playing?” It’s at this moment, that you have a wonderful opportunity to share with families what play really is and the importance of it. “Play” is actually a difficult word to simply define. In looking at the Webster’s dictionary, you will find multiple definitions for this one word. While the word and its action may appear simple, play in the early childhood world is very complex. There are stages of play and different types of play that take place. ‘Play’ continued on page 12 www.elchc.org FALL 2014 | 5 EVERYDAY By Karen Perkins, M.Ed. COO, ELC of Hillsborough uick….take out a pencil and write down your favorite classroom activities. Let’s see, if I were sharing my list you’d see dress-up and painting and dancing and singing and reading books, lots and lots of books. But I bet if I ask you what all my favorite classroom activities have to do with science there would probably be a long, long, Qlong silence. Why…because most of us don’t connect those activities to “science”. When reframing our thinking about science it’s hard to beat this quote from Kathleen Conezio, and Lucia French: “Many adults think of science as a discrete body of knowledge, for young children science is finding out about the everyday world that surrounds them. This is exactly what they are interested in doing, all day, every day. In the preschool classroom or in the university research laboratory, science is an active and open-ended search for new knowledge. It involves people working together in building theories, testing those theories, and then evaluating what worked, what didn’t, and why.” (And here’s the best part…) “Science itself is not an activity, but an approach to doing an activity. This approach involves a process of inquiry – theorizing, hands-on investigation, and discussion.” So science isn’t the activity. It isn’t the textbook. It isn’t the supplies. It’s an approach. Science happens every day in every corner of a preschool classroom and in every inch of a preschooler’s home. It’s more about curiosity and discovery than about a set of facts to be learned. Science is the foundation of learning to learn. So where’s the Science? Science can be found in everyday activities in homes and classrooms everywhere. Science is in the experience. It’s in the connections. It can be found in a spirited classroom or home where we question and wonder aloud. Science lives in places where we observe, and discuss, and experiment, and apply. It’s in the mindset, the approach to the world. Science is found when a child practically empties the liquid soap dispenser when she washes her hands because she is fascinated by the way the soap feels or the way the pump works. It’s at the easel when a child watches one color streaking across the page and then wonders what will happen when 6 | Focus Magazine www.elchc.org another color is added. References and Resources Ansberry, K. R., & Morgan, E. (2005). Picture-perfect science lessons: It’s in the block area when a teacher asks the children to tell Using children’s books to guide inquiry. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. her about what they’ve built, and then wonders aloud about what would happen if another block was added on top of the Ashbrook, P. (2003). Science is simple: over 250 activities for teetering tower. It’s definitely there when we add that last block preschoolers. Beltsville, MD: Gryphon House. and observe the results. Conezio, K., & French, L. (2002). Science in the preschool classroom: It’s in circle time when children ask what words mean, and Capitalizing on children’s fascination with the everyday world when teachers take the time not just to explain but to have the to foster language and literacy development. Young Children, children act it out. It’s there when teachers read stories and ask 57(5), 12–18. http://www.journal.naeyc.org/btj/200209/ what might happen next. PrinterFriendly_ScienceInThePreschoolClassroom.pdf Science is in the kitchen when we make muffins with our kids Worth, K., & Grollman, S. (2003). Worms, shadows, and whirlpools: and give them experience using measuring tools and wondering Science in the early childhood classroom. Portsmouth, NH: about the process of turning soggy batter into wonderful bready Heinemann deliciousness.