Greetings!
Early Learning Update Week of December 4th, 2023
Items Covered:
· Last Chance: December Monthly Early Learning Professional Development: “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning” - Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
· Meaningful Makeover for classrooms
· Licensed ONLY – Licensed Program Webinars
· Licensed ONLY - Licensing “WAC” of the week – Handwashing and Hand Sanitizer
1.) Last Chance: December Monthly Early Learning Professional Development: “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning” - Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm
Each month we will be offering a FREE Professional Development Training facilitated by one of our great Professional Development Partners. These trainings are available for any Early Learning staff and will have STARS and CLOCK hours available for those that need it.
December’s training is offered by IMPACT and is called “Sensory and the Brain: Promoting Self-Regulation and Learning.” The training will take place virtually on Zoom on Thursday, December 7th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm. Please see description and registration below:
Description: Do you like roller coasters? Do you hate spicy foods? We all have sensory preferences that guide the things we seek out and the things we avoid. Many “challenging behaviors” are actually a child’s attempts to regulate their sensory system, so join us to learn how to recognize sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding behaviors in the classroom. This course teaches brain-based strategies that effective teachers use to get entire classrooms of children regulated and ready to learn. We put this into practice with a case study to identify an individual child’s sensory needs and walk through the whole process together – connecting a child’s behaviors to their sensory needs and then creating an easy-to-follow plan for supporting those needs in the classroom. As a bonus, you’ll get a printable Sensory Matrix template that you can customize for your students and use again and again in your classroom.
2.) Meaningful Makeover for classrooms
Meaningful MakeoverTM is a web series created and produced by Cultivate Learning at the University of Washington and supported through funding by DCYF. This series for educators and early learning providers offers tips, visuals, and inexpensive solutions that transform environments. It promotes learning opportunities, greater accessibility, and engagement. Each episode highlights simple improvements that are easy to make. Watch Cultivate Learning’s educational environment experts as they team up with providers to show the secrets and science behind the most impactful early learning spaces.
3.) Licensed ONLY – Licensed Program Webinars
During this school year the Licensed Program Webinars are going to focus on different sections of the WAC. My hope is that these short (5-15 minute) webinars can give you bite size portions of the Early Learning WAC’s material in order to help our programs stay in compliance. This week I have the first two recorded Webinars ready for you. Please let me know if you have any questions.
4.) Licensed ONLY - Licensing “WAC” of the week – Handwashing and Hand Sanitizer
This week the focus is Handwashing and Hand Sanitizer. The WAC covers proper handwashing technique, a list that covers all times that staff needs to wash hands and a list that covers all times that kids need to wash hands. The last note is that hand sanitizer is not allowed unless proper handwashing facilities are not available and also needs to be approved by your licensor. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great week!
