Category: Child Development Resources

Erikson’s Theory of Development

Erik Erikson’s theory of development is one my students have always enjoyed learning about, and pre-COVID was taught in a more hands-on way. Since many of us may be teaching with both students in the actual classroom as well as those taking the class virtually, in real time, I’ve updated my lesson to Erikson’s Theory of Development to incorporate Iron Chef & Instagram activities, making it more tech friendly and usable in both teaching worlds!

Birth Defects Guided Hyperdoc

Assigning hyperdocs for distance learning may seem like you aren’t the “sage on the stage”, however, even as the “guide on the side”, you can make them somewhat interactive. I use this “Birth Defects Guided Hyperdoc” as my plan or outline. Students complete it in sections, but we come together to discuss or go over parts along the way. This is one of the best ways I can make my hybrid virtual (Zoom) classroom mirror my traditional classroom. Doing this saves me time and frustration, in the end and I’m really just reworking my original activities, just in a little different format. So, please check out the “Birth Defects Guided Hyperdoc” to see what I mean!

Baby in Progress Hyperdoc

Anticipating the possibility of having to teach remotely or a blend of traditional and virtual, I’ve been trying to revise some of my hands-on activities to make them more compatible with 1:1 technology. The Baby in Progress Hyperdoc is a digital lesson that incorporates the prenatal development concepts learned in the Pregnancy Towers index card activity. The beauty of this Baby in Progress Hyperdoc is that the Pregnancy Tower group activity can be subbed in for the digital “What Month Am I?” activity if traditional teaching returns!

Promoting STEM: Role Models & Activities

There are tons of articles about including and promoting STEM to our students. I decided to add this “STEM: Role Models & Activities” lesson and project into my child development class. I want my students to not only understand what STEM is, but why it’s important to expose and encourage it with young children.

Baby Sign Language Project for E-Learning

Another THANK YOU to Katelyn Propper who has shared back her adaptation of my original Baby Sign Language lesson. Katelyn’s version of Baby Sign Language Project for E-Learning is set up for remote learning and covers all of the information using a variety of technologies. Read on to see how she’s done this in her Baby Sign Language Project for E-Learning!

Shopping Spree: Children’s Clothing

During this COVID-19 pandemic, we’ve been encouraged to create and assign lessons on topics within our content area that we’ve wanted to teach, but never really had time to because of state testing. In addition, the lesson(s) still had align with state standards. So, I decided to create and share this Shopping Spree: Children’s Clothing E-learning lesson. Please note that this lesson could easily be assigned in the regular classroom and fit into many different content areas.

Infants in Motion: A Physical Development Video Project

When teaching about the physical development of infants, I like to assign Infants in Motion: A Physical Development Video Project to my students so they can see the growth and development sequentially. Before students can put their video together, they must understand what is happening and, therefore, must do a bit of research. Read on to see how I introduce and build up to this assignment.

Piaget Based Play-doh Mats

Instead of having students make the busy books at the end of the Piaget Relational Concepts lesson, I created this Piaget based Play-doh mats project. In doing so, I found students to be just as engaged, if not more so, the projects were a lot neater and overall, found it was a more interactive and creative assignment that reinforced the relational concepts! It’s a keeper!

COPE24: Grant Opportunity (sponsored post)

COPE24 is seeking to partner with school districts, specifically high schools that have identified that student behavior is often a direct result of what is going on in their home. To break that cycle, COPE24 is looking for schools and teachers who recognize the need to make parenting and child development education a priority within their educational structure. Continue reading to learn more about the COPE24: Grant Opportunity.

Delayed Gratification, Patience & Consistency

In a world of “instants” does patience still exist? And, should we be teaching children delayed gratification skills and how to be patient instead of immediately giving into their every “whim”? This lesson explores this topic and demonstrates to students why being consistent and teaching children to be patient yields greater success later on in life.