By: Lisa Mulliken     Think about yourself as a child. Most likely, much of your time was spent exploring natural materials in your environment: digging for worms, lifting rocks in the creek to find salamanders, climbing trees, playing with your dog, building a snow fort in the backyard. These experiences engaged our senses, helped us construct...Read More

Beth Simon “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.” ― Charles M. Schulz White, milk, dark, frozen or hot, in bars, drops, chips or chunks, chocolate has long provided us with comfort and joy. It soothes the soul and lifts spirits in difficult times, and it complements celebrations and...Read More

By Lisa Mulliken Barney the purple dinosaur, Wilson the volleyball, Snuffleupagus (my favorite!) and the Wild Things. What do all of these have in common? They are all imaginary friends. Imaginary friends can be invisible or a personified object, such as a doll or even a child’s fingers.Read More

Aimee Currier How many of us have pondered the thought of “just where did half of my socks go?” I read a funny quote that said lost socks come back as Tupperware lids! May 9th has been designated as “National Lost Sock Memorial Day.” It is quite a unique “holiday” and one that you can...Read More

Por Lisa Mulliken Contenedores de juego individuales pueden ser creados utilizando diferentes tipos de recipientes llenos de varios materiales. Estos contenedores se pueden utilizar en varios espacios de su programa para fomentar el juego individual y creativo. Puede reutilizar una bandeja de cubiertos vieja o usar un marco de fotos abierto para crear un espacio...Read More

Kitty Syster  The Inclusive Classroom Profile, commonly referred to as the ICP, is a program observation instrument used to assess the quality of daily classroom practices that support the developmental needs of children with disabilities. This instrument is designed to be used in preschool classrooms that have at least one child with a disability. The ICP is designed to complement existing classroom quality measures...Read More

Submitted by Tracy Walter Early in 2019, the PA Key Program Quality Assessment team began orientations in partnership with the Branagh Group to introduce the LearnERS platform. LearnERS helps guide programs through a quality improvement process using the Environment Rating Scales. LearnERS is an online platform offered to center-based programs through a limited number of...Read More

Amy Hoffman A few weeks ago, a friend commented that her 5-year-old had been “feeling all the feelings” earlier in the day. He was reacting to those feelings by crying when she left his sight, yelling at his younger sister, and refusing to follow directions. And how did my friend react to this? She set...Read More

Quality Tips by Pam Schaffner  The assessment team in PA is often asked if they have any tips to make meeting quality standards easier. Since they have experiences visiting many programs in their professional careers, they have seen many programs employ strategies to make things easier, more efficient, and more effective. Implementing quality can be...Read More

Erin DelRegno As teachers, you won’t learn anything about the children in your classroom or about their developmental needs if you are going to do all the talking. You are there to guide children’s learning, not to give them all the answers, or ask them questions that they already know the answer to. As assessors,...Read More