By Stefanie Camoni School-age children come to our programs early in the morning and late in the day. They are engaged in academic learning at school and during out-of-school time. Lessons and activities cover subjects like math and science. Have we stopped however, to think about activities that focus on social-emotional learning? The Collaborative for...Read More

By Amy Hoffman Have you heard the news? The Program Quality Assessment (PQA) team at the Pennsylvania Key has a lot to offer to programs. You may already know that we (usually) conduct external assessments to support early learning and school-age programs; this involves an assessor visiting your program and observing a wide range of...Read More

Natalie Grebe Pasta has been satisfying hungry stomachs all over the world for thousands of years. Athletes use it for carb loading. Restaurants feature it on menus. Parents use it as their go-to when they need a quick and easy meal that the whole family will enjoy. Luckily, pasta is usually a favorite of most...Read More

Aimee Currier When I was a classroom teacher, every year we would read Growing Vegetable Soup by Lois Ehlert. It was a great book to use across the curriculum from math to science. We would talk about how seeds grow and how some plants needed to be started indoors before being transplanted (great new vocabulary...Read More

By Aimee Currier Apple pie, applesauce, apple juice, apple cider, apple jelly… what’s your favorite way to eat an apple? With Fall upon us and the air crisp and cool, we begin to see apples everywhere. October 21st is National Apple Day, a great day to celebrate these healthy fruits with the children in your class....Read More

Beth Simon *Before conducting the experiments below, make sure to check with parents and guardians about children’s allergies. Hands-on activities and experiments are a great activity to build into your curriculum. What do hands-on experiments teach children? Well, a lot of things. They will learn how to build a hypothesis or prediction of what will...Read More

Natalie Grebe Its 9:00am in a preschool classroom. Two teachers have successfully orchestrated their class of 17 children to clean up their morning centers. One of the teachers calls out 9 names and asks those children to join her on the reading rug. The other teacher tells the remaining eight children to sit at their...Read More

Kelli Harris National Friendship Day was originally founded by Hallmark in 1919. It was intended to be a day for people to celebrate their friendships by sending each other cards. By 1940, the market had dried up and the holiday fizzled. It was first proposed in Paraguay in 1958. In 1998, Winnie the Pooh was...Read More

Michelle Mallonee Long First things first, relinquish control. Stop trying to control everything in the environment, the learning, the movements of the children. Open up your heart and mind to allow room for creativity. For many teachers, this is easier said than done. The fear of chaos as a result prevents them from loosening up...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