Early Childhood News

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Early Childhood News, 30 June 2008

Issue 6 2008 ISSN 1449-0544

This is an edna newsletter, published monthly, featuring quality online resources for those working with children 0-8 years old.

Our theme - Trees and plants
Featuring edna categories and pages
Online projects
Government Education Portal update
Upcoming events, conferences and opportunities
Selected news and sites

Our theme - Trees and plants

Try searching within Early Childhood Education 'Curriculum Resources' to find teaching/learning resources on the topics you want. http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/pid/235

Resources on plants
http://url.edna.edu.au/JhJ3

Trees
http://url.edna.edu.au/5PHB

Gardening
http://url.edna.edu.au/Uj8r

Interactive resource on plants or trees
http://url.edna.edu.au/uhRu

Featuring edna categories and pages

The Early Childhood Education sector has its first theme page!
The ECE home page currently features the theme page 'Stories for young children' which is found at http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/pid/2679.
Additional theme pages will be offered over the coming months.

Calendar dates to note:

For information about these and other dates see our Calendar for Australian Schools http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/schooled/schools_events

Online projects

New this month from Global Education and OzProjects

Global Education
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/
Five new Pacific country profiles are now available on the Global Education website: the profiles for Niue, Nauru, Palau, Kiribati and Tokelau are a valuable resource for students studying our Pacific neighbours.
http://www.globaleducation.edna.edu.au/globaled/go/cache/offonce/pid/140

Languages matter
http://www.ozprojects.edu.au/course/view.php?id=33
2008 is the International Year of Languages. The slogan is "Languages Matter". With this theme in mind a new online project has been developed in the Global Projects section of the OzProjects website. The Languages Matter project includes links to online resources for a number of languages taught in Australian schools at a range of year levels. Please contact Cecily Wright (cwright@educationau.edu.au) if you have any suggestions of good online resources you would like to see included in this project. The languages project will also facilitate student understanding of the role of languages in global citizenship.

Aboriginal Studies project
http://www.ozprojects.edu.au/course/view.php?id=32
Leonie Black and her Pre-Primary class in Perth are studying Aboriginal culture, Dreaming stories and art, and have made a new project available. Other classes from across Australia are invited to share ideas and information.

Government Education Portal update

The Government Educational Portal website is no longer being maintained. Many of the resources you may have accessed through the Education Portal are available through edna http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece or the Office of Early Childhood Education and Child Care http://www.oececc.gov.au/

Upcoming events, conferences & opportunities

Music Education and Early Childhood
The Australian Society for Music Education (ASME) is launching its first e-issue of the Australian Journal of Music Education. The issue will focus on music education and early childhood. The guest editors are Dr Berenice Nyland and Dr Jill Ferris.
The guidelines for submission are available on http://www.asme.edu.au/AJMEguidelines.pdf
Deadline for article submission is 1 September 2008. For further questions and submission of articles please contact Berenice.Nyland@rmit.edu.au

Early Years Conference 2008, Sydney, 15-16 July 2008
http://www.detconferences.nsw.edu.au/earlyyears.php
Keynote speakers at the 2008 Early Years Conference will address innovative literacy and numeracy practices, how to foster resilience and build student wellbeing, and how to develop effective partnerships between schools, parents and communities. The conference will also focus on successful transition and integrating collaborative technologies into Early Years classrooms.

Deliberative forum on rethinking school readiness, Melbourne, 16 July 2008
http://www.rch.org.au/emplibrary/ccch/RT_Seminar.pdf
There has been a growing recognition of the importance of ensuring that all children reach school able to take advantage of the academic and social learning experiences that schools provide. It is also being recognised that this can only be achieved if schools, early childhood services and communities work together to support young children and families during the early years.

CEGSA Conference, Adelaide, 17-18 July 2008
http://cegsa.editme.com/conference2008
Keynote speakers at the Computers in Education SA conference are Professor Martin Westwell, 'The future of the mind: how technology changes the way we think', and Dr Margaret Lloyd, 'Professional Development - circular not linear'.

Working Forum on Nature Education for Young Children, Nebraska USA, 21-23 July 2008
http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wf2008_nature/index.php
The Working Forum on Nature Education for Young Children is an activity of the World Forum Foundation working in collaboration with a large number of organizations world wide advocating the value of reconnecting young children with nature.

edna workshops 'Framing your digital footprint'
edna's hands-on workshops provide training in the use of online services and collaborative tools.
Hobart, 21 July 2008
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/networks/workshops/pid/1670
Darwin, 5 August 2008
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/networks/workshops/pid/1656

education.au seminar - Mind over matter: How technology matters, Sydney, 26 August 2008
http://www.educationau.edu.au/jahia/Jahia/pid/646
Professor Martin Westwell, Director of the Flinders Centre for Science Education in the 21st Century will provide insight into how modern lifestyles and technologies are influencing the minds of the young and old.

View other conferences and events listed with edna:
Early Childhood Events
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/ece_events
Search for events of interest using the Advanced keyword search at
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/ece_events/pid/1983

Selected news & sites

Teachers' interactions with children are critical for effective Pre-K programs
http://www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?id=5217
A new United States study finds that Pre-K programs will benefit children most when they experience instructionally and emotionally supportive interactions with their teachers. UVa Today , May 2008.

New services for Indigenous families gets underway
http://url.edna.edu.au/73Ru
New services to support Indigenous families have been launched in eight locations around Australia as part of a $16.6 million Australian Government commitment to give Indigenous children a good start in life. The services - the Indigenous Parenting Support Services - will target families with children aged up to eight years old with a focus on children under the age of two. They will help Indigenous parents overcome barriers to good family relationships and support them through their children's transitions to child care, preschool and primary school. FaHCSIA, 24 June 2008.

Campaign launched to fix childcare skills threat
http://www.lhmu.org.au/01_cms/details.asp?ID=670
The Liquor Hospitality and Miscellaneous Union (LHMU) 'BIG STEPS in childcare' campaign aims at addressing Australia's costly childcare skills crisis. LHMU, June 2008.

4 year-old kids 'already too fat', inquiry told
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/13/2274130.htm
A health expert is warning the nation's obesity problem could spiral out of control. Professor Christian Gericke from the University of Adelaide has given evidence to a Senate hearing in Adelaide into obesity issues. He says the problem is of great concern in young children, with lack of exercise and poor nutrition the major risk factors. ABC News, 13 June 2008.

Australian sites

Walungurru School: Let us teach you
http://www.schools.nt.edu.au/walungurru/learn.htm
Follow the links on this page to learn from the skills and knowledge of the students of Walungurru School in the Northern Territory. Learn about making damper, collecting bush tucker and honey ants, and preparing emu to cook over the fire. Photographs and children's drawings accompany the text.

Good science books for children: Preschool
http://science.org.au/pi/goodbooks/preschool.htm
Science picture books will help develop observation and thinking. Titles of books are included if they develop an idea in a way that can lead to understanding scientific thought. Topics include: displacement of water, noses, spider, Australian animals, wombat, apple, quicksand, frogs, push, animals, wolf, sorting objects, capacity, weight, snails.

School readiness in Indigenous children: Bringing together the health and education research agenda http://www.aracy.org.au/AM/Template.cfm?Section=JCarapetis
This ARACY collaboration brings together the Aboriginal health and education research agendas in the Northern Territory, with the aim of applying rigorous research methods to determining the most effective service models/interventions to improve school readiness for young Indigenous children. A workshop summary report and discussion paper are available to download.

International sites

Lookybook
http://www.lookybook.com/
Lookybook enables users to view entire children's books online. Every book can be reviewed, rated and shared. The site also provides a 'bookshelf' allowing users to collect their favourite texts.

To see the most recent additions to Early Childhood resources go to
http://www.edna.edu.au/edna/go/ece/pid/13

To assist in your planning for 2008 see:

The Early Childhood News does not seek to be comprehensive or authoritative and views expressed here are not necessarily the views of edna's stakeholders.

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