Free Guides

 

Creative ideas to make your training participant centered.

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Conversations With Young Children About Violence

The ten tips provided are intended to be a place to start if you find yourself in a situation in which you need to talk with your students about violence. These tips are based on experiences, research, and resources.

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Addressing Barriers in The Classroom

 

 This resource article looks at the different types of barriers that children or adults might encounter.

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View REL West’s Trauma-Informed Care and Fostering Resilience Video Collection

 

REL West assembled a free video collection “Addressing Trauma and Fostering Resilience,” where experts on trauma and youth provide actionable strategies on building positive relationships and resilience with youth, responding to youth suicide, understanding youth behaviors, and employing trauma-informed practices.

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The Ability Toolkit

 

A resource for parents of children and youth with a disability.

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Bright Solutions for Dyslexia

 

Sharing the latest dyslexia research with those who need to know

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10 Tips for Raising Grateful Kids

 

This resource shares 10 tips for instilling gratitude in children, also sharing some gratitude activities for children to try.

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12 Tipos de Juegos

 

El juego no es "solo jugar." Hay una variedad de tipos de juego y cada uno es importante para un crecimiento y desarrollo saludables.

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Your Clip Chart Is Ruining Your Classroom Culture

 

Managing behavior in a way that leverages public shame is counterintuitive to building the psychological safety students need.

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Understanding the Connection between Developmental Assets and Developmental Relationships

 

Learn more about the connection between the 40 Developmental Assets and Developmental Relationships, along with strategies of how to use them together in your program.

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Holidays And Anti-Bias Education

 

When program leaders, teachers, and families commit themselves to respectful, thoughtful exchanges of ideas and work together to create a holiday program that is respectful of everyone, we create something truly remarkable. It takes lots of conversations and practice listening to, learning from, and give-and-take negotiating with people in your program.

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Family Guide to Supporting Young People’s Mental Health and Well-Being: Information, Tips, and Resources

Promoting the mental health awareness and well of our K-12 families.

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Developmental Relationships: The Roots of Positive Youth Development

In this report, we summarize what we’ve learned from our last decade of work defining, studying, and strengthening developmental relationships for all youth. 

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Creating A Supportive Environment for Toddlers: Helping Young Children Thrive

 

This article will focus on two contributions from the Pikler approach: 1) differentiating between child exploration times and caring times and 2) setting up a safe environment with playthings that interest toddlers.

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Six Strategies for Effective School Family Engagement Events

 

School-based family engagement centers on the activities, events, and communication schools share with families. Try these six strategies to improve family attendance at school events and to make event planning and family outreach more intentional and effective.

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Toy Tips: Adapting Toys and Materials to Meet a Variety of Needs

 

This resource offers support for toys and materials that may need to be adapted for inclusion practices.

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Inclusion In the Preschool Classroom

 

An inclusive preschool educates children with disabilities in the same environment as typically developing peers, so all children can participate in the same activities and routines.

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Creating Positive Sport Experiences for Kids with Hidden Disabilities

This resource shares a list of strategies for families to create a “positive sport experience” and promote inclusivity for their children. It also shares good tips for adults working with children who exhibit challenging behaviors, like creating routines, a “hill out plan” and more. 

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Resources for Screen Free Week

 

Check out this website for links to activities, guides and tips for families and educators to make Screen Free Week or Screen Free Saturdays a success. There are also printables with infographics, reading pledges, screen-free bingo cards and more!

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Reduce Your Stress in The Staff Room: 7 Vagus Nerve Activities for Educators

 

One way to alleviate stress is introducing the concept of stimulating the vagus nerve, a pivotal element of the nervous system, to aid in stress reduction and promote overall well-being.

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25 Self-Control Activities for Children

 

This resource explains the different types of self-control, along with sharing 25 great activity ideas to help elementary-age children strengthen their self-control skills.

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Podcast: The Role of The Adult in Play

 

We play a crucial role in supporting a child’s play.  Listen as author Sandy Heidemann joins us for another podcast on the importance of play.  She talks about our role as observer and stage manager, expanding on how we can help build play success for children.

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Podcast: The Importance of Play in A Child’s Life

 

Author and CICC Coach Sandy Heidemann joins us and shares the ways play supports and enhances a child’s development of language, motor skills, cognitive skills, and social-emotional skills.

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The Importance of Setting Goals and Defining Success for Youth

 

Goal-setting is a wonderful tool that can help children in all areas of their lives, building confidence in their abilities and the importance of hard work. This resource shares ideas of how to introduce goal setting to children.

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The ABCs of Physical Literacy

 

This resource shares the important “ABCs” of physical movement: agility, balance, coordination, and speed. After going into details about the importance of each, there is a link to various activities for toddler to school-age children. 

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Do Children Learn More from Printed Books Than Screens?

 

Researchers estimate that if a student spends ten hours reading in print in their free time, their ability to comprehend will likely be six to eight times greater than if they read on digital devices for the same amount of time.

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Building Busy Boxes for Preschoolers

 

These kits, which are organized around lessons or students’ individual interests, encourage preschoolers to engage in independent play.

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8 Ways to Get Better at Small Talk

 

This resource offers easy to follow tips to start and sustain interesting conversations with new and old acquaintances.

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How To Create a Calm Learning Environment for Preschoolers

 

Simple elements like lighting, tone of voice, and routines can help young children feel calm and ready to learn.

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3 Improv Exercises to Use as Guided Play

 

These exercises allow young students to use their imaginations while reinforcing concepts taught in class.

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Which Enneagram Type are You?

The enneagram test can be a great starting point in learning more about your personality. This test "acts as a mirror to observe our qualities as they change and empowers us to influence these qualities."

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What is Growth Mindset?

Diving deeper into what a growth mindset is, myths about growth mindset and how to develop a growth mindset.  

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The Best Routines for Adults with ADHD: Reduce Stress & Anxiety

 "Steps you can practice to develop new habits that will decrease everyday anxiety and stress." 

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Six Thinking Hats Technique: Types and Examples

 "The Six Thinking Hats, developed by Edward de Bono explained in a practical way with examples and tips."

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Seven Ways to Have a Healthier Relationship with Stress

 

" A new book by renowned stress researcher Elissa Epel explains how stress affects our bodies at the cellular level and how to manage it better."

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Ready, Set, Journal! 64 Journaling Prompts for Self-Discovery

 

"Are you interested in giving journaling a try? Do you feel a bit stuck when it comes to getting started? Try the 64 prompts below to kick-start your creativity and write your way toward well-being."

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What is Resilience Training and How to Build It?

 

"What is Resilience? Here are some ways you as a manager can assist in the development of resilience in your team."

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Personal and Professional Development: A Guide to Continuous Growth

An overview of what personal and professional development is, how to improve yours for continuous growth, and why it is important.

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Personal Brand Examples: Craft Your Once Sentenc"You don’t need a logo to be a brand. Every person also has a one-sentence vision statement. If you’re unsure what yours is, read on for the simple exercises that will help you craft one."e Vision Statement

 

"You don't need a logo to be a brand. Every person also has a one-sentence vision statement. If you're unsure what yours is, read on for this simple exercise that will help you craft one."

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Project Implicit

"The mission of Project Implicit is to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet. Project Implicit scientists produce high-impact research that forms the basis of our scientific knowledge about bias and disparities."

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4 Theater Games That Make Great Morning Meeting Activities

 

These games can spark creativity, boost engagement, and teach important executive function skills such as turn-taking.

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5 Apps You Can Download to Get Kids Active

 

With these apps, kids can use your phone to complete fun tasks at a playground, go on scavenger hunts, become mini astronomers finding and identifying stars and planets, discover new, fun hiking trails, or become nature specialists.

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5 Group Games from Memory Lane to Pass on To Your Kids

 

Take a trip down memory lane and teach your children how to play these easy group games.

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24 Activities to Keep Your Non-Sporty Kids Moving

No matter how much a kid likes sport or not, being active and moving every day is good for all kids. So how do you get your non-sporty kid to be active? Try these tips to incorporate what they love with movement.

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The Critical Need for Tracing Individual Trajectories After an Early Diagnosis of Autism

 

This article discusses the evidence supporting the need for regular follow-up in the preschool years, following an early diagnosis.

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Natural Start Alliance: Resources

 

This resource offers several items to help in your environmental education.

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Incorporating The Calming Corner into Station Rotation

 

Elementary students benefit from short breaks from academic learning to explore activities that support their emotional development.

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Rewriting The Stories We Tell Ourselves

 

This article resource offers a few simple tips to try and stop the stories we tell ourselves from deciding the narrative for us.

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Sharing An Autism Diagnosis with Family and Friends

 

Tips for explaining autism to family and close friends, to help them become effective allies.

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Trauma-Informed Instruction

This resource can help you implement trauma-informed strategies; learn about the role schools play in helping students heal from racial trauma; examine five tips to support students’ mental health; assess the benefits of trauma-informed practice for both students and educators; and more.

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