Take time to connect with resources on the Resources for Early Childhood website. You will find a rich array of lessons, articles, and other features that enhance teaching and energize learning.

Connect to REC Resources and Features
Planning Topic: Exploring Forces and Motion

Many teachers provide their children opportunities to roll, push, pull, bounce, and swing objects during playtime. These educators see movement explorations as important learning experiences, and they are. REC has lessons and resources that can support teachers in their efforts to engage children in worthwhile investigations. You’ll find a good selection in the Exploring Forces and Motion mini-collection.

The following picture books would coordinate well with discussions while children are investigating how they can move objects from one place to another.

Below by Nina Crews
Motion: Push and Pull Fast and Slow by Darlene Stille
Roll, Slope, and Slide: A Book about Ramps by Michael Dahl
Scoop, Seesaw, and Raise: A Book about Levers by Michael Dahl
Fall Down by Vicki Cobb
Move It by Adrienne Mason
My Little Red Toolbox by Stephen T. Johnson
Uh-Oh! by Rachel Isadora

Resources in the Spotlight
Here are some excellent resources you’ll find in the spotlight this month! You may want to add them to your REC Collection. (Register for free at http://rec.ohiorc.org/register/default.aspx to start your collection.)

EC Bookshelf: Creatures All Around (REC #11869)
Inquiry Project: The Fish Project (REC #11693)
EC Building Block Brief: Children Using Data to Find Answers (REC #11826)
Infant-Toddler Resource: Pattern Fun: Laptime Games (REC #10963)
Preschool Resource: Rhythmic Ribbons (REC #6671)
Getting Ready for Kindergarten Resource: Going to Kindergarten (REC #9577)
Key Special Needs Resource: The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3 (REC #6717)
Inclusive Classroom Lesson: Going on a Shape Hunt (REC #4459)

Have You Seen This?

REC has so much to offer Ohio early childhood educators. Have you seen the Inclusive Classroom section and all it has to offer? If you are looking for information about how to meet the needs of all the children in your classroom, there are pages and pages of resources. For example, there is a long list of links to websites all of which provide easy access to the information you need. Have fun browsing!

Connect with Other Educators

Ohio Early Care and Education Conference. This year’s annual conference is being held at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on April 19–21, 2012. Early Bird registration begins in January.

No matter what amount of time you wish to invest, be sure to visit the REC booth in the Exhibit Hall and see how the realignment of all the resources is coming along.

You may also want to attend the REC workshop session about planning for the use of the new Ohio standards. "Paddling the Untraveled Waters: Navigating the 2014 Standards Transition" will be presented on Thursday, April 19, from 2:00 to 4:30 p.m.

If you don’t want to wait till April, a similar presentation will be held during the Ohio eTech Conference on February 14, 2012, at 12 noon.

Connect with the REC Website
Resources for Early Childhood (REC) is a project undertaken by the Ohio Resource Center.

The REC website seeks to support Ohio's early childhood teachers, parents, teachers of early childhood teachers, and children by providing peer-reviewed, web-based resources to assist with instructional planning, professional learning, and the implementation of the Ohio early learning standards for mathematics, science, English language arts, and social studies and program guidelines.

The REConnections newsletter can connect you with REC on a monthly basis. Simply JOIN REC and click in the REConnections box to subscribe.

Connect to REC by becoming a follower of our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/OhioRC_EarlyEd. We are constantly updating you with the latest news and hints from REC.

If you have feedback or if you have a favorite REC resource you would like to tell others about, email Nancy Brannon, nbrannon@ohiorc.org. The ORC staff would love to include your favorites in an upcoming issue of REConnections.