Storykate: an early childhood teacher and trainer, armed with ukulele and the gift to generate endless curriculum ideas.
Hello, fellow educators!👋🏻 I'm Kate, an experienced early childhood teacher and tertiary education instructor passionate about enriching early learning. With extensive experience across various roles—from nanny and storyteller to educational leader and early childhood trainer—I bring a wealth of knowledge and innovative teaching strategies to the table. At Storykate, I'm dedicated to sharing engaging educational practices through stories, puppet shows, action songs, ukulele, mind maps and circle games. Whether you're teaching young children or training future educators, you'll find invaluable resources here. I offer a treasure trove of free resources, creative ideas, and digital products designed to enhance your teaching methods and pedagogy. I helped hundreds of students and educators achieve their professional goals. 👇Why Subscribe? Subscribe to get your hands on exclusive content that blends storytelling, puppetry, and music with effective teaching techniques. These resources are perfect for keeping your programs lively and educational, especially during circle time. 🐞Join me at Storykate to explore new ways to jazz up your teaching style and connect with a community of like-minded early childhood educators. Let’s make learning fun and meaningful together!
Storykate Stories: Happy New Year!
Welcome to storytime with Kate! Hey Educators!From my teacher's heart, I wish you all an amazing New Year 2026, and I hope you will stay safe and achieve more in your careers as educators. Let kindness and community connections spread, and let it be peace in the world. This year, I’m not aiming for more. I’m aiming for clearer, calmer and more intentional. One small step is enough. A 10-minute goal-setting activity for educatorsJanuary does not need big resolutions. This short activity is about choosing one clear focus that makes your days a little easier or more meaningful. Let's give it a go! Step 1. Pause and noticeTake two quiet minutes and finish these sentences. Write whatever comes first.
Step 2. Choose one small focusRead your answers and choose one area to focus on this term. Keep it simple. For example:
Write: This term, I want to feel more __________ in my work. Step 3. Set a “small but real” goalNow turn that focus into one realistic action. Use this sentence: By the end of this term, I will __________. Examples:
If it feels easy, you are doing it right. Step 4. Choose a reminderGoals stick better with a cue.
Finish with: I will remind myself by __________.
Kate's story from practiceYesterday, my 3-year-old neighbour visited us. He was allured by the green garden we have and a lot of interesting things it has to offer – pinecones, shells and many other wonderful nature loose parts. A kindergarten teacher at heart, I quickly set up water play with food dyes and eye droppers, and he played with so much engagement. If you have ever watched a toddler sit in a mud patch, swirl water in a bowl, or run bark chips through their fingers, you can see how deeply they learn through their senses. Sensory play is not just “messy play”. It is how toddlers make sense of the world long before they have the words to explain what they know. Let's reflect on messy play and our attitude about it...
Quote of the month“You are not documenting what has happened, you are documenting your point of view.” Carla Rinaldi, Reggio Emilia pedagogista
This quote reminds us that observations are not neutral records. They are interpretive acts that show what the educator values and notices.I I think it is about the importance of being reflective and intentional in how we observe, document and use what we see to inform our practice.
An observation method of the mothAs a teacher, I really like anecdotal group observations. They are written as stories and focus on group learning, but they can be unpacked into individual snapshots, jottings or even learning stories. The key is to use multiple ways to collect information, e.g. photos, quotes, notes.
As a part of our restaurant investigation, we made our own pizza at kinder room with Kathy, our chef. We put two tables together and children sat around. Kathy madethe toppings and sauce. The choice of toppings was based on children's preferences during group time discussion. Children were offered to choose what to top up their pizzas with. Before that we talked about what pizza is and how we make pizzas. Kathy showed the children all the toppings and asked if they knew which one do they know. Children were very confident with naming salami, cheese, ham, and pineapple. They needed some help remembering capsicum. What do we put on our pizza? – We asked children first.
What is that, Kathy? – asked Child A, pointing at the tomato sauce. That’s tomato sauce. “My dad likes this sauce”, – said Child B. So children spread sauce on their pizzas and started to choose toppings. They used thongs to pick up ham, salami, mushrooms, pineapple and cheese. My pizza is going to be a burger! – Child A folded his pitta bread as a burger and pretended to eat it. When the pizzas were all done, we put them in the oven, cleaned the table and put our new placemats on the table. After 5 minutes, our little pizzas were ready to eat. It was so good to make our own lunch. Child A, Child B, and Child C were so happy with the experience that they asked to makeva chocolate cake with Kathy next week. How to use clothpins for MathsYoung children find it easiest to grasp new knowledge when it’s “tangible,” “visible,” and, as N. Zaitsev likes to say, “ear-audible.” If you make this simple learning tool, it’ll be much easier to explain number composition to your little one. Plus, this kind of math lesson strengthens the small muscles in your child’s hand. So, take several sheets of sturdy cardboard, a set of clothespins, and a marker. On each cardboard card, write a number from 0 to 10. First, demonstrate: zero is no clothespins at all. One is one clothespin, two is two clothespins, three is three clothespins, and so on. Once they’ve got that down, you can move on to studying number composition. 3 = 1 clothespin + 1 clothespin + 1 clothespin
Three (3) can be shown this way. Or it can be represented as 1 and 2, as 2 and 1, or as 1, 1, and 1. Understanding the Number 4Looking at your photo, I can see a brilliant example! The number 4 card has clothespins attached showing different ways to compose the number 4. How can we make the number 4?
The beauty of using different colored clothespins (like the red and blue ones in your photo) is that children can visually distinguish between the different parts that make up the whole number. They’re not just learning abstract math—they’re physically building numbers with their hands, seeing the patterns, and feeling the weight of each composition. This hands-on approach makes math concrete rather than abstract, which is exactly what preschoolers need. They can experiment, try different combinations, and discover mathematical relationships through play. And the pinching motion required to attach clothespins? That’s excellent fine motor practice that will help with everything from writing to buttoning clothes. Try this activity with your child, and watch as those little fingers work and that mathematical mind grows!
WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE RESOURCE, BOOK OR GAME FOR YOUNG CHILDREN? Thanks for reading, and I hope these resources spark new ideas in your classroom. Stay tuned for next month’s edition; remember, creativity is key to keeping the joy in learning! All the best,
P.S. Share the Love! Explore More on Storykate What would you like me to make articles and videos about? What resources would you like me to create? Send me a message via DM or FB, and I will try my best to make it. |
Storykate: an early childhood teacher and trainer, armed with ukulele and the gift to generate endless curriculum ideas.
Hello, fellow educators!👋🏻 I'm Kate, an experienced early childhood teacher and tertiary education instructor passionate about enriching early learning. With extensive experience across various roles—from nanny and storyteller to educational leader and early childhood trainer—I bring a wealth of knowledge and innovative teaching strategies to the table. At Storykate, I'm dedicated to sharing engaging educational practices through stories, puppet shows, action songs, ukulele, mind maps and circle games. Whether you're teaching young children or training future educators, you'll find invaluable resources here. I offer a treasure trove of free resources, creative ideas, and digital products designed to enhance your teaching methods and pedagogy. I helped hundreds of students and educators achieve their professional goals. 👇Why Subscribe? Subscribe to get your hands on exclusive content that blends storytelling, puppetry, and music with effective teaching techniques. These resources are perfect for keeping your programs lively and educational, especially during circle time. 🐞Join me at Storykate to explore new ways to jazz up your teaching style and connect with a community of like-minded early childhood educators. Let’s make learning fun and meaningful together!
Welcome to storytime with Kate! Hey Educators! I hope the year has begun kindly for you. The start of a new term can feel noisy. New routines. New children. New expectations. This month, I want to slow things down a little and focus on presence rather than productivity. You don’t need to do everything. You only need to do one thing well.My news - I left my Vocational Education Teacher's job and may now look into bush playgroup positions... New year , new beginnings! Check out my channel...
Welcome to storytime with Kate! Happy Holidays! Hey Educators! Check out my channel Kate's story from practice Indoor Gym I went into the Toddler Room during the rain, and it was clear the children had so much bottled-up energy. There was screaming, there were behaviour issues, and you could see the educator was trying to run an activity. She even pulled out some sort of balancing cushion for them to walk on. But it was obvious that many of the children just wanted to jump and run. One girl...
Hey, lovely educator, If you have been eyeing off a few StoryKate resources and thinking, “I’ll grab that later,” this is your week. 🖤 Black Friday Sale: 50% off 51 StoryKate products From 22 November to 29 November 2025, you can get 50% off a curated collection of 51 resources in my StoryKate Payhip store. Perfect if you want to get organised for next year, polish your documentation or add a few new ideas to your curriculum without staying up till midnight making it all from scratch. 👉 Use...