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: September
Welcome to storytime with Kate!Hey Educators!
Kate's story from practiceDuring my second teaching placement, I thought I was on the right track. New ideas, engaging activities, and materials matched to each child. My placement was at a council-run early childhood centre near home. I was using a scooter to get there. Mixed age groups, strong relationships, a security-based approach. I enjoyed it! I had a focus on a 1.5-year-old toddler, who loved red cars, so I brought one in. I added geoboards, nesting dolls, and matching games. I wanted to follow his interests and open up learning. I was reading Piaget at the time, thinking about schema play and sensory learning. I believed novelty was the driver. More new things meant more learning, didn't it? The director asked to speak with me. She was warm and supportive, then said, “You’re offering too much novelty. These children need routine, not overstimulation.” I was taken aback. I’d been reading the neuroscience and thought I was helping. I decided to listen. I stepped back, slowed down, watched more, and offered less. The room settled. The focus child stayed with tasks for longer. Years later, I still value rich experiences, and I also understand the weight of rhythm, predictability, and calm. Sometimes our pace is the issue. Children do better when the environment moves at a human speed. That feedback stayed with me as an educator and as a person. It still reminds me to slow down. 🧡 Kate Quote of the month
"Affordances are what the environment offers to an individual for action." James J. Gibson
A theorist of the month: James GibsonAffordances in Early Childhood: What Gibson Helps Us SeeJames J. Gibson is not your typical early childhood theorist; he was a perceptual psychologist who asked a simple question with big consequences for teaching: what does an environment offer a person to do? He called those offerings “affordances.” A low wall affords sitting to an adult and balancing to a three-year-old. A puddle affords stepping, splashing, or measuring depth with a stick. The key is that affordances are relational. They depend on the environment and on the child’s body, skills, and intentions in that moment. For us, as teachers, this lens shifts attention from “What activity will I direct” to “What opportunities for action are already available here, and which ones should I add or make clearer.” When you place a plank between two milk crates, you are not only providing a balance beam. You are creating different challenge that invites walking, crouching, carrying while balancing, and cooperative turn-taking. Add a second plank at a slightly different height, and children begin to compare, calibrate, and talk about “hard” and “easy.” That is affordance thinking in practice. Gibson argued that perception and action form one loop. Children do not learn balance by hearing about it. They learn by stepping, wobbling, adjusting, and trying again while their perceptual system picks up information in real time. This is why hands-on environments matter. Smooth timber tells a different story to the feet than rubber mats. A gentle slope offers rolling, sliding, and experiments with speed. Loose parts let children test what a material affords when combined with water, sand, or wind. As children act, they refine what the environment affords for them today, and those action boundaries shift as skill grows. He also proposed “direct perception.” In everyday life, children do not need to compute from scratch whether a step is climbable. The layout of surfaces, edges, textures, and distances specifies possibilities well enough to act on. In a classroom, this means clarity beats clutter. When pathways are legible, materials are visible, and tools sit near the place they will be used, children can perceive what to do without a long verbal briefing. Think of water jugs beside the trough, clipboards next to the block area, pulley rope tied to a high branch above the sandpit. The environment communicates the invitation. What you can do? Offer “nested” affordances so one area supports many kinds of action. Sand beside water with nearby gutters, pots, funnels, and a short ramp leads to building, measuring, transporting, cause and effect, and social negotiation. Outdoors, keep some natural irregularities. Small slopes, logs, loose bark, and uneven edges build real-world coordination and let children self-assess risk. Indoors, tune heights, weights, and sizes to children’s bodies so they can lift, pour, and carry safely. Provide clear storage and open display so choices are obvious and returns are easy. Rotate a few variables at a time to refresh invitations without creating noise. A short example shows the difference. You add a low ramp to the block area and place small cars nearby. No formal lesson. Children try rolling. One notices the car stops halfway. You add a thin fabric strip and ask what the strip might help with. Children test again and talk about speed and “bumpy.” Later, someone props the ramp higher with a block and introduces a bucket at the end to catch cars. Across an hour, the space afforded measuring, predicting, revising plans, and explaining ideas. Your role was to seed, watch, and tune the affordances, not to run a scripted activity. In practice, think in three passes. First, read the room for current affordances: what actions are clearly invited here and for whom. Second, add or remove a few elements to sharpen or widen those invitations: change spacing, vary height and texture, and bring related tools closer. Third, observe and document how children respond, then change if needed. Over time, you will build environments that feel calm, purposeful, and alive because they fit children’s bodies and interests. That is Gibson’s key idea: design for what children can do next, and learning will follow. Want to learn more about theorists? Get my theorists' learning pack Song of the month: When I was one This is a fun pirate shanty to sing with a group of children. I also love the fact that it is a dance. It teaches coordination, counting, body balance, sequence of movements, and, of course, language. Feel free to dress up as pirates and set up an imaginative play space. Book of the month: Who sank the boat?Who Sank the Boat book by Pamela Allen, is one of the best books for preschool storytime. In this video, I will explain why. Who Sank the Boat? works beautifully with preschoolers because it is short, musical, and easy to join in. The repeated question invites children to echo the line, predict what might happen next, and play with sounds. It is a perfect book for STEM experiences and simple role-playing with children. Animals climb on the boat in order and it helps children notice cause and effect without a long and convoluted explanation. The joke at the end is not really about a naughty mouse. It is about how weight adds up and where you place it. That idea opens the door to early STEM thinking in a playful way. What I really like about Pamela Allen's book is her focus on the language and the open-ended question that makes children think: "Who sank the boat?". Interested in the list of best books for early childhood education and care? Get my curated booklist for ECE educators!
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! Inviting play space celebrating imaginative play Kate's story from practice Because of my short height and somewhat childlike face, postmen and delivery people often ask me if my parents are home. Well, of course — who would think to call this person a mum? Now I’ve grown up, quit smoking a long time ago, stopped eating meat, and stopped snowboarding and surfing. But I managed to do so many fun and interesting things while I was in that mum-teen...
Dear members, subscribers and viewers! I am always curious about your thoughts and would love to serve this community even better. Please fill in this survey , it will only take one 1️⃣ minute. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/15doxDbX8yyaSG4pp9TgIk8_AdPuMpw4s2324zAncpmI/viewform?edit_requested=true I appreciate your help! Here is a free resource as a bonus for your participation! Storykate
Welcome to storytime with Kate! Hey Educators! Childhood isa a time to be and should be respected as is, not preparation for "future life" only. Kate's story from practice People often say, “You must be so patient to work with young children.” But honestly? I’m not sure patience is what we need most in this job. Take James, a fiery four-year-old who pushes a peer off the scooter to claim his turn. Does this moment call for patience? Or does it call for understanding? Patience, as defined, is...