Invitations to play are simply setups of toys, play materials, loose parts, art materials etc. organized to provoke creativity and open-ended play. This hands-on, fun and practical workshop looks at how to create invitations to play. This workshop will provide many examples and resources that will spark anyone that works with children with new ideas and inspiration.

Offered in person and online by Little Warriors, Prevent It! is an evidence-based educational workshop developed in conjunction with researchers at the University of Alberta.

Prevent It! educates and empowers adults to take action and help prevent and respond to child sexual abuse.

The Prevent It! workshop offers hope to help prevent child sexual abuse. Research has shown that adults who complete it become more supportive of children and begin using more behaviours that are believed to reduce children’s vulnerability to sexual abuse.

According to Early Learning Champion Dr. Jane Hewes: "The developmental literature is clear: play stimulates physical, social, emotional and cognitive development in the early years."  In order to promote meaningful play based experiences, we must provide fun and engaging activities for the children in our programs.  One way to do this is "to provide loose parts for play, both indoors and out, and encourage children to manipulate the environment to support their play."  This type of play stimulates creativity, problem solving and enhanced peer interactions.  Through discussions and fun hands-on activities, participants in this workshop will learn about strategies to make use of everyday materials to create activities, games, and projects that will pull the children in, and keep them engaged.

Relates to Accreditation Standards: 1 and 2

This interactive workshop will focus on creating fun yet challenging outdoor activity experiences and provide practical ideas that can be used to extend formal program planning in outdoor play experiences.

Relates to Accreditation Standards: 1 and 2 

Explore a variety of strategies to ensure that transitions become an unhurried, less stressful learning adventure. In this three hour interactive workshop, participants will explore a variety of strategies to ensure that transitions become an unhurried, learning experience. Beginner workshop.

Relates to Accreditation Standards: 1 and 2 

This interactive workshop focuses on strategies to supportchildren’s use of pro-social skills when interacting with others. The strategies are takenfrom the “Eyes on Bullying – What Can You Do?” toolkit. The information explores theroles of the bully, victim and bystander in creating a more progressive environment for children to support themselves and others. It also explores the role of the caregiver to reflect on strategies that promote confidence, independence and self-awareness while reflecting on their own beliefs in guiding those behaviors.

Relates to Accreditation Standards: 1, 2 and 5

In this workshop you will develop a customer service strategy that pro- motes and delivers high quality child care. We will talk about interviewing, retaining families, communicating with families looking for care, phone and voicemail etiquette, StoryPark, personal development and more. Sharpen your skills, put the power of excellence to work for you, engage with your customers, and grow your business through customer success and satisfaction.

At selected SJA Centres, this FREE Child Safety Seat Information session is intended to provide parents and caregivers information on how to correctly install a child safety seat and to transport children safely in a vehicle. It also provides an overview of the law in Alberta regarding occupant restraints and is taught by trained volunteers through the Community Services department of St John.

Step inside ateliers around the world from your own home or classroom! Our line up of speakers are real educators sharing their art spaces, storage tips and favorite projects!

- Christine Overmyer (Cincinnati, Ohio)

- Jessica Lam (Johor Bahru, Malaysia)

- Michelle Whitehead (Ruakaka, New Zealand)

- Catherine Roper & Kristin Lorenzen (Vista, California)

- Jennifer Krembs (Indonesia)

- Sally Haughey (USA)

Lifetime access to all Sessions plus earn a 6 hour PD Certificate!

This Masterclass has been curated to give you the tools and strategies to create a dynamic atelier!

Unleash young children's creativity!

Early literacy is extremely important on infant brain development and
the impact of early literacy can be seen even in a child's high school years. But what is it? This session, led by a librarian from the Edmonton Public Library, will explain what Early Literacy is (and isn't!), why it is so impor- tant and simple but effective ways you can incorporate it into your day- to-day programming. Additionally, there will be information about library resources and services that you can access for free with your library card. These include resources for early literacy, children's program planning and general professional development.

Module 1 : Building Positive Relationships and High-Quality Supportive Environments.

This workshop explores our view of children and beliefs about their learning with a focus on the importance of building meaningful relationships with children and families. Participants will also gain insight as to how the enviroment influences children's opportunities for participation and engagement. 

Module 2 : Targeted Social and Emotional Supports.

This workshop focuses on the importance of educators intentionally providing opportunities for children to learn and practice social and emotional skills. This includes practices such as :

Promoting positive peer interactions, supporting children in recognizing and identifying feelings, responding to children's strong emotions to support regulation, guiding children to become independent problem-solvers.