​Continuing our push to create more relevant and timely resources, we are putting many more kits on the booking system. The kits we created in January have been flying out of the warehouse and we are doing our best to keep up with the demand. We have several areas of need on which we are focusing, including play-based learning, social emotional learning, movement and balance, and fairy tales.
 
For play-based learning, we’ve added Magna-Tiles (teaching spatial relationships, math, logic, and problem-solving through creative building), foam “wooden” lumber pieces, multi-cultural block play family sets, and friends with diverse abilities posable play sets.
 
Social Emotional Learning kits are working their way onto our warehouse shelves. We’ve started by adding Grab and Write SEL Prompts for Grades K-2, and 3-5. Great for daily writing or group conversations, the cards cover topics such as friendship & teamwork, self-control and more. 

For movement and balance, River Stones are now available. They are designed to improve coordination and balance. Jumping or stepping from stone to stone develops a child's confidence in their ability to judge distances and are a great sensory and gross motor activity. We also now have scarves and ribbons movement sets.
 
Creating a bridge between STEM and ELA, Fairy Tales Problem Solving Kits are available to book, including Rapunzel, The Gingerbread Man, and Little Red Riding Hood. In addition, we have the Happy Architect Fairy Tales kit, wherein creative play and storytelling are all rolled into a beautiful set of wooden toys.
 
LET’S BOOK SOME KITS!!!! Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning.
 
 By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

We’ve been busy here at Learning Resources the past few months. New items are on the warehouse shelves and are available now on our resources page. We’ve been focused primarily on our younger learners, those in Pre-K, K and 1st grade. Additionally, play-based learning has also been an emphasis.

New additions include foam block builders, with realistic pretend bricks, cinder blocks, and rock wall builders. LEGO DUPLO kits are also now available. We have Wild Animals sets, Large Farm kits, and Build Me Emotions kits. This latter kit allows children to explore emotions and physical characteristics while developing social skills. As children collaborate on a range of character-building experiences, they recognize feelings and identify similarities and differences. Building cards provide support and inspiration so children can continue to build and rebuild characters again and again.

Continuing the theme of play-based learning, we’ve added soft dinosaur sets, pretend and play doctor sets, community workers sets, and North American wildlife sets. And then to round out our new kits are those that focus on small motor skills. Double-sided dexterity boards offer six dexterity functions: button, zipper, snap, buckle, Velcro®, and bow tying. The lace board is an excellent prop in teaching children how to tie their shoes. We also have stack and sort boards that feature colorful counting discs to sort onto stationary pegs. Double-sided, wooden squares have screened numbers 0 through 9 and a corresponding dot count on the opposite side. Rearrangeable, loose parts allow for multiple matching, counting, addition and subtraction activities on or off the board.
 
Sounds like fun, eh? Go to our resources page here to look at the new kits, older kits, and streaming resources. Keep checking back as we add more items to assist teachers in their craft and students in their learning.
 
By: Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

This month’s spotlight as we dig a little deeper into the resources we have available to our component school districts in our warehouse is…..Guitaleles!
 
Guita---what?

​In an effort to make sure that all of our educators in the CABOCES region can find something of use in our warehouses, we’ve been attempting to add more music and art kits as the music and art standards are being revamped. So....bring on the guitaleles!

We now have 10 Yamaha GL1 Guitaleles in our warehouse. Half guitar, half ukulele…100% fun. This is a unique mini 6-string nylon guitar that is sized like a baritone ukulele (17” scale) and plays like a standard tune guitar. The guitalele’s tuning is pitched up to “A” (or up a 4th) at A/D/G/C/E/A.
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This is a student pleaser. It is small enough for Pre-K students to play. The nylon strings make it easy on the fingers and the neck size is great for smaller handed players as well as regular sized hands needing a break from the thicker necks of standard-sized guitars.
 
Take a look at our warehouse and give our guitaleles a try!

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Like many people, here at Learning Resources we are working on shedding excess weight! Shelves and shelves of outdated media kits have been removed from the system and we are looking leaner and meaner.

But any successful weight loss effort needs a support system. And our administrators, teachers, and students are just that. For the past few months, we reached out to CLC’s, forums, Admin teams, and curriculum specialists to give us ideas for new kits that align to standards and/or are high interest.
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If you have any ideas for kits that can be used in your classrooms, please don’t hesitate to reach out and share your ideas. We’ve already added some kits that may be new to you: Sphero Minis, Sphero Bolts, and BobXL

BobXL is a training dummy. Some of our schools are working with their students on self-defense and reached out to us for help. Self-defense is important to learn, but these lessons can fade without practice. Now students can train to develop the muscle memory they may need if a self-defense situation occurs.
 
In addition, we’ve also added Sphero Minis and Sphero Bolts. 

​Both are app-enabled robots that provide endless opportunities to be creative and have fun while learning
 
If you have any questions or want to find out more, please reach out! We have a lot of work to do to create more and more kits that will help teachers and students reach their educational goals.

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Contained within this kit are books, guides that study the circulatory system and normal heart conditions, and the following models: 

• a two-part large heart conditions model with thickened walls and valves
• four segments of artery showing degrees of blockage 
• one small two-part normal heart.

For more information on this kit or others available to you through media, contact Alexandra Freer at (716) 376-8354 or alexandra_freer@caboces.org.  

​Since February is American Heart Month, why not learn about this important organ and other key organs that help us keep living and breathing via a science kit? In the kit Health Kit: Our Lungs, Heart, and Health, students will identify parts and functions of the respiratory and circulatory systems. They will examine ways to keep these two very important systems working efficiently through nutrition, exercise, and healthy habits. Special emphasis will be placed on the negative effects of tobacco.  For more information on this kit or others available to you through STEM, contact Clay Nolan at (716) 376-8354 or clay_nolan@caboces.org. 

Are you looking for resources and don’t know where to turn? Maybe you have some idea of what you are looking for and don’t have the time to cull through the myriad options available. At the CABOCES Learning Resources center in Allegany, we will have a training in January for the teachers in our two county area, highlighting all that our Staff Specialists here can do for you and your students.
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Learning Resources has recently had an increase in the amount of resources being used by our component schools, but there are still so many things being underutilized. So as part of this training, the Staff Specialists went through each branch of Learning Resources and how they can assist with curriculum and content, utilization of online and digital support, as well as providing tangible resources to use in the physical classroom. The teachers who have gone through the training before have been amazed at the hundreds of thousands of resources available and how each department can either assist with or provide instruction on the various aspects of digital resources and technology, STEM, Library services, and distance learning. 

​Both STEM and the Digital Media program provide kits that can be used in the classroom to aid instruction and provide hands-on activities. Online resources accompany those kits, as well as accessing the SNAP system to find additional support. The Distance Learning branch has many components, including Moodle and Mahara, credit recovery, virtual field trips, collaborative classrooms, online learning, and Adobe Connect. Additionally, our Library Resources offers support to all 22 school libraries in Cattaraugus and Allegany counties, implementation of the inter-library loan system, and provides online usage of Britannica and World Book.
 
If you are not utilizing any of these resources, only using some of them, or need to know more, come join us on January 12 at our Learning Resources center in Allegany, NY.
 
By: Alexandra L. Freer, CA BOCES