The best early childhood chants to introduce to your children. Why chanting is great for children’s language development and for building a sense of fun and community togetherness.
Chants
For child sitting in a swingClap hands chant for infantsFruit Haka in MāoriBoom Chica BoomMary wore her red shoes (involving every child by including t
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Full reference: Ba Akhlagh. S. and Yamada, M. (2025). Shared cultural responsiveness teaching strategies for early childhood educators: Insights from Japanese and Australian researchers. NZ International Research in Early Childhood Education Journal, 27, pp. 17-30.
Login to read the full research paper below. Or order a pdf copy of the article from the main NZIRECE Journal page.
ABSTRACT:
The global movement of migrants and refugees presents significant challenges for host countries, particularly in providing equitable and inclusive education for children. Nations such as Australia and Japan have become safe destinations, yet the extent to which they are prepared to facilitate culturally responsive early childhood education varies. This paper presents research-based strategies, developed by two researchers in Australia and Japan, that have proven to be practical and helpful for educators, supporting children from cultural and linguistic diverse (CALD) backgrounds in Australia. These strategies, currently offered to educators in Australia, are planned for implementation among Japanese early childhood educators from 2026. Drawing on shared expertise from both countries, the approach fosters mutual learning and adaptation, aiming to inspire educators worldwide to contextualise and apply these evidence-informed practices within their own early childhood education settings.
Key words: Cultural responsiveness, educators, cross-cultural early childhood education teaching strategies, professional learning.
The children were showing interest in aliens, rockets and space. Teacher, James had a water bottle rocket launcher at home, which he brought in. Sadly, this rocket only survived a few launches before the rubber seal broke and could not be replaced.
A week or two later James was reading about an air rocket made from a wine cork and car valve.
“You pump the bottle up until the pressure in the bottle was greater than the friction holding the cork in and in a reverse of a champagne cork the plastic bottle shoots off.”
James then thought about water being in-compressible, so if we fit a hose pipe to the wine cork, the water would flow in and compress the air inside the bottle until the friction failed and launched the bottle.
December 19, 2012. Children with disabilities and their parents can still struggle to access early childhood education and the support they need according to a
A clear and well‑structured Fees Policy helps early childhood services maintain fairness, transparency, and financial stability.
It supports families to understand how fees are set and applied, reducing confusion and strengthening trust.
By using the accompanying guidance and the template, your service can easily create a policy that is consistent, compliant, and tailored to the needs of your service and families in your community.
Senior public servants overlooked a duplicated 4 percent funding increase to about 2000 early childhood centres, resulting in more than $20 million in over‑payments. The article outlines how this error went undetected for over a year and the impact of the Ministry of Education’s funding oversight on the sector.
Group size refers to the number of children who interact together with the same teachers in a defined space, and research shows that small groups are essential for responsive relationships, healthy development, and high‑quality ECE. NZ’s regulations allow the total licence size to act as the group size, a practice that conflicts with international evidence and undermines efforts to ensure quality ECE.
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