Online Teaching Tips for Preschool, Kindergarten and Elementary Educators
A series of conversations between early educators to support online teaching and learning in the Fall of 2020.
10 Virtual Halloween Party Game Ideas for Kids
Check out these tips (from riddles to scavenger hunts) for virtual Halloween party festivities that will get kids joyfully playing…
Online Teaching Tips for Preschool, Kindergarten and Elementary Educators
A series of conversations between early educators to support online teaching and learning in the Fall of 2020.
8 Simple Strategies for Kid Workouts and to Help Them Move More
Help kids get moving in socially distant playdates, or just in your living room, with games from Coach Johnson! He…
Kindness in Action: How to Activate Compassion in Family Routines
Learn simple tips for building "kindness routines" as a family. Get inspired by teen activists who are making empathy part…
Empathy Activities for Kind and Not-Bored Kids
Boost kids' moods and brains through empathy! Learn about activities for kids that get them acting on kindness and banish…
8 Simple Strategies for Kid Workouts and to Help Them Move More
Help kids get moving in socially distant playdates, or just in your living room, with games from Coach Johnson! He shares his wisdom as a public school PE teacher on how to make inspiring physical games meaningful and child-led. Get bonding time and a workout (dance party!) too.
Kindness in Action: How to Activate Compassion in Family Routines
Learn simple tips for building “kindness routines” as a family. Get inspired by teen activists who are making empathy part of their life-mission.
Empathy Activities for Kind and Not-Bored Kids
Boost kids’ moods and brains through empathy! Learn about activities for kids that get them acting on kindness and banish boredom!
Summer 2020: Strategies for Families to Keep their Sanity
Resources and tips for thinking about summer 2020 – empowering kids to find a passion, be independent and stay social.
We Stand In Solidarity With the Black Community
A statement of solidarity. Where to donate. Who to follow. A reading list – for parents and kids. A vow to work, to learn and do more. It is essential.
Positive Screen Time is Possible with Interactive Kids Shows
Screen time can be interactive with this new show from Child’s Play in Action. Jack and the Beanstalk come to life with theater games kids can play at home!
Elsa, A Bar in Brooklyn and a Small Businesses we Love
An interview with owner of a beloved Brooklyn cocktail bar, Elsa, makes me love small business owners even more. Here’s how to get a to-go cocktail and support local during a pandemic.
Zoom Party Strategies for Successful Kid Birthdays in Quarantine
Throwing a party for your kid during COVID-19? Check out these ways to empower the birthday kid, play interactive games, and make lemonade out of the lemons!
5 Ways to Play School (to Boost Joy) While Our Kids Can’t Go
Fun ways to “play school” for kids stuck at home! Empathy and cognition boosting games.
Part of Your World Parody: A Teacher in Quarantine
Watch this perfect parody for Coronavirus Times: “Part of Your World: A Teacher in Quarantine.” Get inspired to make art and grateful to our kids’ classroom teachers!
Games to Help Kids Write
Some inspired play-based tips on writing from an education consultant!
Help Kids During Coronavirus Times, Make Noise
Here are some games that help kids get out big sounds! Between songs, gibberish and silliness they’l be able to release energy and emotion, especially during this highly charged time.
Online classes for kids have been a boon in this uncertain time
Kids stay connected, and teachers bring the joy, during online classes. Even during a pandemic, we find solidarity and keep making theater together!
Animal Games that Will Inspire Your Kid’s Imagination
Animal games are an awesome gateway to dramatic play. Here’s a blueprint for play that will help kids – and adults – venture into imagination with a Roar!
Why “What Are You Doing?” is my New Favorite Funny Game
This awesome theater games does double-duty as a living room staple! You can play this during transitional time when you are looking to avoid screens and capitalize on imagination! Watch classroom teaching artists play “What are you doing?” do get inspired for your own playtime!
8 Ways A Simple Puppet Can be the Best Parenting Hack
Playing with a puppet is more than just fun and games. Watch Child’s Play NY teachers use puppets to get kids communicating about emotions and using empathy. This is an essential tool in the parenting arsenal to help manage behavior and get in touch with our children’s rich emotional lives. Happy puppeteering!
Gifts for Kids to Spark Curiosity and a Love of Learning
While I love a good pillow fort, I also appreciate the value of quality games and toys! Here’s four fabulous gifts for kids that tickle the brain and capitalize on the kind of learning that inspires them. These are all less than $15 and are super portable too. I like these for road trips or for after-dinner playing with your kids. Happy gifting!
Emotions Charades and Other Games to Support Feeling Kids
Emotions Charades is a super fun and incredibly potent tool to help support EQ and empathy in our kids. Use these tips from our theater classrooms to inspire your games and learn about other playful ways that help kids come to terms with their emotions. In these highly charged times we live in, kids need support in identifying and expressing their feelings…let’s do it through play!
Creative Movement Games that Inspire Kids to be Brave and Kind
The thrilling ways that actors use creative movement can translate to your home or classroom for inspired indoor play. Help kids get “into character” through physical and robust playing that nurtures empathy along the way too! If you are a theater or classroom teacher these build up your ensemble and inspire brave choices. Build in some of these games as a way to release energy and recharge after the school day. Set these games in motion and then empower your kids to keep the playing going without you!
Eight Joyful Ways to Help Your Kids Love Reading for Pleasure
Reading for pleasure is easy with these librarian-approved tips. Plus, check out the coolest tools that boost literacy and make books bonding!
How To Have The Best Road Trip With Your Kids This Summer
Maximize the playing on your next road trip with these tried and true games for backseat fun! Enjoy some quality screen-free family time and help kids process emotion and tell stories. These theater games are road tested for your vacation pleasure!
Treasure Hunt Tricks That Will Blow Your Mind
Make a Treasure Hunt with your kids for awesome rainy-day play. Beyond just a game, this boosts essential executive function skills and is a fabulous way to work on reading.
6 Essential Books for Kids that Make Social-Emotional Learning Fun
What a parenting relief to find great kids lit that helps kids identify and process emotion! These 6 books, recommended by a librarian and a theater teacher, can boost kids’ emotional intelligence and help them manage complex feelings.
Boost Kids’ IQ and Joy with this Simple, Silly Game
This simple and silly theater game supports your child’s brain development and creates new neural pathways that build positivity and help them crave bonding! Beyond boosting IQ, this game is pure pleasure to play and can be that parent hack that you need for everything from picky eaters to tricky sleepers. Enjoy setting up your silly store!
How to Talk to Kids with Humor and Fun (About the Big Stuff)
If you are hankering to talk to your kids about the big stuff, or help them process emotions, then you should play Taxi! This classic theater game is adaptable for all ages and provides kids with a safe and sweet space to share feelings with you. Use it to bond with your kids when you have a little down-time and know that they are also benefitting from the social-emotional learning (SEL) and Executive Function work-out that this game gives them. Watch the video to learn about the benefits and the ways to play.
15 Ways to Play and Laugh More
It’s hard just to get through the requirements of parenting, let alone find time on top of that to play. However, here is the tip: inject stories into the mundane parenting tasks and you’ll get what you need to get done quicker, and bond with your kid in the process.
3 Empathy Inspiring Books You’ll Want
Great kids books are a superb way for kids to learn about kindness and empathy. I love them especially for the conversations they can start. These three books for ages 8 and up are our favorites for putting social emotional learning at the foreground. They are the perfect holiday gift to spark even more compassion in your kids.
Make Indoor Play Hilarious and Meaningful, Watch How
When the temperatures dip and the crazies set in – you need an indoor game that keeps kids calm and gets them laughing. This theater game boosts social emotional learning, communication skills and is super bonding. Best of all, it makes kids laugh!
These Halloween games are the best for family fun
Halloween games help kids flex their imaginative muscles, build empathy and bond with you and their buddies. Simple theater exercises – with a Halloween theme – can make playing their role so much more fun! Here are my favorite games for at-home play and even for a Halloween party!
Boom Chica Boom is that screen free game you need to play now
This simple chant helps kids regulate their emotions and boosts their social intelligence. You can play it as a car game, while walking to school, or even at bedtime. Kids will have fun exploring “characters” and you’ll like this easy format for fostering new words to develop feelings.
Back to school is better when you play this game
Turn those back-to-school jitters into a creative game that gets kids silly and opens them up for meaning communication with you. Learn more from our PhD expert about what dramatic play does for social skills and emotional intelligence.
Car games that will make you laugh and get to know your kids
Transform the backseat into a giggle-fest with these silly – and meaningful – car games. When you play these games, there is no need for screens or headphones. Instead, kids will be bonding with you and making lasting memories – even before their vacation begins!
How to Get Your Kid to Sleep: Playful Bedtime Routines that Work
Getting kids to sleep can be a challenge! But bedtime can actually be the most meaningful time of the day, where we tell stories, sing songs and wind down through relaxation. Read on to learn tips that add a little play and a lot of calm to your nightly routine. Sweet dreams!
15 Playground Toys That Will Make the Outdoors Awesome
Make time on the playground meaningful with these tools that boost imagination! Here are 15 of my favorite toys under $15 that I can slip into a bag when we go. They are collaborative, creative and physical and will certainly add a spark to your kids’ outdoor play! Plus, watch how the classic “Red Light Green Light” gets a dramatic play twist!
Sculpture Will Make Your Kids’ Imaginations Soar
Sculpture is the best theater game to spark imagination and literacy. Kids love molding each other (and you!) into creative tableaus. Get creative with the titles to boost literacy. Expand EQ by riffing on themes that matter to their development. Above all, have fun in a screen-free, physical and bonding way!
12 Parenting Books That Will Make it All Better
Here’s a booklist for parents to help take away the stress! Let doctors and researchers provide helpful solutions to some of our greatest parenting problems. I’ve cut through the advice-noise here: These are my favorite books that help make sense of the challenges we face and foster kindness, grit, and imagination in our kids.
The pretend play game that will make your kids brave at the doctor
Use pretend play to elevate your child’s imagination and help them conquer fears. Watch this game of Animal Doctor and then use it to help prepare for a visit to the pediatrician. The game is great also as a way to inspire purposeful play and storytelling. Learn about scaffolding play and making meaningful connections with your kid.
Got grit? This is the exact pep talk that will make kids work hard
Motivate your kids and learn more about grit. In this week’s video we avoid the pitfall of “good job” and learn some other ways to praise kids. And read Jocelyn’s pre-show speech for her cast of Music Man!
How to Get Better Table Manners with Imagination and Positivity
Use simple dramatic play to get your kids to have great table manners. This is a hilarious (and sweet) way to inspire kids. I also share tips on positive discipline and great kids lit that will reinforce polite eating habits!
Watch What Happens When You Play I Spy the Mindful Way
Add this dramatic play twist to the classic game I Spy. Your kids will have more fun and get calm in the process. Here I share other games, tools and toys for mindful observations.
4 Astounding Books That Will Make Your Kids Love Kindness
Kindness blossoms in kids when you have the right tools. Use these 4 books, recommended by a school librarian, to spark empathy in your child. Watch the video to see the books and learn why they strengthen our kids’ compassion.
18 Brain Breaks That Will Make Your Kids’ Minds Happy
Brain Breaks are brilliant ways to energize your kids in the classroom or at home. These short movement activities invigorate kids so that they can learn with calm bodies and focused minds. They tap into imagination and word play too!
11 Picture Books That Will Make Your Kid Read Like Crazy
Use wordless picture books to inspire imagination and a love of reading. These suggestions from my Child’s Play NY theater classrooms will deepen the conversation and the bonding time between you and your children. Watch the video to see adorable toddlers using picture books as a springboard for storytelling, and get tips from a school librarian about the usefulness of wordless books.
Make Listening Fun When You Play This Mindfulness Game
With this theater game, kids develop their listening skills through play – and they don’t even realize all the benefits because it is so silly! Play one-on-one or as a birthday party or playdate game. It is a saving grace on car trips or waiting rooms when you need to focus squirmy bodies! Check out the ways to boost mindfulness through relaxing variations that help with bedtime too.
20 Questions Will Boost Your Kid’s Mental Stamina and Focus
20 Questions can help your kid with impulse control (hello, spring break car trips!), flexible thinking and growth mindset. Kids love it because they can get their “sleuth” on! Parents love it because it is a fun way to get kids focusing in tight spaces!
Spring Cleaning is Hilarious When You Play This Game
Spring cleaning gets a playful make-over with these hilarious games. Inspire your kid into tidiness through their dramatic imagination. Kickstart your mindful giving and chore delegating too.
Inspire Your Reader When You Play “Down By the Bay”
Help your young reader gain fluency with language all through play. Kids make rhymes, invent new words and get confident reading when they act out their new versions of “Down by the Bay”. Watch the video to see all the tips on how to play with this song.
The Kind of Scores You Can Really Love
Need a rainy day game? Turn to musical scores to elevate your child’s playtime. With instrumental music from their favorite films and shows, kids can go deep into characters they already love. Orchestrations will help boost their mood, inspire gross-motor play and provide a great backdrop for imaginative indoor time.
Get Calm Kids With This Simple Chant
You can get calm kids without being the “bad guy”! Use this chant to harness kids’ natural creative energy to get them focused and relaxed. Perks: it boosts executive functioning skills like working memory and impulse control. Use it for building literacy skills too!
How To Get Your Kids To Chill Out? Make An Obstacle Course!
Whether you are facing a long car trip, a rainy afternoon, or just need to release some wiggles – creating an obstacle course is a
Afraid Of “Improv”? Simple Is The Best Way To “Silly”
Improv gets me through the winter with kids! All those long hours of hangin’ indoors, while fending off the inevitable requests for screen-time, can
14 Reasons You Should Play Hide And Seek Right Now
Hide and Seek is a classic kid activity, but it’s not just fun and games. Hide and Seek is amazing for our kids’ brains,
Feelings and How to Help Kids Talk About Them
Give kids mastery over their emotions. Let them identify and communicate about their feelings by talking “to” them! If they give voice (literally) to parts of their brain, they gain mindfulness and perspective over their worry.
3 Simple Tricks That Will Make Your Kids Eat Better
Kids eat healthier when mealtimes are fun! Here’s some inspiration for table games and ways to use improv to get great eaters.
How To Be Silly And Boost Mindfulness At The Same Time!
Here’s a game I love to enhance mindfulness, brain power and at the same time get some great laughs out of your kids! The good news it requires very little “stuff” to make this game fun. Like most of the dramatic play tools I can offer you, this game can spark your child’s creativity using things you already have on hand. I call it “Test Your Touch!”
How To Make Clean Up Fun
Using positivity and playfulness you can transform even the most annoying task of clean up, into a game! Watch this short video I made about
Moms Talk On Women Killing It
Journalist Mom interviews Jocelyn Greene about Child’s Play. We learn about saying “no” to stuff you don’t want in your life and also about the power of play for families.
Make Reading A Game With These Simple Tools
Soup up your story time: turn your books into games when you do reading the Child’s Play way! One of the perks of growing up with
Tips On Getting Cozy With Your Kids
It is a rainy-snowy weekend for us in New York and I have just learned a new word: Hygee It’s Danish, but I’d like to start
Breath Games For Calm Kids
When I was a kid in the 80’s I used to accompany my mom to her yoga class. This was before yoga was the
6 Toys That Inspire Creativity And Communication
Are you fielding requests for a hard-to-get-hatchimal? That’s all well and good, but it’s important to add toys under the tree or next to the
Freeing The Voice Through Play
To free the voice is to free the person – Kristin Linklater, Master Freeing Voice Teacher Since my casts of Jungle Book Kids and The
Six Holiday Books You Want To Read With Your Kids
The holiday books are an amazing opportunity to reflect on family, charity and compassion. These books all explore these themes in different ways – some
Toys (You Already Have) For Awesome Indoor Play
“Without this playing with fantasy no creative work has ever yet come to birth. The debt we owe to the play of the imagination is
Boost Concentration And Curiosity: Play This Game – Feather Balance!
“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment. –Carol Dweck, Mindset In my call-back for the
Practice Listening With Story Clap!
I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is upon us! You may be already preparing the brine, buying cranberries in bulk or finding the perfect wine pairing
Move Your Body, Stretch Your Imagination With Animal Yoga
Playground season is over. It’s officially cold. Let’s all have a moment of silence. And then a moment for a silent scream as we contemplate
MAGICAL ELEVATOR – A Portal Into Playful Teaching
Travel the world. Go back in time and forward to the future. Venture to new lands. And don’t leave the room… Teach your students about
Need A Laugh? Play “Silly Chins”!
You may have done this with girlfriends on a sleepover in the 80’s. I know I did. You may have done this as part
Kids Can’t Sleep? Try This Mindful Bedtime Sensory Exercise
Oh, Mr. Sandman? Bring my kid a dream. Really. Please? I’m a mom who likes to have a plan. But try as I might, there
Speak And Listen To Your Kids – No Words Required.
In 1989 my parents made a VHS recording of Into the Woods when the B’way show aired on PBS. That tape must have been made
Getting Into Character: 4 Games For More Compassionate Kids
Getting into another character’s shoes is the best way (that I know) to build empathy. These simple exercises will get kids out of their own heads and into the hearts of their character. The theater gives us these essential tools to boost empathy and emotional intelligence in our young students.
Kids Get In Touch With Emotions – Here’s How
Tongue twisters warm up the voice…Yoga can stretch the body…But what about our character’s feelings? I use “Pass the Emotions” to get my students primed
Making The Most Of Halloween Through Play
“Life is a journey, not a destination,” said poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson. Replace the word, “life” with “Halloween” and you have a pretty compelling argument