Bluebee Pals Teaching Essential Skills
The founder of Bluebee Pals, Laura Jiencke, donated an entire Family Pack of the Interactive Educational Plush Learning tools and three iPads to the Southampton Day Care Center (SDCC) in Southampton, NY. As many of you know the Bluebee Pals connect to any Apple or IOS Device and pair with most apps and are a multifaceted learning tool. It now has extensive curriculum available on Google Workbench designed by the experts on the Bluebee Team. The lessons include Essential Life Skills, which are defined as behaviors that enable individuals to adapt and deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. As well as STEM/ELA, ESL, as well as ACC support for children with special needs and more.
This was the daycare’s first introduction to any kind of educational technology in their classrooms. A sad state of affairs in 2019 and in such an affluent area of the world! Often people are not able to look beyond their own backyard to see what is going on in their community and this oversight seems to be more prevalent in resort areas. Fortunately for us, we had the newly elected mayor of Southampton participating in this event and hope this will raise awareness and encourage others to get involved with SDCC, esp. philanthropists with an interest in education. http://bluebeepals.com
Bluebee Pals Engage Communication and Literacy
The donation came about after I made a recent visit to SDCC and introduced the BluebeePals to the preschool-aged children. Obviously, the kids were smitten with the adorable Bluebee Pals and photos were shared with Laura. Once she saw the reaction these kids had and I explained the lack of funding this nonprofit has, she was moved as always and offered a generous gift of all six plushies.
Several days later I had the realization that this facility did not have any tablets to support the Bluebee Pals, Laura stepped up and purchased three iPads for them! (Read about the Bluebee Pal Project here) It was quite an exciting morning on the day of the donation, a quick lesson was planned of reviewing the names of the six different Bluebee Pals characters before announcing that the whole Bluebee Pal family and new iPads would be staying with them. The energy was high and the kids were over the top once learning that the Bluebee Pal family and the tablets would be staying with them! This engaging and fun way to learn will be bringing joy for some time to come for SDCC as they also have a nursery program for younger children.
Website Provides Professional Development
The educators at the daycare center will be assisted with ongoing professional development designed by the Bluebee Pal team to help them with this new approach to learning. A new tutorial page provides a host of videos along with companion eudcational PDF”S for educators and therapists. The Southampton Day Care Center Director was most appreciative of the generous contribution, and the children were beyond thrilled! The BEST part, they will be all the more ready to begin school.https://www.bluebeepals.com/tutorials/
Author: Jayne Clare is dedicated to being in the forefront of the ever-changing digital landscape. She has been working directly with students and startups and recognizing what works and what doesn’t, along with the why behind both. Jayne co-founded Teachers With Apps in 2011.