Step Up To Quality Stories

Activity Ideas for Celebrating Nebraska

Nebraska’s birthday is coming up on March 1, which is a great opportunity to incorporate Nebraska-related activities in your home or classroom. In honor of our state’s 156th birthday, here are some educational (and fun!) ideas to connect children’s learning to Nebraska’s history and present. One approach to activities is exploring...Read More ›

Step Up to Quality 2.0: The same program, even better

In the years since we launched Step Up to Quality, Nebraska’s Quality Rating and Improvement System, in 2014, the early childhood education field has continued to advance and evolve. And our Step Up to Quality team here in the Department of Early Childhood has learned a great...Read More ›

How Observations Support Early Childhood Programs

Step Up to Quality helps Nebraska child care providers boost the quality of their care through our 5 Steps, which involve learning, training and observation. In this blog post, we’re focusing on our two types of observation tools, Environment Rating Scales (ERS) and Read More ›

The Many Ways Signing Up for NECPRS Benefits Early Childhood Professionals

The first step of a Step Up to Quality journey includes having directors and staff create profiles in the Nebraska Early Childhood Professional Record System (NECPRS). If your program is already enrolled in Step Up to Quality, you may have completed this task and...Read More ›

Expanding Childrens’ Palates and Worldviews Through Food

Mealtime is an opportunity to provide babies, toddlers and young children with a wide range of experiences that involve their five senses. Incorporating activities around food — and the various cultures from which dishes originate — can help children expand their worldviews and develop stronger brain pathways.

Exploring cultures through...Read More › - Expanding Childrens’ Palates and Worldviews Through Food

Step 5 Spotlight: Jennifer Baumann Talks Unstructured Play and Going Viral on TikTok

We recently chatted with Jennifer Baumann, a Step 5 provider and TikTok extraordinaire, to learn more about her Step Up to Quality journey and how she uses social media to connect with other parents and providers.

How did you decide you wanted to be a child care...Read More › - Step 5 Spotlight: Jennifer Baumann Talks Unstructured Play and Going Viral on TikTok

The Importance of Coaching in Early Childhood Education

We know how important high-quality early childhood education is, but how can we continue to boost this quality? An important component is coaching. If you’ve ever been in a classroom full of energetic children, you know another expert perspective can be very helpful. Coaching is professional development that emphasizes the application...Read More ›

Spend Quality Time with Us

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our podcast, Quality Time! We decided to create a podcast for many reasons. We noticed there aren’t a lot of podcasts directed to early childhood education providers. And none targeted specifically for providers in Nebraska. We’ve also seen podcasts grow in popularity, so we...Read More ›

Learn How Step 2 Updates are Supporting Providers

Whether you’re already enrolled in Step Up to Quality or are considering enrolling, we’ve got some exciting news regarding our latest program updates: we’re reducing the training requirements for Step 2, beginning in October 2022. If you’ve already completed Step 2, wonderful! All of the training that we offer...Read More ›

How Reading to Children Improves Kindergarten Readiness

If you’re an early childhood professional, reading to children is probably already on your agenda. For some children, your classroom may be the only place they get this experience. According to a 2019 study in the United States, nationally representative data suggests that around 25% of caregivers...Read More ›

Step Up to Quality Celebrates 8 Years

Step Up to Quality is now eight years old! We celebrated our anniversary in July and recently released our annual report. The best news is that we are continuing to grow. We’re nearly at the 700-participating-providers mark! Which leads us to our most meaningful statistic: nearly 38,000 children have been educated and...Read More ›

Earlier Coaching Now Available for Nebraska Early Childhood Education Providers

High-quality early child care and education is crucial to a child’s future success, and we know that supporting the professionals who shape these children is just as important. Now, Step Up to Quality is offering more coaching and peer support for providers at an earlier stage in our program.

What...Read More › - Earlier Coaching Now Available for Nebraska Early Childhood Education Providers

How to Help Children Stay Present with Mindfulness Activities

Take a deep breath in, hold for three seconds, and let it out. Simple activities like these can help you become more aware of the present. Mindfulness allows you to tune in to what’s happening now, whether that’s the different smells or noises you hear around you. Being mindful is...Read More ›

Let’s Get Musical: Incorporating Music in the Classroom and Home

Whether your child will become the next Mozart or strictly stick to banging pots and pans around the house, music can be an excellent aid in their development. Music-related activities help children develop fine motor skills, improve language development, increase the neural activity within their brain, and help them to...Read More ›

Make the Most of Water Play This Summer

Whether you’re preparing for summer activities in the classroom or in your home, children greatly benefit from the wonderful world of water play. Playing with water presents a range of opportunities for children to develop their fine and gross motor skills, to work on sharing and social skills, to...Read More ›

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