NevAEYC Conference in Vegas..

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas to attend the annual NevAEYC conference, with a couple of girls from work. We got some new and exciting ideas to implement in the classroom.
I got the privilege of meeting John Archambault, who is the author of many favorite children's books, including one of my favorites, Boom Chicka Boom. It was the neatest thing to listen to him tell a story using a Cd, and his own voice. You can't beat the experience of listening to an author tell his own story the way he in visioned it to be told. It was the best!
We also meet Kathy Birk, who is an early childhood music specialist who has taught music for over thirty years. Kathy was so fun and exciting! We learned some very cute songs to teach to the kids. She has a website if your interested.. and she told us pictures of our conference should be going up any day.. go take a look! www.kidzintune.com
My favorite presenter was Frank Leto, who is an early childhood educator, a Montessori teacher, a professional musician, Orff music teacher and steel band director. Frank's approach is multicultural, and all of his songs are set to musical forms such as calypso, soca, reggae, Hawaiian, jazz, blues, salsa, samba, rumba, zydeco, African and Native American, all of which are played on traditional instruments. My favorite is the Echo Song, we sung this song at our graduation last year.. it was so cute!! I was thrilled to learn more from Frank Leto, and I was so inspired I bought more of his Cd's, and have already used them at school. I love his soft voice, and simple melodies..
It was a fantastic time, and I can't wait until next year! The conference being in Las Vegas never hurts either, especially when it's on my birthday! Being in Las Vegas on my Birthday was exciting!