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Tools to Help You Think Cards

New habit each month.

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The Habits of a Systems Thinker help learners understand how systems work and how actions taken can impact results seen over time. They encompass a spectrum of strategies that foster problem-solving and encourage questioning. The Thinking Tools Studio contains a course for each of the Habits. Below you will find a brief explanation of each Habit. We encourage you to refer to this page often — it’s a helpful resource when completing lessons, exercises and more.

Click “Flip Card” to see the reverse side of each Habit card which contains further information and important questions to consider.

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Casey - Ionia

Scavenger Hunt

board book and picture book

work with libraries (families start at their home library)

one book per child

businesses put window decals or yard signs

if families visit 4+ libraries, they will enter to win a cool prize

uses Books by the Bushel for inexpensive, quality books

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Stronger Together Building Literacy from the Ground Up

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Laurie Mold - Delta/Schoolcraft

This is an editable Busy Book Template

Talking is Teaching

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co-branding Official GSC Busy Book - SHARABLE

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Laurie Mold - Delta/Schoolcraft -

Simple planner for event/project planning and we use a version of these for our meeting agendas. Feel free to make a copy and change the info to fit your needs.

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Fun Night Planner template - copy and update.docx

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Casey - Ionia

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A Certified Women Owned children's book company, specializing in distributing children's books and sole source collections to literacy programs across the US.

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Elissa Taskey - Alger

Held in an indoor space on a Friday evening, 5:30-7 p.m.

Photos/props

Music

Snacks

Creates Facebook events to help remind families

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Lauren Dake - Traverse Bay

0-5 event - 10-11 a.m.

Parent-led piece: parent created a bookmark and sticker to share at events highlighting the FC's work - includes a QR code/info - "Reading Is A Great Start To Any Adventure"

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With her talent, spark and smile, it is easy to see why audiences all over the country rave about Miriam's unmatched vocal versatility and her long-admired songwriting.

Multiple time winner of both The Northern Express' "Best Solo Artist" award and Traverse Magazine's "Red Hot Best Singer/Songwriter" award,

"Miriam Pico rules the nightly music scene".

-Brooks Vanderbush, Traverse Bay Family magazine.

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Miriam Pico is a singer/songwriter based in Michigan.

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Geneva - Barry

Partnered with bookstore for "Itsy Bitsy Book Club"

Push to connect community to local businesses

Dad started a "Tuesdays with Toddlers"

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Lauren Dake - Traverse Bay

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Illustrated Coloring Bookmarks for GSC.pdf

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Jennifer Hay - Monroe

"Let's Talk About Behaviors" parent event

ECSE Behavioral Coach

Positive Solutions for Parents

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Casey - Ionia

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Lauren Dake - Traverse Bay

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Justine - Mason-Lake-Oceana

Modeling Parent Cafe during GSC meetings; leading to connections with community partners to hold Parent Cafes in their spaces

26-35 people at GSC meetings; did 1 round of conversations

Connects GSC partners with community partners and the work we do

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Building Social Connections at FC Meetings

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Building Social Connections at FC Meetings

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Larissa Contreras - Clinton

Guest speaker - 35-40 mins

Building in a "Social Connection" piece during FC meetings for families

Stepping away; letting families chat freely

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Berrien Baby Bash - Community Baby Shower

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Berrien Baby Bash - Community Baby Shower

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Jen Fentres - Berrien

Event for 2025 babies - August 10

Piggybacking off a breastfeeding event taking place right beforehand

Committee working on it; also a collaborative group

Raffles/workshops

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Christina Clarke - Macomb

Held Wednesday, Feb. 5, 6-7:30 p.m.

300+ people 145 children

Held at the ISD

Provided pizza dinner

Books as prizes

5 rounds of Bingo

Next time will do a card kids can color

Put numbers on a big screen as they were called

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Event in Clinton Township, MI by Great Start Collaborative - Macomb on Wednesday, February 5 2025 with 146 people interested and 26 people going.

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This was the Bingo Caller website we used for our event.

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Let's Play Bingo! | The #1 free bingo caller application

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Let's Play Bingo is a free bingo calling application with absolutely ZERO ADS. It can be used to host bingo games from anywhere: home, church, school, the bar, or through zoom or live streaming!

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We had this playing with the Kids Bop on YouTube while families were coming in.

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Social media post/flyer

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Laura - Branch

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Laura - Branch

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Community Field Day

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We have a collaboration with Bethany Christian Services and I have created a padlet to hold all Parent Cafes happening in Ottawa County.

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This is a Fall event held at our local college. We partner with community agencies from around the county to support us with this event. Last year, we had over 25 community agencies attend! The event is held on a Thursday evening from 3:30 to 7:00pm.

3:30-4:30- Resource Forum: Agencies share information about their agency with other agencies. Each agency gets a few minutes to share information out. We have a short break from 4:30 to 5:00 to allow agency staff to enjoy dinner. We have this event catered.

5-7pm families arrive and enjoy dinner. They stop at agency tables to learn more about services they provide. Each agency brings a child activity and swag along with their resources. They also each provide a raffle prize.

We provide a variety of entertainment for families to enjoy, including a Petting Zoo, Live Music with additional musical instruments for children to play, balloon animals, games, popcorn & Face Painting. We have 2 Raffle sessions hosted by an MC for giving out prizes and highlighting agencies. This year we will also have a snow cone machine.

Each year this event gets bigger. Last year we had over 200 people attend, which is huge for a small, rural community! :)

We utilize Talking is Teaching throughout the event using yard signs (Let's Talk About Fall, Books, Music, Farm, Food.) Each family takes home a book. We also purchased Let's Talk About the Community t-shirts for agencies and staff working the event. We provide gift bags as a thank you to each agency staff member who participates.

We love this event because it brings agencies and families together in a fun way to learn about all of the resources and support available in the community for families with young children.

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Community & Family Fall Expo 2024- Family Flyer (1)