_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. Small world play offers a wide range of learning opportunities for young children. Acting out narratives and ideas through the manipulation of small or miniature equipment, tools, toys and objects helps children to respond to their environment. Play becomes representative of real-life situations and is a medium through which children can explore their own feelings about these events and experiences in a safe and productive way. The frequent inclusion of sensory elements in this play also deepens experiences. Small world play is rich in possibilities for specific, thematic, learning, such as gathering information about spaces, positions, colours and cultures. Small world play is entertaining, challenging, motivating and allows children to use their imaginations and decide on their own play choices. Many practitioners find it challenging to continually renew the play environment, but this book suggests ideas for how to ensure a meaningful play content that replicates environments or scenarios that children can connect to, using a large variety of resources from natural materials to specific props. Presented in the accessible, practical and flexible 50 Fantastic Ideas format, Judit Horvath's book is a compendium of ideas that will ensure you get the most out of small world play in your setting, without over-stimulating and distracting the children involved.

_______________ The 50 Fantastic Ideas series is packed full of fun, original, skills-based activities for Early Years practitioners to use with children aged 0-5. Each activity features step-by-step guidance, a list of resources, and a detailed explanation of the skills children will learn. Creative, simple, and highly effective, this series is a must-have for every Early Years setting. The tuff tray is a staple resource that is often abandoned or underused in early years settings. However, when used effectively, a tuff tray can enhance a child's learning through its versatile usage, such as messy play or as enhancements to support themes and ideas that are being explored. A simple tuff tray provocation can offer many learning opportunities to help a child progress and develop, as its sensory play approach promotes open-ended investigations and problem solving. 50 Fantastic Ideas for Tuff Trays is packed full of exciting activities that are not only simple and easy to prepare and manage, but that also use materials and tools found in most settings and at very low cost. With ideas for tuff trays that support books, promote mathematics and are ideal for celebrations and festivals, this book creates inviting opportunities for learning objectives to be met in an exciting and creative way.

Fully updated to reflect the current status and understandings regarding outdoor provision within early childhood education frameworks across the UK, this new edition shows early years practitioners how to get the very best from outdoor play and learning for the enjoyment, health and education of young children up to age seven. This invaluable resource gives sound practical guidance for providing: play with water, sand and other natural materials; experiences with plants, growing and living things; movement and physical play; construction, imaginative and creative play; and explorations into the locality and community just beyond your garden. This full-colour third edition has been further developed to act as a comprehensive source book of relevant materials, books and resources supporting the core ingredients of high-quality outdoor provision, while each chapter also includes extensive collections of children’s picture books relating to the themes within each chapter. Playing and Learning Outdoors has become the essential practical guide to excellence in outdoor provision and pedagogy for all early years services. This lively, inspiring and accessible book will help every educator to develop truly successful and satisfying approach to learning through play outdoors for every child.

Harness the Power of Curiosity to Foster Students' Love for Learning From their youngest years, our children are innately curious. Cultivate an inquiry mindset both as a teacher and in your students! Adopt an inquiry approach that results in the most authentic and inspiring learning you've ever experienced!

Encourage tinkering, curiosity, and creative thinking in children of all ages with these 55 hands-on activities that explore art, science, and more The creator of the highly popular creativity site for kids, Tinkerlab.com, now delivers dozens of engaging, kid-tested, and easy-to-implement projects that will help parents and teachers bring out the natural tinkerer in every kid—even babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. The creative experiments shared in this book foster curiosity, promote creative and critical thinking, and encourage tinkering—mindsets that are important to children growing up in a world that values independent thinking. In addition to offering a host of activities that parents and teachers can put to use right away, this book also includes a buffet of recipes (magic potions, different kinds of play dough, silly putty, and homemade butter) and a detailed list of materials to include in the art pantry.

Whether she is contemplating promiscuity or The New Testament, lamenting about what she should have said to Oprah, or learning to tango, Grealy seduces and surprises the reader at every turn. With the sheer brilliance of her imagination, Grealy leads us on delightful journeys with her wit, unflinching honesty and peerless intelligence. A completely original thinker and a remarkable writer, the author leaves the reader with plenty to ponder. As Seen On TV breaks the mould of the essay, and is destined, like the memoir that preceded it, to become a modern classic. '[Grealy is]. . . unforgettable.' -New York Times '[Grealy writes]-with exquisite prose and steely strength.' -USA Today 'Lucy Grealy manages to convince an amazing array of people that she is speaking directly to them.' -Baltimore Sun '[Grealy] overcomes-with wit, intelligence and an unconquerable spirit.' Mademoiselle

Over 70 highly practical activities looking at the themes of shape and colour for early years practitioners to use with little or no preparation.

A page-turning novel that is also an exploration of the great philosophical concepts of Western thought, Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World has fired the imagination of readers all over the world, with more than twenty million copies in print. One day fourteen-year-old Sophie Amundsen comes home from school to find in her mailbox two notes, with one question on each: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" From that irresistible beginning, Sophie becomes obsessed with questions that take her far beyond what she knows of her Norwegian village. Through those letters, she enrolls in a kind of correspondence course, covering Socrates to Sartre, with a mysterious philosopher, while receiving letters addressed to another girl. Who is Hilde? And why does her mail keep turning up? To unravel this riddle, Sophie must use the philosophy she is learning—but the truth turns out to be far more complicated than she could have imagined.

Listening to music and moving in response to the sounds we hear is the most natural reaction in the world. The Little Book of Music and Movement is packed full of ideas and activities for early years settings. The musical sources are varied and eclectic, including classical, pop, jazz, world, traditional, some well-known and others undiscovered gems, and all easily available via www.youtube.com or other internet sources. This book gives practitioners information, resources and confidence to use lots of music to enrich the learning environment. Alongside ideas for movement, other ideas for expressive arts activities such as art, music and drama are included in 'Whatever next' sections and links to other curriculum areas which include 'EYFS connections'.

"Meg goes to Maker School to hone her talent for building with boxes, but when Simone, another boxitect, arrives they become so competitive they nearly fail in the annual Maker Match." --