The thematic units in this valuable resource provide a variety of hands-on activities, fingerplays, and songs, as well as family letters and many timesaving reproducibles. Children will enjoy exploring these twelve thematic units: All About Me, Animals, Community Helpers, Dinosaurs, Fall, Family, Five Senses, Friends, Insects, Nursery Rhymes, Shapes and Colors, and Transportation.

The long-awaited new edition of NAEYC's book Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs is here, fully revised and updated! Since the first edition in 1987, it has been an essential resource for the early childhood education field. Early childhood educators have a professional responsibility to plan and implement intentional, developmentally appropriate learning experiences that promote the social and emotional development, physical development and health, cognitive development, and general learning competencies of each child served. But what is developmentally appropriate practice (DAP)? DAP is a framework designed to promote young children's optimal learning and development through a strengths-based approach to joyful, engaged learning. As educators make decisions to support each child's learning and development, they consider what they know about (1) commonality in children's development and learning, (2) each child as an individual (within the context of their family and community), and (3) everything discernible about the social and cultural contexts for each child, each educator, and the program as a whole. This latest edition of the book is fully revised to underscore the critical role social and cultural contexts play in child development and learning, including new research about implicit bias and teachers' own context and consideration of advances in neuroscience. Educators implement developmentally appropriate practice by recognizing the many assets all young children bring to the early learning program as individuals and as members of families and communities. They also develop an awareness of their own context. Building on each child's strengths, educators design and implement learning settings to help each child achieve their full potential across all domains of development and across all content areas.

A GIANT COLLECTION OF HANDS-ON KIDS ACTIVITIES. The perfect book to have on hand for inspiring you on holidays, weekends, or anytime the kids just need something to do! A fun mix of hands-on fun with learning, celebrating, and appreciating family time.

The Creative Curriculum comes alive! This videotape-winner of the 1989 Silver Apple Award at the National Educational Film and Video Festival-demonstrates how teachers set the stage for learning by creating a dynamic well-organized environment. It shows children involved in seven of the interest areas in the The Creative Curriculum and explains how they learn in each area. Everyone conducts in-service training workshops for staff and parents or who teaches early childhood education courses will find the video an indispensable tool for explainin appropriate practice.

Designed for busy teachers, daycare workers, and parents, this book contains weekly activities, lesson ideas, arts and crafts and cooking activities for preschool age children.

Florida with Kids: Adventures and Fun for the Whole Family" is a comprehensive travel guide designed to help families make the most of their Florida vacation. Whether you're planning a trip to the Sunshine State for the first time or you're a seasoned traveler, this book offers invaluable insights, tips, and recommendations for a memorable family adventure.

Are you studying early years in the work place, to gain further qualifications? Do you want help in developing the study skills you need to become a reflective student and practitioner? Do you want to get ideas and strategies for using your work experiences effectively for your assignments?If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then this is the book for you Studying early years in the work place in order to gain further qualifications and awards provides many exciting yet challenging opportunities for practitioners. In to become a reflective student and practitioner researcher it is imperative to think critically, analyse, explore and evaluate ideas or concepts in more depth. This book provides a framework for developing these important skills as well as providing support for the challenges and changes that early years practitioners face on a day-to-day basis. It provides ideas and strategies for identifying a personal learning style in order to use your work experiences effectively for a variety of work-based assignments. The author provides a Key Components Framework (KCF) for work-based learning. It supports you in coming out of your ‘comfort zone’ and taking risks in your learning. The three strands of the KCF provide opportunities to: Reflect upon how external factors - such as government initiatives - can influence and impact on practice Consider how personal factors - such as cultural background - can impact on learning and practice Acknowledge the ‘hidden skills’ - such as ability to problem solve - that early years practitioners need in order to achieve in today’s rapidly changing early years sector Studying Early Years is an essential guide for all early years students and particularly those pursuing work-based qualifications such as the Early Years Foundation degree.

Anti-bias education begins with you! Become a skilled anti-bias teacher with this practical guidance to confronting and eliminating barriers.

In this concise and accessible guide, the authors are sympathetic to the particular demands of teaching three to eight year olds and offer practical solutions to the complex issues that are currently faced by early years educators. In recognizing the demands on practitioners, they provide new and challenging frameworks for an understanding of the practice of teaching young children and draw upon international research to offer a sound model of early years subject-structured teaching which has the quality of children's learning at its centre. Their aim is to support teacher expertise through stimulating teachers' thinking about children's development, motivation, ways of learning and the subjects they teach. These topics are clearly set in the complex institutional settings in which practitioners work and ways of taking and evaluating action are offered.

Starting from the Child supports early years practitioners to be advocates for young children and their learning needs. In the fourth edition of this highly influential and inspirational book, Julie Fisher outlines the important theories and research which should underpin best early years practice. She takes a robust and principled stand against downward pressure to formalise young children’s learning too soon, and offers practical and meaningful ways to develop high quality learning and teaching in the early years. Starting from the Child challenges all early years practitioners to consider: How to build on children’s innate desire to learn and their competence and autonomy as effective early learners How to plan environments indoors and out that make learning irresistible How to plan for high quality child-initiated learning to take place seamlessly alongside learning that is adult-initiated The role of the adult in supporting and extending young children’s learning How daily observation of children informs and underpins planning for their individual and unique learning needs Revised and updated throughout, this fourth edition includes the latest research on early brain development and reference to recent government initiatives including the revised Early Years Foundation Stage. Starting from the Child is essential reading, not only for early years practitioners, but for all those who manage and make decisions about early learning. “Julie draws on her extensive work with practitioners to present the everyday realities and complexities of their practice, and to sound welcome notes of caution about the ways in which policy frameworks are used... The book also reflects deeply held convictions about the moral and ethical responsibilities we have to teach young children in ways that respect their extraordinary enthusiasm for learning.” Professor Elizabeth Wood, University of Sheffield, UK “The title says it all. Julie takes the reader by the hand and says ‘Look and listen, give these children your full and respectful attention and they will teach you how to be with them.’ All the practical ideas in the book support practitioners in using their skills and knowledge to recognise early childhood as valuable in its own right - to be relished and enjoyed, not to be rushed through or seen merely as preparation for the next stage.” Helen Moylett, Early Years Consultant and writer “Julie Fisher’s work has been a staple of Early Childhood Education since the first edition of Starting from the Child in 1996. Her fourth edition does not disappoint, and is a welcome development of her thinking... This is a book for students, teachers and other early years workers seeking to find their way through the conflicting needs of a rapidly changing area of work.” Nick Swarbrick, Programme Lead for the Undergraduate Modular Programme in the School of Education, Oxford Brookes University, UK