When children play, they often create a mess, but what a beautiful mess it is! "Creating a Beautiful Mess" describes the ten most important play experiences all children enjoy and how these experiences support learning, creativity, and social connections. These broad categories of play include building with blocks, pretending and make…

Penetrates educational rallying symbols and technological paradigms to celebrate Donald Schon's reflection-in-action approach to teaching. Advances an alternative, nonpartisan vision of American Education that fulfills promises, opens spaces for inquiry and dialog, and overcomes a spreading passivity. Affirms freedom, imagination, passion, and the…

This special section on the spirit of play discusses (1) characteristics of adult play; (2) styles of playfulness; (3) the creation of environments that foster children's sense of wonder; and (4) strategies for training teachers to be playful and to be attentive to children's play. (HOD)

The rapid, disjointed, and vivid style of Sesame Street may impede rather than promote progress toward literacy and the development of voluntary attention. It robs children of the ability to create mental pictures. Contends that it is a failure as an instructional medium. (DM)

Written for the wide range of practitioners working with young children, this book offers guidance on both the theory and the practical management of drama in the early years. The book emphasizes the relationship between pretend play and the cognitive and affective development of young children, and highlights children's need to experience quality…

A practical guidebook of ideas, lesson materials, and related resources for developing imaginative and productive thinking skills of children is presented to assist teachers and parents. Emphasis is placed on the use of strategies and techniques that enhance originality, mental imagery, reverie, reflection, humor, novel playfulness, and divergent…

This document consists of the two 2000 issues of a magazine for parents, teachers, and others involved in cooperative nursery schools. The magazine is designed to provide a forum for views on dealing with young children, express a variety of ideas, promote the cooperative philosophy, and enhance the relationships of those involved in cooperative…

Prepared as part of an effort to attain minimum quality standards for Brazilian day care centers, this document focuses on day-to-day provision of day care services for children from birth to 6 years old as well as broader day care administrative concerns. The first version of this document was prepared as part of a training project for day care…

Parents and teachers may often have wondered how preschoolers learn, or why certain things, events, or people are more interesting to them than others? This book provides information on how young children learn, and offers activities to encourage emerging literacy, promote creativity and imagination, and enhance knowledge and development in music,…