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…

"Improving Your Reflective Practice through Stories of Practitioner Research" shows how research has informed and created effective and valuable reflective practice in early years education, and offers depth to the arguments for a research-orientated stance to this vital field of study. This thought-provoking text explores and documents a variety…

By encouraging students to use their minds in new ways, consciousness education enhances awareness and creativity. Examples include using guided cognitive imagery to introduce new material and using dreams for introducing students to poetry. (Author/MLF)

Examines six habits that rob busy administrators of precious time: wishing for improvement, complaining, criticizing, procrastinating, making ineffective decisions, and failing to set goals. Advises readers to end ego-destructive self-criticism, anticipate and monitor progress, and use untapped forces of imagination to create a successful…

Imaginative play can enhance preschoolers' oral language when the child's internal control is strenghtened, external reality is suspended, and motivation exists to become involved. The caregiver provides cues in the arrangement of the environment and selection of materials. Cues can encourage dramatic as well as sociodramatic play. (CL)

One of a series of statements focusing on children's basic rights, this brief essay asserts that all children need an environment where the act of imagining and its expression are respected and given visible outlets. (RH)

Suggested writing projects to stimulate thought-to-theme writing connections involve: (1) haiku based on animals; (2) acronyms as vocabulary builders; (3) aromas and textures as inspiration; (4) writing proverbs and fables; and (5) a "musical chairs" approach to story-writing, with props supplied at intervals to test creative technique. (FG)

This discussion of the artistic merit and universal appeal of picture books was presented at the 1987 convention of the Catholic Library Association. A bibliography of books from which slides were taken to accompany the presentation is included. (Author/EM)

Describes a particular method for visualizing and presents related classroom art activities requiring careful observation of an external reality and the embellishment of it through purposeful imagination. (Author/SJL)

This article discusses techniques for reaching the metaphorical side of the brain. (PD)

Children seem to learn language more quickly when movement precedes language use. (JH)

One of the nicest things about being a student in a class in creativity is in always being "right." The completed creation, the imaginative response, is always a "right answer." Article discussed creative projects and how to develop them while developing an imaginative exploration. (Author/RK)

Suggestions are made to teachers for using daydreaming, guided as fantasy, to prepare students to concentrate, to enrich the curriculum, and to increase self-knowledge. (Author/SJL)

Describes how a teacher can use a puppet from outer space to help preschool children reinforce their knowledge of facial features, stretch their imaginations and practice using verbal skills. (CM)

Horse drawings by female children are analyzed. The construction of meaning in children's drawing frequently remains as much in the child's mind as it is graphically expressed. Educators must develop an appreciation for children's fantasy worlds and the ways these worlds both mirror and transform their lives. (RM)