Focuses on fostering self-esteem of African-American children. Offers guidelines for elementary school counselors as necessary attitudes or behaviors that will help foster multiculturalism and describes seven guidance activities for putting guidelines into action. Recommends evaluation of these programs by observing how students behave. (ABL)

Describes a class activity for students in grades one through six called "Fitness Time." This activity can be used during a fitness unit to improve elementary students' fitness levels and enhance a number of other skills related to setting goals, telling time, making estimates, and subtracting numbers. Sample student record-keeping…

Describes a case study of a first-grade class in fractions, presents preliminary findings suggesting that students in others grades can learn fractions in similar ways, and offers ideas for action research. (MKR)

Provides an abstract of the book, "Developmentally Appropriate Middle Schools," which examines young adolescents' physical, psychosocial, and cognitive characteristics, and suggests developmentally appropriate educational experiences. The book includes the idea that young adolescents' individual development should be the basis for curricular,…

Ninth graders in a six-week reading improvement class at San Marcos High School (Texas) acted as tutors in an elementary school. The ninth graders' self-confidence, attitude, and attendance improved dramatically, but their own progress in reading did not, because of the short duration of the project. (DM)

Discusses a study of variations in Scottish elementary school children's reading attainment. Reports that, although individual student achievement varied with socioeconomic background, variations among schools did not appear to relate to schools' socioeconomic composition, size, location, or denominational status. Cites the need to evaluate such…

The article presents an interactive take-home activity "Test Your Nerves" on the nervous system that helps parents begin talking about health with their children. Suggestions for teachers on introducing the activities, follow-up class activities, and developing similar activities are included. (SM)

The article presents a step-by-step guide to choosing and using performance assessment to determine what students know and can do in science. Performance assessment allows teachers to measure what students know by watching what they do. An example of performance assessment in action is included. (SM)

Presents results of a study of the role of context upon English children's estimation skills. Includes estimation tasks involving distance, area, and volume measurements and children's answers about how they carried out the tasks. Concludes that estimates in contexts perceived as mathematical differed from those involving perceptual-motor skills.…

Describes the Parent Observation System, a recent effort to provide help for resistant parents. This effort attempts to get specific parents into a more active involvement in their child's education and thus reduce the parent's resistance to school personnel services. Parent observation forms and related materials are appended. (NB)

To make elementary science students grasp the scientific concepts being taught, teachers must not ignore their preconceived ideas. Instead, teachers must identify misconceptions then help the students test them. The article presents a step-by-step approach that can serve as a model for teaching any science concept. (SM)

Describes the movement to integrate students with special needs into the regular classroom, explaining what inclusive education is and is not, how to make it work, why it sometimes fails, and how teachers feel about it. A checklist to help schools get ready for inclusion is included. (SM)

Playing make believe (metaphoric play) with elementary students can promote very real conversations about art. The paper explains how metaphoric play can help teach art. After collecting familiar art (posters, storybook art, etc.), the teacher creates reality-based scenarios to promote talk, then encourages students on to more far-fetched…

A discussion of how to use math manipulatives to teach elementary students focuses on essential program elements: what math manipulatives are and why they are used, common questions about math manipulatives, how one teacher introduced the geoboard into the classroom, and pattern block activities. (SM)

Children benefit when their parents or caregivers are actively involved in their out-of-school learning. Yet a new report by the Harvard Family Research Project and United Way of Massachusetts Bay finds that only a quarter of programs surveyed had effectively incorporated families. This guide, funded by the Wallace Foundation under its Parents and…