The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…

This brief column offers ten tips on how to revive classroom learning centers by cleaning up, reassessing spaces, and adding fresh materials. Some of the tips include: create colorful banners; provide inspirational materials; and share surprise boxes.

This article critically examines classroom walls from four perspectives: (1) reading the environment; (2) walls that silence; (3) the purpose of display; and (4) aesthetics. The author offers some suggestions for teachers to consider when purchasing materials and in planning how to use classroom walls to enhance the educational setting. She…

Contemporary White cultural bias is a complex social pattering and possessiveness rooted in unchallenged assumptions and privileged status arising from historic and structural racism, classism, sexism, and suburbanism. A church school curriculum that reflects only the experience, language, and culture of writers, editors, and illustrators raised…

This article discusses how children learn to understand the decimal system in very concrete ways, while having fun using beads. When counting the beads, the children learn 5,491 is not simply "five thousand four hundred and ninety-one" but actually 5 thousands, 4 hundreds, 9 tens, and 1 unit. They begin to understand that as they get 10 units,…