This article describes a didactic experience concerning the interaction between young children and the Continuator, an Interactive Reflexive Musical System (IRMS) elaborated at SONY- Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. The general aim was to analyse whether and how the Continuator can be used in the kindergartner during the daily school…

Inquiry-based media literacy is an increasingly important component of an educator's toolbox. The author's own concerns about definitions of media literacy have given way to a focus on establishing clear goals for media literacy education. The National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) articulates these goals: "The purpose of media…

There is a limited literature on pre-school children's experiences with "digital technologies" at home and little discussion of the ways in which children harness these technologies for their own purposes. This paper discusses findings drawn from three studies that investigated the role of "domestic technologies" and…

The daily trips outside can be challenging, and living in Manhattan makes them even more complex. It seems there is no such thing as a simple stroll, or a quick trip outside; and the winter weather makes such excursions that much more complex. Yet, it is always worth it. In the author's nine years of teaching, she has discovered that a "quick…

Young Children and the Arts: Nurturing Imagination and Creativity examines the place of the arts in the experiences of young and very young children at home and in out-of-home settings at school and in the community. There is great need for development of resources in the arts specifically designed to introduce babies and toddlers to participatory…

This article reports observations of 2 classrooms in which arts based creative activities were integrated with curricular subject areas. One successfully incorporated a positive approach to supporting creativity. The other classroom used a more traditional approach to creative activities in the classroom. Suggestions for and possible outcomes of…

The purpose of this paper is to show how curricular quality is related to the day-to-day activities experienced by children and the pedagogical activities of staff, both coded through systematic target-child observations. Data were drawn from the Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) and the Researching Effective Pedagogy in the Early…

This study explores a teacher's understandings of the role of play and her use of play in literacy learning serving children from diverse language backgrounds. The participants in this study were a public pre-kindergarten teacher and her class. Data were collected from interviews, informal conversations, observations, and self-reflexive notes. The…

This paper reports two projects done by children in Hong Kong, adapting the Reggio experience to fit the local needs of the community and the children. As Carla Rinaldi said, children are constantly "in search of meaning, finding the sense and meaning of things we do" (Lee, 2001, p. 29). The first project documented how children of the…

This article reports the results of a preliminary study that applied a randomized posttest-only design to evaluate the effectiveness of a literacy curriculum that incorporated explicit opportunities for Spanish-speaking Head Start preschool children (N = 76) to develop writing abilities in English. The study also addressed English language…

Learning through the arts has the potential to stimulate open ended activity that encourages discovery, exploration, experimentation and invention, thus contributing to children's development in all areas of learning and helping to make the curriculum meaningful to them. In this book, the author draws on her extensive experience of promoting young…

This article presents a negotiating practice that demonstrates the importance of the interplay of visual, verbal and linguistic signs. As such it discusses the relationship between identity and a signifying practice in a Swedish preschool, as children and teachers negotiate meaning. With emphasis on the relationship between building identity and…

This paper reports on a study of nursery children's responses to number focused activities. Responses were analysed in terms of cognitive, physical, emotional and social aspects in order to gain insights into what engaged children in number learning opportunities. "Cognitive-emotional hooks" for number activities were identified, involving…

Sefton School Advisory Service has been working with Crossens Nursery School in Southport on a project to develop science and technology. The overall project was inspired by the visit of the headteacher to the Reggio Emilia school in Italy. Central to the Reggio approach is a philosophy which values the children as researchers and as partners with…

Three terms which refer to "the child" as the center of education have come into common use during the 1926-1928 biennium. The terms "the whole child," "the child-centered school," and "creative expression," when translated into current practice, indicate significant progress in educational procedures. The actual demonstration in classroom…