Engaging in frequent, meaningful conversation during the early years of schooling is foundational for children's literacy development. Specifically, developing oral language through daily conversations is essential for language comprehension, and eventually, reading comprehension. In this article, we discuss how teachers can use the…

The empirical data in this study are from a series of two lessons on measurement implemented in seven classes with 119 six-year-old students in Sweden. Both problem solving and problem posing were shown to be important in early mathematics when students in this study worked on one problem-solving task and one problem-posing task on measurement. As…

In this article, the authors provide some insight into how teachers can potentially facilitate among students' representations and activities on mathematical tasks: between or among -- (1) student representations and the context; (2) multiple forms of student representations; and (3) processes in student representations. The authors use the…

In the United States, the number of dual language learners has rapidly increased, requiring essential instructional support, especially for young children. Without the intentional teaching of academic vocabulary, academic words are not incorporated into the repertoire of emergent bilingual children (EBC). A recent systematic review of vocabulary…

Children can see the Moon with the naked eye and often are curious about the Moon and other objects in the sky, like the Sun and the stars. However, there is sometimes disagreement in early childhood about whether studying space is appropriate for young children. This activities described in this article engaged children who had different learning…

"Next Generation Science Standards" ("NGSS") three-dimensional learning is valuable for all students regardless of age. The "NGSS" integrate disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts, adding rigor to science teaching and learning. Though "NGSS" performance…

Effective Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) benefit from three interrelated dimensions of learning identified by UNESCO: cognitive, social-emotional and behavioural. The latter two of these are especially relevant to mindful compassion pedagogies, and the purpose of the literature review presented…

Preschool is a critical period for children. They need to develop a variety of skills (e.g., social and emotional skills, cognitive skills, motor skills) that are important for their development between the ages of 3 and 5. Dramatic play provides children with safe environments that allow them to learn and practice those important skills as it…

Learning trajectories (LTs) can inform teaching by contributing a variety of pedagogical and content-related insights and strategies. They support sequencing topic introduction and development. Because ideas evolve gradually and often rely on a careful introduction of new representations, operations, cases of numbers, structures, and definitions,…

The early years are times of wonder for children. Curious about everything, they seek to explore and understand their world. During these early years, they attempt to interpret their world and make meaning through pretend play, drawing, and conversations with those closest to them. Although these first steps toward literacy may not look much like…

As elementary schools expand to include Prekindergarten (PreK), many elementary school physical education teachers are surprised to find PreK classes on their teaching schedule. Equally, many PreK classroom teachers are recognizing the need for quality movement opportunities for their students and are searching for resources that can help all…

Five facts about standardized tests should cause educators to rethink their use in decision-making. Standardized tests used for state and federal accountability purposes in PreK--12 public education are not diagnostic. The test results are impacted by family income and student background knowledge. The composition of the tests disadvantage…

This article describes ways for early educators to support communication of young children with complex communication needs (CCN) in classrooms through a simple three-step process. First, identify the child's preferred activities and items. Second, identify vocabulary and prepare the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system. Third,…

The purpose of this article is to provide the practicing teacher with a planning tool that helps infuse National Health Education Standard (NHES) 1 with NHES 2-8 and social-emotional learning competencies and sub-competencies in their lessons and units. Because the focus on the social and emotional learning of students is in high demand given the…

Inclusive preschool classrooms have become increasingly common in recent decades, affording opportunities for children with and without disabilities opportunities to interact and develop positive relationships. Children with disabilities may be unintentionally excluded from these interactions due to communication differences. This paper discusses…