In this article, the author presents the 12 benefits of playing as a reference and guide for teachers in helping young children develop their cognitive skills, motor ability, socio-emotional, and academic development during play time. The following 12 benefits are described: (1) Play Enhances Bodily Gracefulness; (2) Play Promotes Social Skills;…

Methods for teaching pupils to use their senses to explore colors, shapes, textures, and sounds of the great outdoors are described. Ideas include: (1) having children hug their own special tree; (2) looking for geometric shapes in nature; (3) taking nocturnal nature walks; (4) building a track for racing insects; and (5) collecting objects with…

Describes a Montana child development center's creation of an area in which children could enjoy messy, creative, sensory experiences playing with mud and a wide variety of outdoor props. Discusses how mud play contributed to young children's emerging interests and provided opportunities for expressing creativity, enhancing fine motor skills, and…

Discusses a unit on the discovery of the senses that integrates art and science. Students create pictures of a "smell" using the crayon-resist process. Explains that during the second day, students "smell" their peers' paintings to determine what aroma is being depicted. (CMK)

In the introductory assignment, each randomly assigned group spends about 10 to 15 minutes at each station. The author incorporates as much sensory stimulation in the activity as possible. At the first station, students view a PowerPoint show from a geology class the author participated in at the Grand Canyon. At station two, students look at a…

The suggestopedic model of accelerated learning as developed by Lozanov is referred to by him as a set of attitudes inherent to sociocultural behavior common to the Soviet Bloc countries. The theoretical base accounts for a built-in obedience reflex, acceptance of authority, lack of competitiveness, promotion of collective growth, and a…

This paper describes a simulation experience to help people understand the feelings of the elderly through a program conducted by the Jewish Center for Aged in Chesterfield, MO. The four-hour program is divided into four sections: (1) a true-false test is given to assess participants' concepts of the aged; (2) inhibitors are applied to limit…

A model presents experiential learning as a combination lock. Outdoor environmental elements, activities, senses, emotions, forms of intelligence, and ways of learning are grouped into six "tumblers" that can be arranged into combinations that best help learners interact with the external environment through their senses, thus generating…

Discusses ways in which early childhood teachers can write, shape, and present poetry to young children. (BB)

Describes the conventional-behaviorist and the developmental-cognitive schools of thought concerning moral education. Suggests a third perspective using a perceptual-experiential model. Recommends the construction of moral reality through a curriculum of stage-appropriate sensory challenges. Argues that when moral concerns are experienced and…

Non-quantifiable knowledge, involving sensory information, conceptualization, and imagination, is discussed in relation to educational evalution. Evaluation is discussed in terms of educational connoisseurship, or the art of appreciation; and educational criticism, which informs, interprets, and appraises. (MH)

Suggests advantages and design considerations for outdoor settings for babies. Climate, wildlife, equipment, and the needs and natures of both babies and caregivers are discussed. Provides ideas for landscape design and structures. (SH)

Overviews the contents of a three-unit booklet of Gestalt learning activities for elementary schoolchildren. Summarizes a program incorporating these activities, focusing on external and internal awareness and expressing feelings. Describes teacher and counselor roles in the program as well as student outcomes. Includes examples from each unit.…

Describes the outdoor adult education classes conducted by a community college in California designed for parents and their children ages 5 through 8 years. Classes include parenting topics, music, movement, crafts, stories, hiking, and nature awareness, focusing on sensual outdoor experiences for children. Describes what children gain from…

Describes a demonstration that recreates the central features of taste aversion (learning to avoid distinctively flavored food or drink paired with gastrointestinal illness) research. Rats are allowed to drink a saccharine flavored solution and then are given an injection of sodium chloride. They associate the unpleasant effects with the solution.…