Young children learn best through hands-on, authentic experiences that motivates, stimulates and supports their growth in all areas of development. This includes the skills necessary to enhance their literacy and language acquisition, physical and cognitive development in addition to their social-emotional development and approaches to learning.…

Supporting early writing skills in pre-kindergarten lays an important foundation for later writing achievement as well as reading achievement. Specifically, encouraging children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide…

Supporting early writing skills in pre-kindergarten lays an important foundation for later writing achievement as well as reading achievement. Specifically, encouraging children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide…

In this kindergarten lesson about pushes and pulls, the authors used the SHARE strategy to embed effective questions throughout each phase of the 5E learning cycle (Engage, Explore, Explain, Evaluate, Elaborate). The thoughtfully worded and open-ended questions shared in this article can help students generate ideas and focus their thinking…

Early care and education (ECE) programs are central to a thriving community: they support the well-being of children as well as their families. In Contra Costa County, approximately 260 child care centers serve children from birth through age five, along with 765 family child care providers operating in their own homes. These nurturing and vibrant…

Parents play a vital role in shaping the ways young children understand the world around them. This paper reports on how the Community Mathematics Project (CMP)--a mathematics tutoring program for parents of diverse young children--affected the ways parents engaged in mathematical sensemaking while using virtual manipulatives and questioning to…

Public libraries offer a wide range of developmental support and learning opportunities for young children with and without disabilities. Libraries in many communities function as hubs and places of support for parenting, literacy, education, technology, as well as general local, and health information. A research team recently conducted focus…

More than a decade of research on how young children learn and connect via video chat takes on new importance as families and educators navigate relationship-building and learning during the pandemic. In this brief review, the authors summarize findings on how babies, toddlers, and their families have used video chat successfully to connect and…

This article describes how kindergarten scientists at Caldwell Heights Elementary School in Round Rock, Texas created what they named a "Light Circle" using their classroom's south-facing window, its windowsill, and a small round mirror. The tilt of the Earth and the latitude of one's location combine to determine if the Sun ever shines…

The use of multimodal approaches to articulate young children's perspectives are evident in a wide range of recent research. This paper explores the creation of multimodal map-texts as a strategy to engage with young children and articulate their perspectives. It describes the development of a flexible map-based approach that was used in home,…

A large body of research literature suggests that quality formative assessment has the potential to promote positive outcomes for young children. This paper posits that early childhood educators learn how to use developmentally appropriate assessment practices to effectively assess young children and use these data to make decisions that matter…

The teaching of fundamental movement skills (FMS) such as catching, throwing, running, jumping and rolling is widely accepted as the cornerstone of physical education in the primary school. However, there is limited debate about the use of different pedagogical approaches when teaching FMS. In this article, advice is offered for teachers vis-à-vis…

To foster children and young people's skills, dispositions and understanding that underpin a voice agenda, practices need to be developed that support this from the earliest age. This article explores issues relating to this complex, challenging and under-researched area from the perspective of practitioners working with children aged from birth…

This article focuses on an approach to the concept of historical time in early childhood education through the lens of cognitive psychology. It consists of three parts: (1) theoretical approaches, inspired by three broad scientific fields -- cognitive psychology, pedagogy and history; (2) the presentation of educational examples, formed by…

Children with special needs may have less access to play due to the nature of their developmental delay or disability or their lack of experience with typically developing peers. Many preschools and kindergartens have reduced play in their daily schedules and elementary schools have reduced or eliminated recess (Jarrett et al., 2015; Zigler &…