Play provides young children with the opportunity to express their ideas, symbolize, and test their knowledge of the world. It provides the basis for inquiry in literacy, science, social studies, mathematics, art, music, and movement. Through play, young children become active learners engaged in explorations about themselves, their community, and…

This book uses art to stimulate content-area language development and writing skills. From A to Z, the 81 animal patterns in the book combine with 35 different activities to enhance the primary curriculum--each student gets a photocopy of the pattern, paper, scissors, and some materials to decorate the "critter." The book's activities…

The purpose of this text is to introduce creative dramatics to those who are concerned with the lives of children, especially parents, teachers, and those preparing to teach. Chapter one examines how children play and how they use play to meet important growth needs. In chapter two, creative dramatics is defined, and the crucial role of the…

Since 1970, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts has sponsored educational programs in which artists participate actively in the classroom with students and teachers. This book contains eight case studies showing the effects of visiting artists in eight Connecticut schools. Topics of these studies are song writing, dance movement in suburbia,…

Demonstrating that reading can and should be part of every curricular area, this book provides a wide selection of activities developed for 39 books selected on the basis of their interest level and application to the needs of reluctant readers in grades 2 through 5. The first part of the book presents guidelines for motivating students and…

The guide is intended to be a supplement to multicultural units in primary grades. The activities are freehand and students should be encouraged to use their imaginations and ideas to improve on a design. The approach is based on a whole language philosophy of learning with simple art activities that encourage creativity and critical thinking in…

Experienced educator Donna Whyte has compiled her ideas for using film containers in the classroom into "131 Ways to Use Film Containers" so that they can be shared with other teachers. She includes engaging ways to use them in teaching children about word families, sight words, and punctuation marks; skip counting, estimating, and predicting; and…

This resource book is intended to assist special education teachers in planning art lessons to meet specific goals. It is divided into sections covering mild and moderately handicapped students, severely and profoundly handicapped students, and student with specific sensory handicaps. Each section discusses definitions and characteristics of the…

Intended to encourage children to develop their imaginations naturally, with only a small amount of help from adults, this book presents over 125 activities for creative and pretend play for young children. The book's introduction describes the importance and benefits of pretend play, the adult's role, and needed materials and space. The…

Intended to help create an environment where poetry flourishes, this book offers elementary school teachers a formula for integrating poetry into all areas of study by exploiting their interconnections. Each chapter in the book is broken into sections dealing with basic principles and concepts. Each subsection presents and discusses poems that…

Noting that a creative approach to early childhood education allows teachers to reinforce the foundation of achievement by encouraging and expanding upon children's play activities, this book provides teacher-developed ideas and strategies for creating learning communities in the early childhood classroom. The beginning chapter introduces creative…

Focusing on the common bonds of all children everywhere while honoring their differences, this book shows teachers how to choose appropriate picture books, how to lead children into book extension activities featuring multicultural characters, and how to develop an entire multicultural curriculum with these books. Each chapter in the book…

This book provides practical, everyday activities to weave language development and early literacy activities into the daily schedule in an early childhood education program. The chapters are organized by areas common in most early childhood environments: (1) circle time; (2) snack time; (3) dramatic play; (4) outdoor play; (5) art; (6) sand and…

Vegetable Soup is a new children's television series whose purpose is to counter the negative and destructive effects of racial isolation. This manual gives detailed instructions for discussion of activities that are presented during the television series such as: crafts, games, recipes, language activities, and children's questions. A list of…

This book provides guidance and instruction for nine in-depth projects that integrate information literacy skills and technology skills with the elementary curriculum while promoting small-group learning and interpersonal skills. These projects use the talents of both the teacher and the librarian and emphasize small group learning. The following…