Children's poetry no longer connotes holidays, nonsense, moral dicta, or the what's, why's, and how's of life, connotations that have frequently stereotyped poetry as sissy, baby, or boring stuff. Children's poems of the seventies suggest that any simple subject has become the province of a poem, including such topics as mud, oil slicks, sharks,…

Notes that few books dealing with computers are available for elementary school students. Provides an annotated list of the books that are available and makes suggestions for their use. (FL)

Children will write well only when they speak in their own voices about their own concerns. (DD)

Suggestions are given on how to write stories for students, taking into consideration plot, vocabulary development, and interest levels. (JH)

Describes a language arts program in a Brooklyn, New York, public school in which children are questioned about their writing and their interests and allowed the freedom to put any interest on paper. Discusses the problems children encounter with such writing freedom, as well as the program's effectiveness. (HTH)

Describes how a teacher, faced with the task of taking an inventory of classroom materials, used the situation as a meaningful method of teaching mathematics, social studies and language to her third-grade pupils. (Author/MP)

Suggests ways students can benefit when elementary teachers combine reading instruction with art activities. (JC)

The classroom use of the key vocabulary, developed by Sylvia Ashton-Warner as a reading approach--rather than as a reading method--which utilizes the child's actual experience, is the major concern of this book. Materials used and tested for a number of years present examples, outlines, and various methods for eliciting children's dramas through…

Reports findings of a survey in which approximately 800 fifth and sixth grade students chose their favorite children's "classics." (FL)

Describes how implementing a free activities period at the beginning of the regular class day can encourage creative, independent art projects; development of positive self-attitudes; and reading and writing behaviors and can lower rebellious classroom behavior by providing students with some measure of classroom control. (CRH)

Examines the early writing of a young child over the course of several months to illustrate the struggle with the writing process. Draws parallels between the child's writing progress and that of the author as she learned to be comfortable as a writer and suggests implications for the teaching of writing. (HTH)

Identifying games as being common to children worldwide, Sunal focuses on Nigerian group games in order to illustrate the range of game variations and their use in a social studies program. Describes hiding games, singing games, and a fine-motor skills game, stating that they help acquaint students with foreign cultures and reveal similarities in…

Suggests that reluctant learners can be motivated to read and write if the teacher writes a story in which the student is the hero. Notes that students may be persuaded to write their own stories with themselves as heroes and share them with friends. (JC)

Describes a unique exchange program between Mexico and California in which poets go to the foreign country to teach poetry writing, with local poets, to elementary school children. Provides samples of exercises in poetry writing and excerpts of children's poetry, translated from Spanish into English. (KEH)