Projects With Young Learners Primary Resource Books For Teachers

This popular series gives teachers practical advice and guidance, along with resource ideas and materials for the classroom. The tasks and activities are clearly presented, and offer teachers the information they need about level, time, preparation, materials, classroom management, monitoring, and follow-up activities. Each book offers up to 100 ideas, as well as variations that encourage teachers to adapt the activities to suite their individual classrooms.

Art, craft, and design activities offer children an excellent way to learn language while developing creative skills and an awareness of the world around them.

This bestselling book has been completely updated and expanded to help teachers use the project approach in child care centers, in preschools, and in kindergarten, 1st grade, and early childhood special education classrooms. For those new to using projects, the book introduces the approach and provides step-by-step guidance for conducting meaningful projects. Experienced teachers will find the teacher interviews, children's work, photographs (including full colour), and teacher journal entries used to document the project process in actual classrooms very useful. This popular, easy-to-use resource has been expanded to include these new features: explicit instructions and examples for incorporating standards into the topic selection and planning process; a variety of nature experiences, with examples that show how project work is an excellent way to connect children to the natural world; an update of the use of technology for both documentation and investigations, including use of the Web as well as and video and digital cameras; and more toddler projects that reflect our increased knowledge from recent mind/brain research about toddler understanding and learning.

This very popular series gives teachers practical advice and guidance, together with resource ideas and materials for the classroom.

Journey to the moon on the Apollo 12 mission with Alan Bean, the fourth astronaut to walk on the lunar surface and the only artist to paint its beauty firsthand! As a boy, Alan wanted to fly planes. As a young navy pilot, Alan wished he could paint the view from the cockpit. So he took an art class to learn patterns and forms. But no class could prepare him for the beauty of the lunar surface some 240,000 miles from Earth. In 1969, Alan became the fourth man and first artist on the moon. He took dozens of pictures, but none compared to what he saw through his artistic eyes. When he returned to Earth, he began to paint what he saw. Alan's paintings allowed humanity to experience what it truly felt like to walk on the moon. Journalist and storyteller Dean Robbins's tale of this extraordinary astronaut is masterful, and artist Sean Rubin's illustrations are whimsical and unexpected. With back matter that includes photos of the NASA mission, images of Alan's paintings, and a timeline of lunar space travel, this is one adventure readers won't want to miss!

100 ready-to-use projects to challenge and inspire your third-, fourth- and fifth-graders! Project Based Learning Made Simple is the fun and engaging way to teach twenty-first-century competencies including problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication and creativity. This straightforward book makes it easier than ever to bring this innovative technique into your classroom with 100 ready-to-use projects in a range of topics, including: Science and STEM • Save the Bees! • Class Aquarium • Mars Colony Math Literacy • Personal Budgeting • Bake Sale • Family Cookbook Language Arts • Candy Bar Marketing • Modernize a Fairy Tale • Movie Adaptation Social Studies • Build a Statue • Establish a Colony • Documenting Immigration

Engaged families make a difference in the lives of their children! The children in today's early childhood classroom are more culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse than ever. As a teacher, your challenge is to partner with each family through recognizing their individual strengths, concerns, priorities, and resources. In The Welcoming Classroom: Building Strong Home-to-School Connections for Early Learning, Dr. Johnna Darragh Ernst offers practical ideas for creating a welcoming atmosphere for families that will encourage them to participate in their children's learning community. Learn practical ways to connect with families from varied cultural and language backgrounds and abilities. Gain new strategies for creating a home-school link to support learning. Create a richer learning environment by integrating unique family cultural perspectives. Learn ways to encourage family participation in decision making. Learn strategies to develop families as resources. Communicate the message that all families are valued members of the learning community. From improving children's school readiness to encouraging positive engagement with peers, promoting student academic achievement, increasing graduation rates, and helping reduce the negative impact of poverty, the benefits of engaging families early will impact the young children in your care long after they leave your classroom! Johnna Darragh Ernst, PhD, is a professor of early childhood education at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. She specializes in helping early childhood professionals connect with families to create inclusive early childhood classroom communities.

Young Investigators has been expanded to guide today’s teachers through the process of conducting meaningful investigations with young children. This fourth edition of the bestseller begins with a new chapter, “How Children Really Learn,” which summarizes insights from mind-brain education research, showing how experiences firmly rooted in children’s curiosity and interest build intellectual capacity. The book then introduces the Project Approach with step-by-step guidance for incorporating child initiation and direction into curriculum while simultaneously addressing content standards. A new focus on critical Teacher Decision Points uses fresh-from-the-classroom examples to show how teachers think through project work. The emphasis on STEM experiences has been expanded to include STEAM through a new chapter, “The Role of Project Work in the Arts” This book makes project-based learning possible with the youngest children (toddlers through 2nd grade) who are not yet proficient in reading and writing, but capable of deep, focused thinking. Throughout, readers empathize with teachers’ concerns, witness how they find solutions to challenges, and feel the excitement of children during project work. Young Investigators is appropriate for teachers new to using the Project Approach, as well as for those who already have experience. Book Features: Examples of projects from child care centers and preschool, K–2, and special education classrooms.Instructions for incorporating standards and STEAM skills into project work.A variety of experiences to help children connect to the natural world. Toddler projects that reflect knowledge from recent mind-brain research.Tools for integrating required curriculum goals and for assessing achievement.A Teacher Project Planning Journal that leads teachers through the major decision points of project work.Full-color photographs of children engaged with projects. A study guide for pre- and inservice teachers (available at www.tcpress.com).