Field-tested across the country, this comprehensive curriculum expands and extends the role science has traditionally played in the early childhood classroom. The first in a new series, Discovering Nature with Young Children explores the wide-ranging elements that make up the natural world around us. The curriculum replaces simple fact-feeding practices with the development of long-term scientific reasoning, including literacy skills and numeracy skills, such as hypothesis, inference, prediction, and estimation.
Connecting Children to the Wonder of Nature There's a whole world outdoors waiting to embrace young children--with their curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm--and to impart its treasures. Experiencing Nature With Young Children invites you to explore this world with children from birth to age 8 in ways that will - Awaken their enjoyment and appreciation of nature - Nurture their emotional development - Enhance their cognitive growth - Spark their creativity - Help them discover how we all--people, animals, plants--are connected - Engage families and communities in preserving nature Along the way, children will learn to love nature and its inhabitants. And in learning to love, they will learn to care--helping to ensure that our natural environment will be well looked-after by the next generation. Part ballad to nature, part irresistible invitation to teachers, this book will awaken and renew your own joy in nature--and move you to experience it with young children.
Field-tested across the country, this comprehensive curriculum expands and extends the role science has traditionally played in the early childhood classroom. The first in a new series, Discovering Nature with Young Children explores the wide-ranging elements that make up the natural world around us. The curriculum replaces simple fact-feeding practices with the development of long-term scientific reasoning, including literacy skills and numeracy skills, such as hypothesis, inference, prediction, and estimation. A companion to the curriculum, this trainer’s guide serves as an indispensable handbook for trainers and administrators interested in introducing staff to the curriculum—from planning to implementation. Special sections outline the curriculum and introduce scientific reasoning to adults, and eight workshops detail the complete curriculum for staff members. The guide also includes strategies for supporting teachers over time through mentoring and guided discussions.
Nature Education with Young Children is a thoughtful, sophisticated teacher resource that blends theory and practice on nature education, children's inquiry-based learning, and reflective teaching. The book’s guiding conceptual framework is founded upon the integration of four key ideas for effective and transformative nature education: • The power and value of equity and access to nature education • Effective teaching encompasses child development domains and integrates ECE curriculum • Children learn best through inquiry-based and child-centered teaching • Powerful teaching is founded upon teacher inquiry and reflection. Implementing nature study is one critical way that educators can integrate more science learning across the ECE curriculum and do so in an active, discovery-based manner. Nature Education with Young Children strives for an American version of what the Reggio Emilia educators do so well: creating a seamless integration of science concepts into the daily intellectual investigations that occur in classrooms everywhere.
Field-tested across the country, this comprehensive curriculum expands and extends the role science has traditionally played in the early childhood classroom. The first in a new series, Discovering Nature with Young Children explores the wide-ranging elements that make up the natural world around us. The curriculum replaces simple fact-feeding practices with the development of long-term scientific reasoning, including literacy skills and numeracy skills, such as hypothesis, inference, prediction, and estimation.
Today's teachers and providers are often challenged by and concerned about the expectations in their states' early learning standards. How appropriate are standards for young children? How do they correlate with existing expectations and curricula? How inclusive are standards for second language learners and those with disabilities and developmental delays? In Play, Projects, and Preschool Standards, authors Gera Jacobs and Kathy Crowley tackle these questions-and more-head-on. They provide readers with plenty of lively, creative ideas to develop children's genuine curiosity while building essential skills for all children to succeed in kindergarten and beyond. With inviting, informal language, the authors walk readers through the creation of well-planned projects and activities that both capture children's interest and enhance social and early academic development in all curriculum areas. Each chapter offers: "What Research and the Experts Tell Us" snapshots and applications of the research in practice, "Try This" activity ideas that engage children and address standards, Suggestions for tailoring activities to meet the needs of bilingual children and children with special needs, This timely book is sure to give teachers and childcare professionals the confidence and ability to connect the experiences that make preschool so enjoyable with the potential for learning that makes preschool so valuable. Book jacket.
From the author of the New York Times bestseller that defined nature-deficit disorder and launched the international children-and-nature movement, Vitamin N (for “nature”) is a complete prescription for connecting with the power and joy of the natural world right now, with 500 activities for children and adults Dozens of inspiring and thought-provoking essays Scores of informational websites Down-to-earth advice In his landmark work Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv was the first to bring widespread attention to the alienation of children from the natural world, coining the term nature-deficit disorder and outlining the benefits of a strong nature connection--from boosting mental acuity and creativity to reducing obesity and depression, from promoting health and wellness to simply having fun. That book “rivaled Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring” (the Cincinnati Enquirer), was “an absolute must-read for parents” (the Boston Globe), and “an inch-thick caution against raising the fully automated child” (the New York Times). His follow-up book, The Nature Principle, addressed the needs of adults and outlined a “new nature movement and its potential to improve the lives of all people no matter where they live” (McClatchy Newspapers).Vitamin N is a one-of-a-kind, comprehensive, and practical guidebook for the whole family and the wider community, including tips not only for parents eager to share nature with their kids but also for those seeking nature-smart schools, medical professionals, and even careers. It is a dose of pure inspiration, reminding us that looking up at the stars or taking a walk in the woods is as exhilarating as it is essential, at any age.
