In this article, Jenna Valasek explains how she uses open-ended materials with intentional teacher planning and scaffolding to engage children in active thinking, social interactions, and joyful learning across multiple areas.
In this excerpt of our book The Young Child and Mathematics, third edition, we showcase children’s thinking about data as a teacher engages her preschoolers in a data-centric activity.
Authored by
Authored by:
Angela Chan Turrou Nicholas C. Johnson Megan L. Franke
The following classroom activity and its home extension include step-by-step instructions and sample questions to promote conversations about spatial orientation to build children’s reasoning processes and spatial terminology.
Authored by
Authored by:
Lindsey Perry Eloise Aniag Kuehnert Leanne Ketterlin Geller
Use the following tips to build on your preschooler’s math skills—including counting, pattern recognition, and sequencing to solve problems—to support computational thinking.
You can build upon children’s capacity for number composition and decomposition through engaging games and stories and authentic and meaningful experiences.
Authored by
Authored by:
Alissa Lange Hagit Mano Sylwia Lech Irena Nayfeld
In this article, we look at how a service-learning project helped foster receptive language competencies for infants through art experiences and encouraged socially and culturally responsive practices by students.
Even the smallest moment has great potential for learning. But what makes a moment “teachable,” and how can early childhood educators transform an everyday occurrence into such a learning experience?
This article outlines how teachers can use storytelling, empathy, perspective taking, and community engagement to foster ethics learning in the classroom.
Cross-area play is rooted in the idea that when children are given the freedom to experiment with materials in open-ended ways, their play can transform into elaborate, complex plots and offer rich developmental opportunities.
One valuable way we can support children’s exploration of nature is by teaching them how to observe carefully and create observational drawings, which encourage children to understand and question their world.
Enhanced by math activities, higher-order mental skills and abilities serve as the behind-the-scenes machinery that facilitates young children’s ability to engage in and demonstrate their learning competency.
Authored by
Authored by:
Holland W. Banse Douglas H. Clements Julie Sarama Crystal Day-Hess Marisa Simoni Candace Joswick
Supporting Literacy Through Engaging Instruction & Materials
The Fall 2021 issue of Young Children includes a cluster of articles offering a variety of practices and materials to help early childhood educators foster a love of literacy and support early reading, writing, listening, and speaking development.
Rich and sustained conversations in the classroom provide opportunities to learn about and practice using new vocabulary, to grapple with new ideas, and to contribute to longer-term knowledge and skills.
Classrooms that incorporate child-directed experiences offer many opportunities for children to uncover their ideas, to generate questions, and to construct their own knowledge.
Authored by
Authored by:
Angela K. Salmon María Ximena Barrera
En particular, el juego libre y el juego guiado, conocidos en conjunto como aprendizaje lúdico, son herramientas pedagógicas a través de las cuales los niños pueden aprender de manera alegre y relevante.
Authored by
Authored by:
Brenna Hassinger-Das Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children.
Authored by
Authored by:
Brenna Hassinger-Das Kathy Hirsh-Pasek Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
Using a fish tank as a project is a great way for teachers to provoke children’s thought, to engage them in the process of representing their learning, and to support their reflections.
Authored by
Authored by:
Andrea Anderson Jennifer Klutz Cindy G. McGaha
Make your teaching more intentional and engaging with this collection of higher-order thinking modules that brings together three of NAEYC’s popular modules into one convenient package.