This beautifully illustrated and sensitively written storybook and accompanying professional guide have been created to help young children understand about domestic abuse and coercive control. Floss is a happy little puppy who loves going to Doggy Daycare and playing with her best friend, Houdini. The story explores how things change when her Mum's new friend, Boss, comes into their lives. Floss's story supports children who have experienced domestic abuse and trauma as they make sense of their feelings, teaching them to seek help and stay safe. The supporting guidebook helps adults to work through the story effectively, putting the professional in a position to have important conversations with children about what to do if something at home does not feel right. This set: Can be used to address the topic of domestic abuse and coercive control with individuals, small groups and whole classes, enabling dialogue around a sensitive issue Offers activities for supporting children, safety planning strategies and guidance for taking on a key adult role Can be used to support the PSHE curriculum, particularly around the topic of healthy relationships This set is a vital tool for teachers, social care staff, therapists and other professionals working to teach young children about domestic abuse and coercive control. It provides an important vehicle for talking to children about staying safe and their emotional wellbeing.

This is a guide to help teachers successfully include children with physical disabilities in mainstream classrooms. The book looks at: planning for inclusion; understanding different kinds of physical disabilities; managing teachers' and parents' expectations; organizing the classroom; liaising with other professionals; considering the emotional and social aspects of inclusion; and running related exercises and activities as part of in-service training. Early years and primary teachers, SENCOs, teaching assistants, parents of children with a physical disability and other education professionals should find it helpful and informative.

Children are most engaged - and therefore learn best - when they are following their own interests. In this book, Anna Ephgrave shows how her acclaimed 'planning in the moment' approach can be used with two and three year olds with dramatic results for both children and staff. It reveals the impact that free-flowing, child-initiated play has on very young children's wellbeing, making them feel safe, secure and consequently helping them to be fully engaged in their learning. The first part of the book clearly explains the principles of child-initiated play and demonstrates how practitioners can create the best possible environment for very young children, also looking at the resources and practices that need to be in place for them to flourish. There is detailed guidance on the role of the practitioner, including how adults should observe children's play, before deciding how - or if - to interact in that moment to ensure that each interaction moves learning forward and supports the child's unique development. The second part of the book tracks some of the events from each month in the toddler room of an outstanding preschool, following a cohort of children through a year, to show how the setting moved from topic-based, adult-led activities to a fully child-led way of working. Key features include: Over 350 full colour photos to illustrate practice Specific guidance on using the 'in the moment' approach with all children, including those with additional needs Advice on working with parents, individual children and groups Examples of individual learning journeys Photocopiable templates of 'focus-child' sheets Covering all aspects of practice from the organization of the room and outdoor environment to the routines and boundaries that ensure children are safe and happy, this book is essential reading for anyone who works with two and three year olds.

Designed specifically for those involved in pre-school education, including nursery teachers, learning support assistants and helpers in a range of provisions, this handbook has been updated to enable carers to comply with the latest requirements of the Code of Practice and to prepare for an OFSTED inspection. It will assist in the identification and assessment of young children with special educational needs. The book provides a ready-made system for record keeping at each stage of assessment and provides a comprehensive system for monitoring and evaluation.

This text is designed to help teachers and assistants plan and create meaningful role play scenarios that should delight young children, enhance learning and link to the early learning goals. It shows how to plan, organize and implement role play activities. The activities have been tried, tested and enjoyed in the busy nursery where the author works. The book also divides the play scenarios into the DfES stated area of learning (personal, social, emotional, communication, language and literacy, mathematical, knowledge of the world, creative and physical) allowing practitioners to choose activities to suit their needs.;The book includes: step-by-step guidance; photographs and plans; a list of easily obtained and inexpensive play equipment; and a planning template for practitioners to develop their own ideas. It should prove useful to teachers and assistants from nursery classes up to key stage 1.

This book presents practitioners with exciting ways in which to deliver the foundation stage curriculum to young children through play in well-planned areas of provision. The author promotes good early years practice in accordance with "Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage," drawing on her own experience as a nursery teacher. Ideas are workable and material is organized in an accessible way making the book an "easy to use" handbook for all busy practitioners and students.

The book: includes chapters relating to particular areas of provision (for example sand, water, construction); offers practical guidance on organizing and resourcing the area; provides focused activity plans clearly linked to early learning goals; gives suggestions for managing and equipping an outdoor play area; and offers inspiring play ideas.

Outdoor learning and play experiences are an essential part of young children's development. The importance of offering children first-hand experience of the natural world becomes more urgent as research evidence demonstrates the benefits of becoming physically and emotionally involved with the natural world. Outdoor Learning through the Seasons shows how we can encourage young children to engage with nature on a daily basis throughout the year. Using the four seasons as a framework, it supports adults to develop their own awareness of the world around them and feel confident about taking children outside every day. There are suggestions for caring for gardens and wildlife through the year, and ideas to brighten grey winter days, enjoy the summer sunshine or explore in the snow. Now featuring full-colour photographs throughout, this new edition has been updated to include references to recent research, new material on Forest Schools, discussion questions for practitioners and in-depth case studies of learning in action. Features include: Ideas for all seasons, weather conditions and working with the four elements: earth, air, water and fire Guidance on fulfilling the learning requirements of EYFS and the Characteristics of Effective Learning Advice on working with parents and the role of adults Practical tips and suggestions of how to make the most of a small space or how to re-plan an existing space Useful reference lists of further resources including stories, poems and websites This practical book is essential reading for all those looking to provide rich and stimulating outdoor learning and play provision for children in early years settings on a daily basis and for parents and carers wishing to get the most of time outdoors with their children.

This edited book brings together for the first time an international collection of work focused on two important aspects of any young child's life - learning mathematics and starting primary or elementary school. The chapters take a variety of perspectives, and integrate these two components in sometimes explicit and sometimes more subtle ways. The key issues and themes explored in this book are: the mathematical and other strengths that all participants in the transition to school bring to this period of a child's life; the opportunities provided by transition to school for young children's mathematics learning; the importance of partnerships among adults, and among adults and children, for effective school transitions and mathematics learning and teaching; the critical impact of expectations on their mathematics learning as children start school; the importance of providing children with meaningful, challenging and relevant mathematical experiences throughout transition to school; the entitlement of children and educators to experience assessment and instructional pedagogies that match the strengths of the learners and the teachers; the importance for the aspirations of children, families, communities, educators and educational organisations to be recognised as legitimate and key determinants of actions, experiences and successes in both transition to school and mathematics learning; and the belief that young children are powerful mathematics learners who can demonstrate this power as they start school. In each chapter, authors reflect on their work in the area of mathematics and transition to school, place that work within the overall context of research in these fields, predict the trajectory of this work in the future, and consider the implications of the work both theoretically and practically.

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.

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

Make the complex task of creating a child-centered curriculum easier with the practical guidelines and ideas in this updated and expanded handbook. Learn how to sharpen your observation and documentation skills, set up your space, and transform your teaching to reflect children's interests and needs. Insightful classroom stories, assessment tools, checklists, comparative charts, and activities encourage new approaches and self-reflection as you plan your curriculum and put it into practice. Addressing new standards in early education, two new chapters focus on teaching academics in a meaningful way and guiding children as they play and learn. "Reflecting Children's Lives" is your work in progress--use it to record the development of your own thinking and practice.

This exciting new book illustrates and analyses the complexities of children's and young people's everyday lived experiences throughout childhood. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, it provides theoretical frameworks and case studies to critically examine assumptions in the field and explore emerging perspectives. Considering different stages throughout childhood and youth, chapters cover key topics such as eating practices, gender, play, digital media and the environment. Drawing upon insights from cultural studies, sociology, social anthropology, psychology, health and education, this book focuses on four key areas: Bodies and minds Space, place and belonging Inequalities and inclusion Childhood in the past, present and future Essential reading for students on childhood and youth and education courses, Exploring Childhood and Youth is an important resource for practitioners working with children and young people, and for parents, communities and legislators who have influence over children's and young people's lives.

Small Talk: Activities for Language Development in Preschool Learners was written to fill a void for teachers who have little-to-no background in childhood language development, but wish to play an important role in language growth among preschool children. Small Talk: Activities for Language Development in Preschool Learners pushes aside drill exercises and provides caring teachers with language development activities that require easy to acquire materials/ingredients for food preparation, art and crafts, and game experiences that are designed to stimulate receptive and expressive language building experiences. Additionally, after the easy to follow activity steps, there is a listing of Small Talk Suggestions that is comprised of ideas that teachers can use to encourage conversations between themselves and their preschoolers. In this way, before, during, and after the language activity, the adult is able to provide a rich language model for the young language learner within a natural, meaningful social context. In essence, Small Talk: Activities for Language Development in Preschool Learners is intended to engage adults and preschoolers in the process of developing age-appropriate receptive and expressive language skills while having fun.

When the behaviour of young children causes concern, practitioners often find it difficult to identify exactly what the childa (TM)s needs are or how to focus their support most effectively. This book helps meet this challenge. Its inclusive approach seeks to promote positive behaviour in all children. The book includes:

• a straightforward assessment process to identify children who need additional support
• practical strategies to encourage positive behaviour and promote emotional well being
• informative case studies that show how solutions work in practice.

This book is an ideal resource for all early years practitioners working across a variety of settings for young children.

This book captures the now burgeoning research field of early childhood education for sustainability (ECEfS) and comprises insights from an ever-widening and diverse pool of researchers, who are promoting, engaging, and explaining the latest ECEfS research in the light of local, national, and United Nations global policy directives. With the increasing urgency of global climate disruptions, resource depletions, and biodiversity losses alongside greater human dislocation, the international scope of research and theory in this book provides a comprehensive guide to the role of sustainability in early childhood education, at a time when it is needed more than ever. Elliott, AErlemalm-Hagser, and Davis have brought together a collection of studies that offer new insights and approaches to ECEfS which challenge dominant narratives surrounding early childhood education and sustainability, including topics such as: how diverse worldviews and cultures challenge perceptions of sustainability; how bold national early education policies and urgent shifts in teacher education are imperative for driving transformative practices; and, how ECEfS curriculum and pedagogy can be incorporated successfully into early years settings. This book will both inspire researchers and more deeply enable early years' educators to practise sustainability with children, and so will be of great interest to scholars, lecturers, and researchers, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students, across the increasingly intersecting fields of sustainability and early childhood education.

Now in its sixth edition, Striking a Balance clearly illustrates how to create a comprehensive early literacy program that places direct skills instruction within the context of rich and varied reading and writing experiences. Text discussions, dynamic activities, and valuable appendices provide a variety of effective instructional resources, selected based on research and teacher testimonials. The sixth edition incorporates recent updates to national and state standards, as well as expanded sections on working with English language learners and students with special needs, while maintaining the book's essential features: classroom vignettes, discussion questions, field-based activities, a student website, and study guide. An essential resource for early literacy instructors, this textbook's practical approach fundamentally demonstrates how children develop authentic literacy skills through a combination of direct strategy instruction and motivating contexts.

Literature and Philosophical Play in Early Childhood Education explores the role of philosophy and the humanities as pedagogy in early childhood educational research and practice, arguing that research should attend to questions about education and growth that concern social structures, individual development, and existential aspects of learning. It demonstrates how we can think of pedagogy and educational practices in early childhood as artistic, poetic, and philosophical, and exemplifies a humanities-based approach by giving literature and artful play a place in shaping the ground of practice and research. The book explores a range of alternative approaches to theory in education and the feasibility of a curriculum of moral values for young children and contains a variety of scenes involving children's play and involvement with literature and fiction. It portrays how engaging with children's play can be a philosophical and pedagogical investigation where children's own philosophising is taken seriously, where children's thoughts are put on a par with established research and philosophy. Moreover, the book engages with a range of different forms of literature - picture books, novels, auto-fiction, poetry - and develops these as portrayals that serve as a basis for non-theoretical and poetic pedagogical research. Literature and Philosophical Play in Early Childhood Education will be of great interest to academics, researchers, and post-graduate students in the fields of philosophy and education. It will also appeal to upper-level undergraduates, school psychologists, teachers, and therapists.

This book unravels the mysteries of the Chinese school system to enable international scholars to better understand the logic of basic education in China. By collecting the latest, first-hand empirical data, it outlines a panoramic and vivid portrait of Chinese schools from principals', teachers', students' and parents' perspectives, including descriptions of their daily lives. It also interprets different stakeholders' duties and explains the unique characteristics and operation model of Chinese schools. It is of interest to all those who are concerned with the current situation and the future of the Chinese school system and basic education in China, especially international researchers, policymakers, and parents wanting to know what is really happening in schools.

This work brings together the combined wisdom of a diverse group of experts involved with early childhood mathematics. The book originates from the landmark 2000 Conference on Standards for Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten Mathematics Education Conference, attended by representatives from almost every state developing standards for young children's mathematics; federal government officials; mathematicians; mathematics educators; researchers from mathematics education, early childhood education and psychology; curriculum developers; teachers; policy makers; and professionals from organizations such as the National Conference of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The main goal of the Conference was to work collectively to help those responsible for framing and implementing early childhood mathematics standards. Although it has its roots in the Conference, the expanded scope of the standards and recommendations covered in this book includes the full range of kindergarten to grade 2. The volume is organized into two main parts and an online appendix.

Creating a Sense of Place in School Environments guides its readers to the characteristics that tend to generate a sense of place through children's vivid descriptions of their school and provides a body of critical information that can be employed to design a better school environment that can imprint cherished childhood memories. The childhood school environment calls for special attention regarding the sense of place it creates. The sense of place in childhood both affects children's current quality of life and frames their lasting world view. It is well known that children's cognitive development is closely related to their place attachment to their surroundings, and that children's adaptation to a given environment depends on how such place attachment can be created. Therefore, it is natural that people's identity in the world is the accumulation of their experience of place while in childhood. Cross-checking between the imprint of adults' memories of places in school and children's current "lived experience" of their favorite school place confirmed that certain spatial configurations, which the author herein refers to as "place generators" can generate positive attributes of physical settings that construct a sense of place and last as lifelong memories. It is an ideal read for academics, students, and professionals.

This work brings together the combined wisdom of a diverse group of experts involved with early childhood mathematics. The book originates from the landmark 2000 Conference on Standards for Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten Mathematics Education Conference, attended by representatives from almost every state developing standards for young children's mathematics; federal government officials; mathematicians; mathematics educators; researchers from mathematics education, early childhood education and psychology; curriculum developers; teachers; policy makers; and professionals from organizations such as the National Conference of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. The main goal of the Conference was to work collectively to help those responsible for framing and implementing early childhood mathematics standards. Although it has its roots in the Conference, the expanded scope of the standards and recommendations covered in this book includes the full range of kindergarten to grade 2. The volume is organized into two main parts and an online appendix.

This series of books uses fiction, non-fiction and poetry texts, as well as phonics, as a basis to help young children in the Early Years develop their literacy skills. It brings together the early learning goals of the foundation stage and the national literacy strategy objectives, using structured play, games and fun activities to put across the relevant teaching points in an enjoyable way, while simultaneously nurturing a love of literature. Each book presents structured activities based around suggested focus texts. To help practitioners save time in planning and organizing, the materials needed and the preparation required for each session are described in detail. The activities have been designed to cater for different achievement levels, and can be adapted or added to according to the needs of individual children and settings. Follow-up activities are also suggested to bring in wider aspects of the Early Learning Goals and the NLS objectives.; Elements of this book include: an accompanying CD illustrating the correct pronunciation of each phoneme and containing games and activities for developing auditory skills (a transcript is included); exploring the phonics curriculum lai

This practical book is packed with tried-and-tested activities which draw on popular stories and rhymes, and use everyday materials and objects to help young children develop their understanding and enjoyment of mathematical concepts. By relating ideas of number, shape, size and pattern to everyday contexts, stories and experiences, Exploring Maths through Stories and Rhymes improves confidence, increases understanding and develops children's desire to engage with maths. Offering a range of creative and exciting activities to encourage hands-on learning and discussion, chapters: include a range of step-by-step activities which are easily adapted to varying needs, ages and abilities use popular stories and nursery rhymes as a way of engaging children with mathematical thinking show how inexpensive, everyday materials can be used to encourage learning include full colour photographs, photocopiable materials, vocabulary lists and key questions to help the reader get the most out of the ideas described This practical text will be a go-to resource for early years practitioners and students looking to adopt a creative approach to early years mathematics.

The perfect bedtime book to calm your own sleepy unicorns!

Full of magic, sparkle and rainbows (and one naughty unicorn), little readers will love this calming tale before bed.

It's bedtime, but one lively little unicorn can't quite settle down and go to sleep! As her dad counts down the minutes to bed, what mischief can she get into?

Finishing on a gentle end, it's the perfect bedtime tale.

Also coming soon: Ten Minutes to Bed: Little Monster

Uncover strategies to address and overcome common challenges in group play
Play is essential for children's development and as they learn life skills. But some children face challenges when playing with others, and conflicts can erupt over sharing toys, taking turns, and feeling left out. Despite those moments, children want to play together. With your support and guidance, children can learn how to engage in productive play, resolve struggles, and enjoy group play.
This workbook outlines strategies to create an engaging play environment, provides information to help you understand skill development, and suggests ways you can encourage children's growth through rich play. It also explains common challenges children might have during group play--like being unengaged in dramatic play, having conflicts with each other, or playing aggressively--and approaches you can use to address them. Use this interactive workbook to thoughtfully respond to play challenges in a way that can open up opportunities for children.

Developmental Education is an approach to education in school that aims at promoting children's cultural development and their abilities to participate autonomously and well-informed in the cultural practices of their community. From the point of view of Cultural-historical Activity theory (CHAT), a play-based curriculum has been developed over the past decades for primary school, which presents activity contexts for pupils in the classroom that create learning and teaching opportunities for helping pupils with appropriating cultural knowledge, skills, and moral understandings in meaningful ways. The approach is implemented in numerous Dutch primary schools classrooms with the explicit intention to support the learning of both pupils and teachers. The book focuses especially on education of young children (4 - 8 years old) in primary school and presents the underpinning concepts of this approach, and chapters on examples of good practices in a variety of subject matter areas, such as literacy (vocabulary acquisition, reading, writing), mathematics, and arts. Successful implementation of Developmental Education in the classroom strongly depends on dynamic assessment and continuous observations of young pupils' development. Strategies for implementation of both the teaching practices and assessment strategies are discussed in detail in the book.