Bringing Hygge into the Early Years is a "how-to" guide for every early educator who wishes to bring more calmness and balance into their day, in turn, leaving them feeling empowered to teach and live well. Drawing from the author's experience of embracing the Scandinavian way of living well, "hygge," this book explores how this approach can have a positive impact across your early years setting, from improved mental health and wellbeing, to embracing child-led play and high-quality outdoor provision. With step-by-step guidance on how to embed the approach alongside examples of hygge from early educators around the world, the book is divided into four main parts: Re-balance you The hygge environment Slow teaching Embracing nature Throughout each chapter, case studies and activities provide the opportunity to reflect on existing practice and support you as you make positive changes to both your wellbeing and provision. This guide will be essential reading for all early years professionals, offering further support to improve mental health and wellbeing, as well as valuable tools to lead early years practice with confidence and joy.

The Handbook of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education brings together in one source research techniques that researchers can use to collect data for studies that contribute to the knowledge in early childhood education. To conduct valid and reliable studies, researchers need to be knowledgeable about numerous research methodologies. The Handbook primarily addresses the researchers, scholars, and graduate or advanced undergraduate students who are preparing to conduct research in early childhood education. It provides them with the intellectual resources that will help them join the cadre of early childhood education researchers and scholars. The purpose of the Handbook is to prepare and guide researchers to achieve a high level of competence and sophistication, to avoid past mistakes, and to benefit from the best researchers in the field. This Handbook is also useful to university professors who conduct research and prepare student researchers in early childhood education. It aims to improve the researchers' conceptual and methodological abilities in early childhood education. Thus, the Handbook can be used as a guide that focuses on important contemporary research methodologies in early childhood education and describes them to offer researchers the necessary information to use these methodologies appropriately. This Handbook is designed to be used by students of early childhood education at all levels of professional development as well as mature scholars who want to conduct research in areas needing more in-depth study. It is hoped that this Handbook of Research Methods in Early Childhood Education will serve the needs of many in the research community. Scholars seeking the current state of research knowledge in various areas should find this volume useful. Similarly, practitioners who are trying to seek knowledge of research and its practical implications should find this volume helpful as well. This Handbook with its individual chapters presents several research methodologies to address a variety of hypotheses or research questions that will contribute to the knowledge of the field in early childhood education.

Developed especially for the TVET student at N6 level, Succeed in Educare Didactics N6 provides students with the necessary theoretical knowledge to write their exams and the practical application to enter the workplace confidently.

Features

• Focus on plain language with difficult words defined where they are used and a glossary at the back on the textbook.
• Learning outcomes are listed at the start of each chapter and reviewed again in summary form at the end of the chapter for students to use when studying.
• Cartoons, illustrations, diagrams and photos present information visually.
• Local Examples and Case Studies link theory to industry and bring the content to life.
• Power Break activities allow for class discussion and revision.
• Assessment questions at the end of each chapter provides test and exam practice.

This manual is designed for primary teachers with any length of experience at key stages 1 and 2. Covering all aspects of English, it helps teachers raise standards of achievement in pupils at all levels of fluency and confidence. The text incorporates case study material to relate theory to practical issues of classroom organization and management, and provides photocopiable formats for planning and developing ideas with colleagues and with children, as well as suggestions for teaching strategies and for evaluating teaching. Separate sections deal with reading, writing, speaking and listening and these different threads are drawn together in sections on knowledge about language - including spelling, grammar and punctuation. Each chapter also offers information on working with parents and linguistic and cultural diversity.

What does it mean to teach English creatively to primary school children? Teaching English Creatively encourages and enables teachers to adopt a more creative approach to the teaching of English in the primary school. Fully updated to reflect the changing UK curricula, the third edition of this popular text explores research-informed practice and offers new ideas to imaginatively engage readers, writers, speakers and listeners. Underpinned by up-to-date theory and research and illustrated throughout with more examples of children's work, it examines the core elements of creative practice and how to explore powerful literary, non-fiction, visual and digital texts creatively. Key themes addressed include: * Developing creativity in and through talk and drama * Creatively engaging readers and writers * Teaching grammar and comprehension imaginatively and in context * Profiling meaning and purpose, autonomy, collaboration and play * Planning, reviewing and celebrating literacy learning * Ensuring the creative involvement of the teacher Inspiring, accessible and connected to current challenges and new priorities in education, Teaching English Creatively puts contemporary and cutting-edge practice at the forefront and includes a wealth of innovative ideas to enrich English teaching. Written by an experienced author with extensive experience of initial teacher education and English teaching in the primary school, it is an invaluable resource for any teacher who wishes to embed creative approaches to teaching in their classroom.

'A fantastic addition to every bookshelf' - Kathy Brodie, Host and founder of Early Years TV, @kathybrodie The Muddy Puddle Teacher gives you everything you need to create an engaging, active and inclusive outdoor curriculum for your Early Years setting. Based on the well-loved Muddy Puddle Teacher Approach and following the Three Muddy M's - mother nature, mental health and getting more kids moving - this handbook is jam-packed with simple outdoor activities for every season. There are step-by-step instructions and full-colour photographs to demonstrate the activities. Whether you're a forest school enthusiast or just getting started in taking your teaching outside, there are plenty of inspiring ideas to benefit children and save you hours of preparation time. Using natural and upcycled materials, the activities in this book span key EYFS topics as well as PSHE themes, from muddy maths and literacy to muddy meditation and yoga. From making rhyming word strings with leaves to creating witches' kitchens and small world eco-villages, every activity is ideal for delivering a fun and effective session while inspiring a love of nature and raising environmental awareness. Perfectly adaptable to all outdoor spaces, this book will transform your Early Years practice in an affordable, sustainable way.

Responses to controversial exhibitions in recent years have demonstrated the dissatisfaction felt by many indigenous peoples and ethnic groups at the ways in which the traditional western museum has represented their cultures and excluded them from the process of interpretation and display. Many indigenous peoples, such as Native Americans and Aboriginal Australians, are now demanding that sacred objects and human remains be removed from display and repatriated. Drawing upon material from Britain, Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand Making Representations explores the ways in which museums and anthropologists are responding to these pressures by developing new policies and practices, and forging new relationships with communities. It also examines the increasing number of museums and cultural centres being established by indigenous and immigrant communities as they take control of the interpretive process and challenge the traditional role of the museum.

As technology continues to develop and prove its importance in modern society, certain professions are acclimating. Aspects such as computer science and computational thinking are becoming essential areas of study. Implementing these subject areas into teaching practices is necessary for younger generations to adapt to the developing world. There is a critical need to examine the pedagogical implications of these technological skills and implement them into the global curriculum. The Handbook of Research on Integrating Computer Science and Computational Thinking in K-12 Education is a collection of innovative research on the methods and applications of computer science curriculum development within primary and secondary education. While highlighting topics including pedagogical implications, comprehensive techniques, and teacher preparation models, this book is ideally designed for teachers, IT consultants, curriculum developers, instructional designers, educational software developers, higher education faculty, administrators, policymakers, researchers, and graduate students.

By the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn. For five years, this has been our number one educational goal - yet today's children are not receiving the early care and education services that they deserve and the nation needs to reach this goal. Reinventing Early Care and Education, edited by two leading thinkers in the field, provides not only the necessary vision but a working blueprint for policy reform and program development. Reinventing Early Care and Education defines the essential elements of a quality system and suggests innovative strategies for improving pedagogy and practice in family child care homes and early childhood centers. It also offers alternative approaches to finance and governance and discusses how communities can mobilize citizens and the media to gain support for social change.

Discover how to help PreK students develop pre-reading competencies that build capacity for future reading phonological awareness, print concepts, and alphabetics. Research-based and accessible, this essential guidebook helps readers sidestep common errors and create engaging, child-appropriate curriculum that lays a strong foundation for future reading skills. Filled with effective resources, activities, and a simple scope and sequence to guide instruction, this critical toolkit equips educators to set emerging learners up for success.

From shy to confident, quiet to enthusiastic, all children have different personalities and sometimes they just need a little help when it comes to making friends. How can we best help children communicate clearly and build strong friendships? Penny Tassoni, leading Early Years education consultant, author and trainer, uses simple words, accompanied by delightful full-colour illustrations by Mel Four, to support children as they make friends. There's lots to talk about in Time to Make Friends which makes this book ideal for sharing. It also includes a page of practical advice and tips for practitioners, parents and carers making it the perfect resource for supporting this essential life skill.

Succeed in Educare Didactics N4 provides students with the necessary theoretical knowledge to write their exams and the practical application to enter the workplace confidently.

Features

• Learning outcomes are listed at the start of each chapter and reviewed again in summary form at the end of the chapter for students to use when studying.
• Cartoons, illustrations, diagrams and photos present information visually.
• Examples, Case Studies and Did You Know boxes link theory to industry and bring the content to life.
• Key Terms are explained on the page where they are used and a Glossary is included at the end of the book. n Key Points highlight core information, which students will find useful when studying.
• Power Break activities allow for discussion and revision. n Assessment questions at the end of each chapter provides test and exam practice.

This book challenges traditional conceptions of readiness in early childhood education by sharing concrete examples of practice, policy and histories that rethink readiness. This book seeks to reimagine possible new educational worlds for young children.

Recent decades have seen a growing emphasis, in a number of professional contexts, on acknowledging and acting on the views of children. This trend was given added weight by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified in 1990. Today, seeking the perspective of the child has become an essential process in all sorts of tasks, from framing new legislation to regulating professions.

This book answers the fundamental question of what it is that constitutes a 'child perspective', and how this might differ from the perspectives of children themselves. The answers to such questions have important implications for building progressive and developmental adult-child relationships. However, theoretical and empirical treatments of child perspectives and children's perspectives are very diverse and idiosyncratic, and the standard reference work has yet to be written.

Thus, this work is an attempt to fill the gap in the literature by searching for and defining key formulations of potential child perspectives within parts of the so-called 'new child paradigm'. This has been derived from childhood sociology, contextual-relational developmental psychology, interpretative humanistic psychology and developmental pedagogy. The highly experienced authors develop a comprehensive professional child perspective paradigm that integrates recent theory and empirical child research. With its clear presentation of underlying theories and suggested applications, this book illustrates a child-oriented understanding of specific relevance to both child-care and preschool educational practice.

Hardbound. The papers appearing in this volume reflect current thinking about the contexts of our thought, methodology, the nature of experience while teaching and program improvement, and how we conceptualize play in the curriculum.

This book presents an interplay of imaginative memoir-telling, action research data and future projection that reminds and inspires experiences academics, researchers, professionals, as well as a wider public to recognize the fundamental importance and the impellent need for more and better work in favour of true political and societal recognition of the needs and rights of children to play freely, to participate, to live fully and enjoy their neighbourhoods and cities, and to imagine and construct alternative futures, together with adults. The book's abundant spoken dialogue is, in effect, storytelling between children (and youth) on their own and with adults (especially the elderly). It conveys an appreciation of children's special capacities to think critically about their everyday places-and the greater world around them-and to develop solutions (or 'projects') for the problems they identify. This book serves an effective catalyst for stimulating rich discussion of the theoretical and practical bases of the many themes, or areas of study, which are treated in the story.

Everyone is talking about signing with young children. As a form of early communication for infants and toddlers, or as a transitioning tool for children just beginning to speak, the benefits of signing with hearing children are endless.
"Sign to Learn" is the first complete introduction to sign language curriculum for hearing preschoolers. In this unique resource, you will learn how to integrate American Sign Language (ASL) into your classroom to enhance the academic, social, and emotional development of children, and how to respectfully introduce children to Deaf culture.
This comprehensive, fully illustrated curriculum contains captivating activities and lesson plans grouped by themes, including feelings, food, seasons, animals, songs, and families. "Sign to Learn" also contains strategies for using sign language with children with special needs and in multilingual classrooms, and it describes how ASL can assist you in developing a literacy program and in managing your classroom.
Information-rich appendices include a thorough ASL illustration index, sample letters to families, and resources for further reading.

This open access book addresses the growing trend in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC) research named collaborative knowledge building in which researchers and ECEC personnel collaborate. This kind of research encompasses a number of approaches, such as design studies, action studies, Learning Studies, Lesson Studies, and combined research and development studies. There are important differences between these approaches, but they also share some features, which makes it possible to see them as examples of a particular tradition of knowledge building. Collaborative knowledge building constitutes close ties between developing practices of early childhood education and care, and generating empirically grounded theoretical knowledge. This book contributes to the methodology of practices-developing research by mapping this movement through exemplifying themes actualised in such studies, and through conceptualizing important and recurring gains and challenges. It also describes how the latter can be taken on.

Studying for an Early Childhood Degree, based on the practices of The Pen Green Centre for children and families, exemplifies how student-practitioners can foster strong communities of learners and create student-teacher connections that remain long after studies are complete. The Pen Green Early Childhood Centre in Corby, UK, has developed a unique approach to adult education. Highly qualified tutors, with their wide-ranging experiences, have written Studying for an Early Childhood Degree in collaboration with current and former students. It illustrates different ways to complete assignments, providing 20 case-studies of work that achieved an excellent grade from students of different professional, geographical, ethnic, educational and socio-economic backgrounds; it also explores the rationale behind what contributed to these excellent final grades. Each chapter, linked to the key themes of the QAA Early Childhood Studies degree, includes discussions, reflections, commentary and extracts from students' works through Levels 4-7, as well as suggestions for further reading. Studying for an Early Childhood Degree is an essential read for learners as well as educators and practitioners. It will be a key resource for students having varied learning needs, professional heritages, writing styles and interests. Further, it will also support other educators to consider the unique and often competing demands of being an adult in higher education.

* Provides very accessible coverage of a complex topic. * Includes a wealth of open-ended activities, practical strategies and case studies. * Blends together theory and practice to increase the knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence of early years practitioners. * Covers a range of hot topics, considering how poverty, adversity, and mental health, all affect the developing child.