Book Description

Three-Step Tray Tasking: Prompting Young Children's Emerging Organizational Thinking Skills is an innovative text that provides an easy approach to helping young children develop their organizational thinking skills. Using three "trays" that represent a task's beginning, middle and end helps to develop these important skills. Each task is written as a stand-alone activity that prompts a child's ability to think logically and progress through three steps, each building upon the next, to complete a task. The tasks are designed to support children's increasing ability to anticipate and work through materials while performing actions. Emphasis is placed on small motor refinement and critical thinking skills as children move through a variety of tracing to cutting to assemblage tasks. There are an assortment of tools suggested for tracing such as pencils, markers, and chalk as well as incorporating the use of scissors, single hole punchers and rulers to increase small muscle refinement. This text captures a child's interest in working through logical steps toward the completion of a project, challenging their ability to concentrate and attend to a task as well as practicing grasping and controlling tools. Three-Step Tray Tasking offers teachers the opportunity to observe and record authentic assessment as children move through three steps that reveal their ability to handle materials appropriately, complete each stage correctly and develop logical thinking habits. This text reinforces the importance of providing three, four and five year olds the opportunity to engage in meaningful, satisfying work.