Woodland Creatures


Book Description

This exciting topic-based series offers early years practitioners collections of activities based on familiar themes. The activities can be easily implemented and readily incorporated into curriculum planning through links made to the Foundation Stage curriculum Each book incudes: activities that can be used on their own or as part of a themed program ideas for enjoying an all round curriculum approach guidance on expanding existing ideas and resources linked ideas to be carried out at home. Woodland Creatures includes rabbits, badgers, owls, mice, foxes: all much loved and written about in stories. It introduces themes of hibernation, co-dependence and predators.




Make Your Own Woodland Creatures


Book Description

Create a wonderful array of 3D animals with Clare Youngs’ beautifully easy projects. Here are 35 quirky woodland animals for you to make in no time. Using simple slotting techniques, you can make a whole menagerie using just cardboard, found paper, and scissors or a craft knife. From the crafty fox to the elegant stags, from the cute koala and her baby to the mischievous squirrels, every animal is specially designed by Clare Youngs to require a minimum of effort to put together. The projects are inexpensive, too, as cardboard is so readily available and easy to find, so anyone can have a go at creating a cute critter. You can then use them as highly individual decorations for your home or give them as gifts. Once you start creating, there really is a world of possibility to what you can make for yourself or your friends. The projects are accompanied by clear diagrams and there is a comprehensive tips and techniques section that explains all the skills you will need.




Worlds of Shadow


Book Description

The Wisniewskis, codirectors of the acclaimed Clarion Shadow Theatre, have modernized and simplified the techniques of the ancient art of shadow puppetry and created this easy step-by-step guide. After a brief overview of light and screen options, the authors show you how to introduce concepts of light and shadow to students. Stage directions, puppet patterns, scripts, projected scenery ideas, and a full range of astounding but readily achieved special effects help you quickly master any performance-from simple songs and rhymes to full-blown stories and plays. The special effects use such common materials as wax paper and colored plastic, and no art skills are needed. Suitable for the novice as well as the specialist, the guide has chapters on intermediate and advanced techniques for those who desire a more varied and complex production.







Starting With Their Strengths


Book Description

This book provides a comprehensive and practical guide to using the project approach when teaching young children with special needs. While focusing on children's individual strengths, which include their interests, intelligences, and unique styles of learning, this resource demonstrates teaching strategies that address multiple areas of development. Using scenarios from their own practice, The authors examine the process of accessing children's strengths to facilitate social, emotional, cognitive, and motor development, including concepts and skills. The authors provide tools to determine, organize, and plan with children's strengths and demonstrate the use of documentation as an authentic assessment of children's skills and goals. Teachers will use this book to create learning environments that enrich learning for all children.




Maker Camp


Book Description

Classic and innovative hands-on projects for kids ages 3 and up designed to teach both heritage skills and how to think creatively. Handcraft is part of human nature: we build, we create, we innovate. The 20+ projects in this book from an experienced art educator weave a story of human innovation and creativity, from the very beginnings of building shelters in the woods to tinkering with recycled materials. Heritage skills teach children how to be independent and capable makers; fiber and wood projects offer rewarding crafts that also teach planning, preparation, and safe risk taking; and tinkering activities connect the low-tech process of making and doing with innovation. From soap carving and knot tying to building toy cars and junk robots, this book brings the fun of making things with your hands to young kids and links skills of the past with the present. The book also explores how to set up a maker space and teaches foundational workshop practices that can easily be applied to the home studio. Each project offers extensions for different ages and abilities and provides guiding questions to enrich the experience for both the maker (teacher/parent) and the apprentice (child) to encourage and celebrate creative, practical play.




On the Go with Senior Services


Book Description

Not only does this book offer insights into how to better serve all seniors, but it also provides complete step-by-step instructions for dozens of exciting and engaging programs that can be held both onsite and offsite. While serving the senior population is a standard service in public libraries, it has traditionally focused on in-house programs and homebound services. On the Go with Senior Services is different. With this inspiring and practical guide, your library can rejuvenate its in-house services with new programs and also take them on the road—to retirement and assisted living communities, adult day care programs, and nursing homes and rehab centers. With such diversity in the senior population, this book describes strategies for designing senior programs that fit your community's needs. It offers a trove of templates for programs that range from crafts, word games, pop culture, pets, holidays, humor, mysteries, technology, and music. It offers tips and suggestions on how to interact with seniors, including those who may have a variety of physical and cognitive needs. There are also guidelines for working with individuals suffering from dementia. A robust list of further resources is provided. The growing population of seniors presents librarians with new challenges and opportunities, and this book is a valuable guide to navigating and embracing them.




Rhyming Dust Bunnies


Book Description

Bug! Rug! Mug! Hug! These dust bunnies love to rhyme. Well, except for Bob. Much to the other bunnies’ frustration, Bob can never get the rhythm right. Then he saves everyone from a big, scary monster wielding—gasp!—a broom, and they all breathe a sigh of relief. But can Bob save them from the big, scary monster’s next attack? Vrrrrrroooommm...




A-Z of Learning Outside the Classroom


Book Description

Learning outside the classroom has been high on the political agenda for several years now, but recent Ofsted reports indicate that this can be confined to termly or yearly trips, as an 'extra'. This book provides a convincing and readable promotion of regular outdoor learning. It draws on relevant research to reinforce that working in 'real' environments benefits children's all-round development – cognitively, emotionally, physically and spiritually. This is illustrated through a wide range of engaging activities, from how to make a scarecrow, to interpreting a painting in a gallery, from getting the best from a library visit, to how best to attack a medieval castle. This practical guide for busy teachers will help them to link what they do in and out of the class. It's a must for every staffroom bookshelf.