Who says food experiences have to be about sugary, salty, dessert-type foods? I love to make healthy, interesting, and creative foods with children that may also introduce them to new and tasty ingredients. Try and find recipes that most children (even very young children) can manage almost exclusively on their own. Here’s one that is […]
My favorite chef who also writes cookbooks for children is Molly Katzen. She is known for her vegetarian cooking and her wonderful books about food and eating well. I originally got to know her work because I was given one of her children’s cookbooks when Noah was born. That book got a lot of use […]
On Sunday, I opened the paper to an article called “Who Says Math Has to Be Boring?” I am always drawn to articles about education, especially ones with the word math in their titles. It isn’t too long but if you only read one part of it, scroll down to the paragraph entitled Very […]
So, I was a little premature when I told you last Monday that I was going to present all of the wonderful pretend wooden international foods that are available for young children. I only found these three Asian sets (which I think are lovely). You can see that one focuses on sushi, one on grilled […]
Recipes, cooking, and food experiences are the focus of Thursday’s Themes for December 2013. I think this is a good follow-up to November’s Theme of Weighing and Balancing since we definitely don’t want to weigh anything (especially ourselves) during this month of festivity. I recently spent some time observing 2 groups of young children as […]
The Illinois Early Learning Project has just published the Illinois Prevention Initiative Manual for 2013. This was developed for directors and administrators in the continuous improvement of their birth – 3 programs. Take a look!
The 4th and final chapter of Kamii’s Number in Preschool and Kindergarten book looks at specific situations in the daily life of a classroom that she sees as opportunities to teach number. The chapter is divided into 2 halves: we will look at the first half this week and the second will be explored next […]
This article popped up on my newsfeed Saturday and I was immediately excited about reading more research that supports a topic that I am passionate about – Pretend Play. Take a look at the article (it is short, about a page) and see what you think. The writers indicate that children not only need time […]
This set of pretend food reminded me of how much I love beautifully made, well-built, multi-purpose toys. Investing in these sorts of materials for your program makes so much more sense than buying toys that don’t last and are designed for one sole purpose. There are many varieties of this sort of toy set. If […]
The very last bit of Chapter 3 – The Principles of Teaching in Kamii’s book Number in Preschool and Kindergarten explores the teacher’s role as an investigator into the child’s mind to determine what the child was thinking when he performed a mathematical operation. Figure out how the child is thinking, and intervene according to what […]