I approach all parents from the perspective that they love their child(ren) as much as I love mine. If you accept this as a premise, working with all parents becomes much easier. It is far simpler to believe that parents are making decisions and behaving the way they are because they think it is best […]
Job charts are a common site in early childhood settings. There is usually a “door holder” and “line leader”. There is a “table setter” and a “librarian”. Usually, there are just enough jobs so that every child has a job. Some teachers like to switch jobs daily and others like to keep them […]
On Monday we looked at a really great classroom tool that helps children keep track of time. That is a very different idea than telling time. It takes children a long time to be able to look at a traditional clock face and tell the time. They need to be able to count to 60, […]
Learning Standards B and C continue to describe the state expectations for young children and early measurement concepts. Learning Standard B – Begin to make estimates of measurements. Benchmarks 7.B.ECa Practice estimating in everyday play and solving everyday measurement problems. Example Performance Descriptors Make predictions and estimations during play (e.g., estimate how many scoops of […]
This photo popped up on my Facebook page this morning. A friend of a friend created this for her toddler, but I think we should all make them for toddler rooms. It looks simple enough. Go through the house, find old phones, locks, small mirrors, and a calculator and you’ve got yourself a really […]
Frequently, I see elaborate systems set up in classrooms to help children and teachers measure time. When my kids were little we told time in “Arthurs”. For us, that meant that 1 Arthur= 15 minutes, so if Louie asked when we were going to eat dinner, I would say, “In 2 Arthurs” or “in 3 […]
Last week I told you that I was going to be attending a statewide meeting of Gateways for Opportunity Statewide Higher Education Forum. So here I am. It is 8 AM in Bloomington – Normal, and I am sitting with some of the big movers and shakers in the ECE world looking at the data […]
You know who I am most envious of? People who learned to speak 2 languages from birth, in their homes, with their families. Man, if I could have given any gift to my children, it would have been the gift of being bilingual. Children who live in homes whose language is other than English may […]
Can you guess why I chose “Weather” as our theme for April? If you have ever lived in Chicago in April, you know from experience, that you might encounter every single kind of weather known to humanity. It will snow, rain, hail, and sleet. It will be freezing, mild, hot, or scorching. It will be […]
This article is just a wonderful way to consider how children think about measurement and what that means for us. I hope it makes you smile as much as I did.