Customer Reviews

Art; Learning Through Play

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The first half of the book consists of philosophical discussion.

On page 11, one of the authors decries the practice of making 20 identical bunny faces out of 20 identical paper plates and cutouts.

On page 12, the practice of blanket praise ("Oooooh, gooood!" is discouraged.

On page 54, in the instructions for one of the activities, we are asked not to write the children's names on the front of the art work.

These are feelings which I have held for a long time, but I thought I was crazy because no one around me seemed to sympathize.

On the other hand, if a teacher wishes to encourage creativity, but can think of no other activity besides handing out crayons and blank paper, the director could start to clamor for greater variety.

How can the teacher resolve this dilemma? In the second half of the book, we see several suggestions on how we can encourage creativity and exploration through arts and crafts probjects.

This book has activity plans broken down by age group starting with two year-olds. There is also a table at the back of the book that tells you what developmental skills are covered in each activity plan. My only qualm with this book is that it is only 80 pages.

This book is just one in the Learning Through Play series. I currently own 3 (Art, Problem Solving and Language). I have placed orders for Blocks, Math, Science and Music & movement. I echo the previous reviewer's comments. It's empowering to find resources like these to validate my beliefs in child development.

I appreciate the sections of these user-friendly books :

1. The philosophical section & its given guidelines : makes those philosophies come alive in the classroom.
2. Talking to Families section : suggests practical parent communication strategies . You can't go wrong with the given ideas.
3. Special needs - gives basic overview and ideas in helping children with special needs. Great for teachers without or minimal knowledge in special education.
4. The Activity Plans are helpful suggestions for novice play-based teachers. Of course, presentation & application of these activities will require the teacher's creativity to make it work according to the personality of her class.

Thank you to the all the authors and the publisher of these books.
You definitely care for our children's development!