Beautiful Stuff!: Learning with Found Materials [Hardcover]

Cathy Weisman Topal (Author), Lella Gandini (Author)

Book Description

Encourage your kids to express their creativity as they discover, collect, sort, arrange, experiment, and think with found and recyclable “stuff.” The real-life experiences of teachers and children will inspire ideas that you can try at home: choose objects and turn them into a display, transform materials into a face, build and glue wood scraps to make constructions. Appropriate for children four years of age and older.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Cathy Weisman Topal and Lella Gandini

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: Davis (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871923882
• ISBN-13: 978-0871923882
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #72,026 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A marvelous, practical, inspiring, easy-to-read compendium., April 6, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beautiful Stuff!: Learning with Found Materials (Hardcover)

In Beautiful Stuff!: Learning With Found Materials, Cathy Topal and Lella Gandini collaborate to share how real teachers in Reggio Emilia, Italy use ordinary and diverse materials found in any home to stimulate their student's imaginations, inspire storytelling and interactions between children, and serve to launch children into such creative activities as drawing, collage making, sculpture, and construction. Beautiful Stuff! is a marvelous, practical, inspiring, and easy-to-read compendium of ideas and suggestions for nurturing the innate creative of a child and adapting within the context of a classroom.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Stuff! Learning with found materials., August 12, 2000

By 

Wendy Carruthers (Perth, Western Australia Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beautiful Stuff!: Learning with Found Materials (Hardcover)

If you are a Reggio inspired teacher as I am, you will love this book. It takes you through the wonderful process of sharing the joys of all those little treasures that young children find and love. You will be amazed at how clever the children in your class become at sorting and classifying through the kinds of experiences that working with 'Beautiful Stuff' involes. I just love this book, it has changed the way I view the materials that I put out for the children, and how I use them. My friends also love this book and all ask, "where did you get it?" Thank you Cathy Topal Weisman and Lella Gandini you are inspiring.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New to Reggio Emilia approach - loved this book, December 12, 2003

By 

britneyxyz "Britney" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beautiful Stuff!: Learning with Found Materials (Hardcover)

I am not a teacher and I was not experienced in the Reggio Emilia approach to preschool education (project approach) before reading this book. I sought this book for handwork ideas with the items my girls collect on their nature walks. I could not put this book down!

Beautiful stuff outlines the projects developed with found materials at the pre-school in Reggio Emilia, Italy. It starts at the beginning with the ideas of the teachers, the method of including parents and increasing children's awareness of everyday objects. (This book is full of details - they mention how the teachers scan materials and remove inappropriate / dangerous materials).

The book is filled with photographs from beginning to end. The photographs themselves show the story. I especially like the different approaches to sorting suggested in this book and the amount of time the children were permitting to sort, touch, feel, enjoy, and organize the materials. I also liked the three-dimensional project where the children first drew what they were going to build.

The children are quoted throughout the book. The quotes are memorable and sweet and show the children's enjoyment of this entire project.

I would recommend this book to pre-school teachers, day care centers, people who baby-sit in their home or parents looking for ideas for found objects. I loved it!