Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom [Paperback]

Judy Herr (Author), Yvonne R. Larson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0766805433 | ISBN-13: 978-0766805439 | Publication Date: August 9, 1999 | Edition: 3

This is a guide to planning a developmentally appropriate curriculum for young children. This text focuses on the growth of the whole child and includes hundreds of activities that make education interesting and challenging for young children. You'll get 67 themes with goals, concepts, vocabulary words, music, fingercooking, resources and much more. An introduction helps teachers use the book more effectively, including discussion of how to use the thematic approach, suggestions for writing parent letters, and criteria for selecting children's books.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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Features of This Edition

From the Publisher

• The CD in the back of the book has additional content on documentation boards, forms, a parent/family letter for multiple use, developmental forms, and an image library containing bulletin board activity patterns.


• Extended information on diversity (ethnic, gender, and ability or special needs).


• An expanded introduction provides a more comprehensive preface to the book's content.


• The content encourages users to analyze and ask questions.


• A new, 16-page color insert features curriculum development activities.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This is a great resource to help teachers plan an integrated curriculum that addresses the multiple learning styles of preschool children."

"I've used this text for many, many years. My students really like the text and keep it forever. It also really helps them in student teaching. Worth every penny the students spend on it and it becomes a lasting resource for teaching." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Delmar Pub; 3 edition (August 9, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0766805433
• ISBN-13: 978-0766805439
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Additional thoughts on Creative Resources, August 17, 1999

By 

[e-mail] "Rachel" (Northeast PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom (Paperback)

This is the best Early Childhood book I own! In addition to what others have mentioned, some of the aspects I particularly appreciate are:

~Resources
every source is documented, giving unending
possibilities to pursue

~Books!
at the end of each unit is a list of books
relevant to the topic

~Webbing
each unit begins with a flowchart, listing
many aspects or branches of the main theme.
(This is a tremendous help in beginning to
think through how to personalize the units)

~INTERACTIVE Bulletin Boards
while the bulletin boards are a bit repetitive
(similar concepts for all the boards, but the
objects involved change with the themes), kids
tend to pay more attention to these
Interactive boards than to traditional ones.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Absolute Best Out There, September 24, 2005

By 

Jacqueline J. Maxfield "Jacqui" (Sandy, UT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom, 4E (Paperback)

I spent months looking through Preschool/Kindergarten curriculum and found this to be the best by far. I bought the 4th edition and this is what is new in this edition - according to the book.

1 - "New themes and activities - Over 100 activities with 3 new themes: feet, frogs, amd worms. Each thematic unit begins with a curriculum web. This webbing is designed to inform teachers of the major subconcepts that can be included under each theme."
An example of this for the unit of ants would be -
Ants:
Colors - black, brown, rust, gray, red
Kinds - carpenter, weaver, leaf cutter, fire, cornfield, thief, army
Homes - underground, earthen mounds, inside trees or hollow plants
Foods - insects, fruits, plants
Growth stages - egg, larvae, pupae, adult
Roles - queen, soldier, worker, male
Importance - eat large number of insects, food source for birds, frogs and other animals
Body Parts - Head, antennas, eyes, mouth parts, trunk, 6 legs, wings (males and queens)

I really liked this breakdown b/c it gave me the ability to teach in a well rounded method to ensure the kids were learning more than just the color and what they ate. We did all of this and bought an ant farm (Ant Hill - Living Ant Habitat) and my 2 and 4 year olds can tell you all about ants and are now so intrigued by them b/c they understand them! This ant hill was great. It is made for preschoolers and it doesn't tip.

2 - Revised and additional bulletin boards.
3 - New and Expanded reference materials - books and multimedia.

Each unit is broken down into different activities. They are as follows -
Arts and Crafts
Cooking
Dramatic Play
Field Trip/Resource People
Fingerplays
Group Time
Large Muscle
Math
Music
Science
Sensory
Social Studies
Books to read
Mulitmedia to listen to or watch

This book is amazing and full of wonderful information that is straight forward to teach and easy for little ones to learn. The price did seem a little high but considering how well rounded it is...I didn't need to purchase anything else.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great activities to cure the winter blues, November 10, 2002

By 

Wendy Somerlot Bittel (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom (Paperback)

This book provides tons of great ideas for activities for your preschooler. I am a stay at home mom using these ideas to keep my kids busy. The book is organized by themes. Each theme has songs, fingerplays, arts/crafts, play ideas, science subjects, etc. to tie into that subject. You can do as little or as much of it as you want. It also provides a list of story books to accompany each theme. It's well thought out and organized.