Customer Reviews

Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I used this book in student teaching. I pulled many ideas from it to create my long/range plan. I use it everyday for starter ideas. Herr/Libby-Larson represent my biggest influences (other than my student teaching teacher) on my current practice.

From the wonderful, interactive bulletin boards to the tons of hands-on activities to the graphic organizers, this book will meet all of your needs if you just needed one book.

Along with Bredekamp/Copple's DEVELOPMENTALLY APPROPRIATE PRACTICE IN EARLY CHILDHOOD and Steffen Saifer's THE EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER'S MANUAL: PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS TO PRACTICALLY EVERY PROBLEM, this book should represent your first three members of your professional teaching library.

Creative Resources provides activities and ideas to support high quality ECE curriculum. CR helps you set up engaging learning centers such as math, science, art, drama, puzzles and games, and "creative" writing.

I have been a Early Childhood Educator for 8 years and this is the one book that I use the most, as a reference for my lesson plans. I would suggest this for all teachers and parents that want to enrich their children's lives and knowledge.

I have owned this book for several years. If i had to recommend just 1 book from all that i have collected, this would be it!

Wonderful child interactive bulletin board ideas. Parent letters. Theme concepts,...the works!

This book is also great for the college student who has to write behavioral objectives and goals for each theme.

I can't say enough about this wonderful book!

This book has a lot of fun ideas. However, it does not provide a lot of useful Early Childhood school-based curriculum themes. It has many themes that are not very useful in a school setting, such as:

'Containers', 'Dogs', 'Scissors', etc. Possibly a good book for Childcare Centers or home Childcare Providers, not too good for a public school Early Childhood classroom.

This is the best curriculum book that I have ever seen. It covers every aspect of the theme. The themes are all commonly used like the 5 senses or transportation. It also covers all areas math, science, dramatic play, gross motor, fine motor, music, reading and more. There is a different topic for each day. As a preschool teacher for 5 years I give this one an A+.

This is the second year that I have used this book. It was provided by the Preschool I previously worked for and I liked and used it so much that I purchased it myself for use in my new job. This is a wonderful resource book to use with 3 and 4 year old particularly but it has materials useful for ages 2 thru 5. This is truly a CREATIVE resourse book in that you can tailor the contents of each unit to meet the developmental needs of your students. I especially like the extensive reading material list with each theme, there are books for all ages of preschoolers.