Block Play

With over 50 great activities, "Block Play" is a must-have for every teacher. Clear descriptions of what children learn by playing with blocks accompany the activities. Each activity encourages developmental skills such as problem-solving, math, science, language, and social skills. Watch children experience the joy of learning through blocks Sharon MacDonaldis the best-selling author of "Squish, Sort, Paint, & Build" and "Everyday Discoveries." She has been involved in early childhood classrooms for 28 years, and now spends her time training teachers and writing books and articles. She lives in San Antonio, Texas.

Creative Block Play covers everything you need to encourage a child's development in a variety of domains through block play. This book is full of photos that illustrate block play in real classrooms and stories from teachers who have successfully used block play to encourage children's development in a variety of domains. Rosanne Regan Hansel has been both a teacher and administrator for a variety of early childhood programs and currently serves as Education Program Development Specialist for the Department of Education. Ms. Hansel received her MS Ed in Early Childhood Leadership from Bank Street College of Education.

Block play stimulates learning in all areas of development: intellectual, physical, social, emotional and communication as well as early maths and literacy. In this book, experienced author and practitioner Judit Horvath has put together a variety of exciting and challenging ideas that cover them all. Some activities include cheap, easily sourced props such as play dough, pebbles, fairy lights and flowers to capture the children's imaginations, while others prompt more challenging block play to encourage the development and understanding of complex patterns, such as classifying, sequencing, counting, fractions and problem solving. This creative collection of ideas featuring colourful and fun photography is a fantastic resource for incorporating successful and exciting block play into your setting.

Block Parties examines young children’s spatial development through the lens of emergent STEAM thinking. This book explores the physical and psychological tools that children use when they engage in constructive free play, and how these tools contribute to and shape the constructions they produce. Providing readers with the tools and understanding necessary to develop children’s spatial sense through the domains of mapping and architecture, this cutting-edge volume lays the groundwork for both cognitive development and early childhood specialists and educators to develop more robust models of STEAM-related curriculum that span the early years through to adolescence.

Traces the history of building blocks as educational toys, discusses how play reflects a child's intellectual development, and looks at various types of blocks.

Children, Play, and Development offers a comprehensive look at children's play from birth to adolescence.

In Play and Creativity in Art Teaching, esteemed art educator George Szekely draws on his two classic volumes, Encouraging Creativity in Art Lessons and From Play to Art, to create a new book for new times. The central premise is that art teachers are not only a source of knowledge about art but also a catalyst for creating conditions that encourage students to use their own ideas for making art. By observing children at play and using props and situations familiar to them, teachers can build on children’s energy and self-initiated discoveries to inspire school art that comes from the child’s imagination. The foundation of this teaching approach is the belief that the essential goal of art teaching is to inspire children to behave like artists, that art comes from within themselves and not from the art teacher. Play and Creativity in Art Teaching offers plans for the study of children’s play and for discovering creative art teaching as a way to bring play into the art room. While it does not offer a teaching formula or a single set of techniques to be followed, it demystifies art and shows how teachers can help children find art in familiar and ordinary places, accessible to everyone. This book also speaks to parents and the important roles they can play in supporting school art programs and nourishing the creativity of their children.

Over the past twenty years, much has been written about the knowledge bases thought necessary to teach science. Shulman has outlined seven knowledge domains needed for teaching, and others, such as Tamir, have proposed somewhat similar domains of knowledge, specifically for science teachers. Aspects of this knowledge have changed because of shifts in curriculum thinking, and the current trends in science education have seen a sharp increase in the significance of the knowledge bases. The development of a standards-based approach to the quality of science teaching has become common in the Western world, and phrases such as “evidence-based practice” have been tossed around in the attempt to “measure” such quality. The Professional Knowledge Base of Science Teaching explores the knowledge bases considered necessary for science teaching. It brings together a number of researchers who have worked with science teachers, and they address what constitutes evidence of high quality science teaching, on what basis such evidence can be judged, and how such evidence reflects the knowledge basis of the modern day professional science teacher. This is the second book produced from the Monash University- King’s College London International Centre for the Study of Science and Mathematics Curriculum. The first book presented a big picture of what science education might be like if values once again become central while this book explores what classroom practices may look like based on such a big picture.