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Project based learning (PBL) initiatives are some of the ways faculty are approaching hands-on learning with students. A PBL assignment engages students in solving a real-world problem or answering a complex question. Students then demonstrate their knowledge and skills by developing a public product or presentation for a real audience.


The European Space Education Office (ESERO) Ireland and Discover Primary Science & Maths are offering places for teachers on a 5-day professional development course at CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory from July 2 to 6, 2018: Junior Rocket Scientists: Space Science as a Cross-Curricular Theme.
The objective of the course is to assist participants in using teaching approaches that develop numeracy skills in an integrated way across the curriculum for junior classes (from infants to second class). This course will use space as a cross-curricular theme and develop skills in many curricular areas.
The course will have an emphasis on inquiry based learning and provide opportunities to apply skills and knowledge to real life situations. School Self Evaluation aims will be covered with an emphasis on evaluating and developing Science Skills.
This face-to-face course was developed in 2014 and was last offered in Cork in 2016.
You can book a space on this course here: https://www.cesc.ie/index.cfm/page/courses/courseId/2197
For further details of course content please contact Frances McCarthy at email@example.com / 021 432 6121
Daily Timetable: JuniorRocketScientistTeacherTimetableCPD2018
If you are a teacher of 3rd to 6th class, then book through the Limerick Education Centre for “Using Space to Teach Science through Inquiry – 3rd to 6th Class” being held at Lough Gur Heritage Centre,


Is Your Child Struggling With Reading?
We Can Help!
For your child to succeed in school, reading and writing skills are necessary. Proper vision development and visual processing skills are critical. It is a well-established fact that poor vision can affect learning in a number of ways. Vision issues will make it hard for your child to focus on school work; poor vision can mean poor hand-eye coordination; reading comprehension and vision go hand in hand; and poor vision can affect your child’s confidence.
Is your child struggling with reading? If so, it can be due to a vision problem. It’s important for you to address this to help your child and set him/her on the path to succeed at school and in life.
What Does The Screening Result Say?
It is believed that at least 1 in every 10 school children has vision problems that can undermine their academic performance. In most schools, the solution to assess vision is to provide vision screenings. However, these screenings often miss critical visual skills that cause parents and teachers to overlook the underlying cause of the problem.
The traditional “20/20” vision screening administered to children at school and pediatrician’s offices only assesses how well your child sees at a distance. More than 50% of the serious vision problems that affect children are not diagnosed by a standard vision screening. Even if your child has 20/20 vision, he/she may still have difficulty reading due to other visual issues that are not detected through a vision screening.
Reading Requires Several Visual Skills
Reading is a complex task that requires 7 of the 17 vital visual skills. Here is a highlight of what we do when we are reading:
- When we aim two eyes at the same point simultaneously and accurately, we use: Skill #1 Eye Movement Control, Skill #8 Simultaneous Alignment at Near and Skill #9 Sustaining Alignment at Near.
- When we focus both eyes to make the reading material clear, we use: Skill #4 Simultaneous Focus at Near and Skill #10 Central Vision (Visual Acuity).
- When we continue to sustain clear focus, we use: Skill #5 Sustaining Focus at Near.
- When we move two eyes continually as a coordinated team across the line of print, we use: Skill #1 Eye Movement Control, Skill #9 Sustaining Alignment at Near and Skill #15 Fine Visual-Motor.
As you can see, even if a vision screening shows that your child has 20/20 vision, there are so many other reasons he or she may have difficulty reading. Any problem that interferes with any of the vision skills mentioned above can make it difficult for your child to read.
Have Your Child's Vision Evaluated, Today!
Vision-related learning problems can cause your child tremendous difficulty at school. This will in turn affect the child’s ability to develop important foundational skills. The earlier a visual processing issue is detected, the easier it is to treat and the sooner your child will have the skills needed to continue on a path of success.
Schedule a developmental eye exam for your child today at Village Eye Centre. Our developmental eye exam remains the most viable way to detect any problem that can affect reading and ensure that your child’s vision will enable him or her to succeed.
Our qualified and experienced optometrists are available to speak with you and discuss your options. We use state-of-the-art equipment and assessments to examine your child’s vision and eyes and if an issue is detected, we will recommend the best possible treatment available. We serve patients all over Edmonton.
Don’t delay in getting your child the help they need! Schedule your developmental eye exam today!


Towards critical cultural and linguistic awareness in language classrooms in Norway: Developing intercultural citizenship through identity texts
Journal article, Peer reviewed
MetadataVis full innførsel
This article reports the results of a school-based curriculum development project that aimed to support language teachers working with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations in Norway to develop teaching strategies that foster intercultural citizenship and multilingual competence. Three university researchers collaborated with two schools to increase mutual respect and tolerance for cultural and linguistic diversity in language classrooms, to increase awareness of the positive impact of home language maintenance on academic performance, and to improve the engagement of multilingual literacy and student identity in the classroom. Data were collected during teacher workshops and while following the delivery of the project, and consist of lesson planning materials, texts produced by students, and a follow-up teacher survey. The article presents examples of activities and materials the teachers at the cooperating schools designed and implemented, samples of student work, as well as teacher reflections on the extent to which the project promoted multiliteracy and intercultural citizenship. The findings suggest that while the project helped strengthen awareness of cultural and linguistic diversity at the schools, understanding of the relevance of the home language to literacy development and academic success and multiliteracy were not adequately supported. Implications for future work to promote language classrooms that foster linguistic and cultural diversity and multiliteracy are discussed.


MA Reading Education
Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education
College of Education
Growth Mindset, Implicit Theories, Literacy, Mindset, Perserverance, Self-efficacy
Motivation in education; Language arts (Elementary)
Elementary Education and Teaching
The purpose of this study is to determine the type of mindsets held by first graders and to determine what happens when they are exposed to ways to have a growth mindset. The goal is to see what happens when children use a growth mindset when asked to engage in challenging literacy activities. First graders were first evaluated using a mindset survey and reading levels were determined. Logic puzzles were given and timed to determine if work effort matched that of the mindset survey. Students showed a change in mindset and growth in reading abilities. Implications for future research are discussed.
Saia, Katherine, "Impact of mindset on literacy: what happens to literacy skills when a growth mindset is taught to first graders" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 2346.


New Hampshire College and Career Ready Standards
NH.CC.RF.4. Reading Standards: Foundational Skills
RF.4.4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
RF.4.4(c) Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.
NH.CC.L.4. Language Standards
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use
L.4.4. Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.
L.4.4(a) Use context (e.g., definitions, examples, or restatements in text) as a clue to the meaning of a word or phrase.


"A multifaceted, multimodal learning experience for children"
Winning Reading Boost is Sue Dickson’s most recent program done in partnership with the University of Florida. It designed for students in 2nd grade and up who have not attained literacy success in school.
It is an intervention for struggling readers that builds fluency and reading independence through a unique 36-step learn to-read curriculum built on carefully sequenced, systematic, and explicit phonics instruction that uses interactive sing along phonics songs and games that make learning to read fun and meaningful.
Winning Reading Boost combines the best teaching practices supported by research on language acquisition and reading to ensure individual student success through its use of a multisensory, multimodal approach that requires total participation from learners.
The program incorporates, phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and oral language development through its instructional lessons. Students gain confidence as they are able to be successful when applying their new skills in context with both fiction and non-fiction texts.


Northport K-8 School middle grades Art instruction has been deemed an integral facet in educating the school’s children. Students in grades K-8 enter Valerie Niewieroski’s art class with hopes of fun and color, but Mrs. Niewieroski offers so much more to the students. A plethora of studies have proven that an excellent fine arts school program enhances motor skills, builds language development, strengthens problem solving and critical thinking skills as well as offering a vital outlet for self expression and inventiveness. Studies have also proven a direct correlation between art, music education and higher academic achievement. A report by Americans for the Arts states that young people who participate regularly in the Arts are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to participate in math and science fairs and to win writing awards. The month of September has been dedicated to the study of shapes in Mrs. Niewieroski’s classes. Students have created their own organic shaped beasts inspired by the paintings of Henri Matisse. Pictured are Northport students proudly displaying their creative energies.


- 舞踊學 (ISSN:09114017)
- vol.2008, no.31, pp.48-59, 2008 (Released:2010-04-30)
Kwonbon is one of the systems transplanted from Japan to Korea during colony period and had been maintained from 1908 to 1942 under the governance of Japan. Kwonbon is mostly in charge of business management and art education for Geisha. Kwonbon system in Japan like this was applied to Korea in almost the same form with a policy. Kiseng, that is Female artists from the Palace and the Government, is an object. Kiseng during colony period had made a living and had kept traditional music and dance.Kwonbon had been completely disappeared around 1950's. However traditional dancers who have been lived in those periods testifies that numerous Korean traditional dancer including those who have important intangible cultural assets were educated at Kwonbon.This study focuses on how Kwonbon in Japan was transplanted and had rooted in Joseon (Korea), what was the details of education for Kiseng, and what kind of dance was educated. First of all, as a background of Kiseng education at Kwonbon, history from the introduction of Kiseng Union whose predecessor to the establishment of Kwonbon is reviewed and the role of Kwonbon as an administrative organization is summarized. From the examples of Seven Kwonbon in each area, basic Kiseng education and teacher, and details of dance education are studied.


Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president of the United States of America. Born on February 12 1809 in a poor family Lincoln had very difficult childhood. An avid reader, Lincoln was mostly self educated. The formal elementary education he received was approximately for a year from various traveling teachers. In spite of these Lincoln rose to be one of the most successful Americans leading the country through one of its greatest crisis – the American Civil War.
Abraham Lincoln started his political career during March 1832. His first campaign was for the Illinois Gen assembly. Lincoln lost due to the lack of education, money and powerful friends. Not ready to give up Lincoln continued his campaign for the Illinois Gen assembly election which was to be held on August 6, 1832. Though he did not mean the election he had gained enough public support by the time.
Lincoln moved on to serve as postmaster of New Salem and later as country surveyor. He was also educating himself to becoming a lawyer. He successfully warned the next campaign in 1834 and was elected to the state legislature. In 1836 Lincoln moved to Springfield and started practicing law under John T Stuart. Lincoln proved to be a success both as a lawyer as well as a politician.
Lincoln was well known for his ‘free soil’ stance. He opposed slavery and abolitionism. Lincoln was later elected to the US House of Representatives during 1846. During this time Lincoln collaborating with Congressman Joshua R Giddings, wrote the bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. But he had to drop the bill due to lack of proper support from his own party men. After completing one near in the US House of Representatives Lincoln returned to Springfield to practicing law. It was during these times (1849) that Lincoln received a patent for a flotation device that would make moment of boats in shallow water safe. Though not commercialized this idea makes Lincoln the only president to hold a patent.
Lincoln made his pre-entry to politics during 1854 in an attempt to oppose the proslavery Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln clearly declared his opposition to slavery in his ‘Peoria Speech’ on October 16, 1854. In the Republican National Convention held during 1856 Lincoln was the second choice in the contest to be the party’s candidate for vice president. He was nominated for the US Senate in 1858. Lincoln was elected president of the United States of America on November 6, 1860. Abraham Lincoln played a major role in holding together the United States of America during the Civil War.
The initiation of Emancipation proclamation which aimed at freeing the slaves in the various states of the US is one of the greatest achievements of Abraham Lincoln during his presidency. The Morrill Act of 1862 facilitated setting up of land grants for colleges. The Homestead Act of 1862, National Banking Act and Pacific Railroad Act are some of his major accomplishments.
Despite these contributions made by President Abraham Lincoln to the United States of America, there were quite a lot of people who disliked him for his antislavery attitude. John Wilkes Booth was one of the. Booth was an actor who performed in various plays. Both began devising plans to kidnap Lincoln during 1864. But this turned to a plan for assassination after Lincoln’s speech on April 11, 1865 in which he suggested that voting rights should be granted to certain blacks.
On the night of April 14, 1865 Booth arrived at Ford’s Theatre where President Lincoln was to attend the performance of ‘Our American Cousin’. With well calculated steps both managed to enter the state box where they Lincolns were sitting with Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris. Both short President Lincoln in the back of his head at near point-blank range at around 10:15 PM. Lincoln passed away at 7:22 AM on April 15, 1865 at the Petersen house. The federal authorities in their attempt to capture boot shot him to death. The other conspirators were tried, four of them where hanged on July 7, 1865 and others where given terms in prison.


Music Educators Toolbox
This set of free online resources for music teachers includes lesson plans and activities, summative and formative assessments, video examples, and documented best practices. Designed to be effective and adaptable in a wide variety of music classrooms, the resources were developed through Carnegie Hall’s five-year residency in a New York City elementary/middle school.
The toolbox currently features grade-specific music education resources that address fundamentals of rhythm and meter, form and design, expressive qualities, pitch, and performing.
Browse resources by grade levels, concepts, activities, and assessments.
The Music Educators Toolbox was developed in partnership with PS/MS 161 in upper Manhattan. Major funding in support of this partnership was provided by The Irene Diamond Fund. Additional support was provided by the Lanie & Ethel Foundation.


Throwing Games for Children
Throwing games allow your child to throw balls and beanbags in a controlled environment, instead of inside the house where he may break your valuables. Once your child reaches 4 to 6 years old, he is at a stage of gross motor skill development where throwing games can help him practice using large muscle groups. In addition, the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health notes that throwing games can help your child with fine motor skill eye-hand and foot-eye development.
Guidelines to Teaching Games
Patience and practice are important to keep in mind when teaching throwing games to children. Because motor development occurs at a different rate for each child, the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health stresses the importance of not pushing your child to a higher level before she is ready. If she is not ready for group activities, choose throwing games she can play by herself or with you. Helping your child learn to throw lies in actively participating in teaching throwing and other games, according to the University of Missouri-Extension.
The beanbag throw is a game your child can play either by herself or in a group setting. Game materials include one or more beanbags, some tape or string and an optional bucket or basket. Use the tape or string to mark two lines about 6 feet apart. If you are using a basket, place it on one line, and then have your child or the group stand at the other. The goal, whether your child is practicing by himself or playing with a group, is to see how many times each child can hit the basket with a beanbag.
Chant Ball/Clap And Catch
Chant ball and clap and catch are two more throwing games your child can play individually or within a group setting. The goal of chant ball is to throw a ball in the air and keep it there by clasping your hands together and batting it back into the air before it reaches the ground. Counting aloud each time the ball goes up also gives your child a chance to practice her counting skills. To play clap and catch, toss a ball in the air and clap once before catching it. Encourage your child with enthusiastic praise when she is successful in the games.
Spud is a group game. To start, each child is assigned a number and one child gets to be “it.” The child who is “it” stands in the middle while everyone else circles around him. “It” throws a soft foam ball in the air and calls out a number while the children in the circle start running. The child who was assigned that number must return, catch the ball and call “spud.” When he does, everyone else must stop running. The player with the ball then throws it toward another player. If he hits the player, she gets a letter in the word “spud” and becomes “it.” If he misses the player, he keeps the letter and becomes “it.” As each player gets enough letters to spell the entire word, that player must sit out the rest of the game. The last player standing wins.
Based in Green Bay, Wisc., Jackie Lohrey has been writing professionally since 2009. In addition to writing web content and training manuals for small business clients and nonprofit organizations, including ERA Realtors and the Bay Area Humane Society, Lohrey also works as a finance data analyst for a global business outsourcing company.


“Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.” ― Keith Richards
Music and Dance Education at Vision Global School aims to introduce young children to the artistic, cultural and scientific foundation of music and dance.
Our school dance program is an exciting introduction to dance which focuses on fun, creativity, and imagination. Dance is an ideal means of communication to express what is too deep, too fine for words. Vision Global School, students learn to choreograph and are made conversant with various Indian and Western dance forms.
The wide range of musical instruments fascinates every heart. The universal language of music and dance forms helps students from across communities to bond and provides the perfect nutriment for the mind, body, and soul. The rhythm and beats from the room lift the spirits of everyone who visits it. It is the venue for performing art education activities.
Children will learn to play musical instruments such as:
- Conga Drums
- Bass Drum
- Mouth organ
Children will learn to dance forms such as:
- Break Dance
- Tap Dance
- Aerial Dance
- Folk Dance


Words Their Way is a developmental spelling, phonics, and vocabulary program. It is intended to be a part of a balanced literacy plan that includes fluency, comprehension and writing. Word study is implemented as a small component of the literacy plan but it is also interwoven in actual reading and writing texts. Words Their Way is an open-ended individual process. An assessment is given to determine where to begin instruction. Based on assessment results students are given words to study in order to discover the common attributes. In this manner students are actively constructing their own knowledge of spelling patterns. Students learn features by completing activities such as word sorting, word hunts, games and drawing and labeling. Students work individually, with partners, and in small groups to encourage cooperative learning and individual responsibility.ReadyGEN is a comprehensive ELA curriculum aligned to the complexity requirements of Common Core Standards. At the heart of ReadyGEN is an exchange between reading and writing to promote student thinking and understanding through citation and text-based evidence. Students are expected to analyze and synthesize sources, write to sources, and defend claims.ReadyGEN is organized into unit modules containing Text Sets aligned to the Essential Question and Enduring Understandings of each unit. Text Sets contain authentic pieces of literary and informational trade books. Texts are designed to build core knowledge for sustained periods of time. Embedded support at point-of-use allows all students – ELLs, struggling readers, and accelerated learners – to successfully participate. Additionally, Academic Specialists provided guidance through supplementary support materials.
The ReadyGEN Program features:
· 12 Full-Length Authentic Trade Books for every student.
· LEVELED TEXT COLLECTION: A collection of topic-related texts spanning multiple genres
· SLEUTH – A magazine style reader of short texts to develop close reading strategies.
ReadyGEN features a comprehensive student assessment system.
· A Baseline Assessment determines students’ instructional needs in foundational skills, comprehension, vocabulary, and writing.
· Regular Formative Assessments are used to measure student reading, vocabulary analysis and writing progress to adjust instruction.
· Performance-Based Assessments embedded in each unit measures students’ core understandings in integrating reading, writing, speaking and listening.
· Summative, End-of-Unit Assessments are designed to measure mastery of the Common Core Standards.


Response to Intervention (RtI) does not take the place of any specific curriculum or program. It assists in providing students increasingly intensive education intervention instruction on basic foundational skills to help students struggling in core subjects due to limited skills. RtI depends on systematic measure of student’s progress through data.
The Comprehensive Student Support System's Response to Intervention (RTI) outlines a model of support that can help students achieve learning goals and perform at their highest potential. In Solomon's commitment to helping all students succeed, we have put into place a universal screener (iReady diagnostic) to identify students performance levels on basic skills of Math and Reading.
Response to Intervention is a general education initiative that is intended for ALL students. There are three levels or Tiers of RtI.
All students take the diagnostic assessment through iReady in the Fall, Winter, and Spring. This provides one piece of data on how a child is understanding various components of Reading and Mathematics. The data gathered is used by the teachers to plan interventions for their students. Currently those students with the most needs, Tier 3, receive additional direct instructional services from Part Time Teachers (PTT) 4 times a week for 30 minutes in a separate setting with peers on their same ability level. Students in Tier 2 and Tier 1 also receive RTI services from their homeroom teachers during the same block of time.
In addition Solomon Elementary uses the iReady instructional online program. This program uses data from the initial assessment to provide skill lessons that focuses on the student's area of need. Parents may access this program at home to work with their child, see your child's teachers for details on how to do this. Access iReady through the Clever single sign-in platform.
Every effort at Solomon Elementary is being taken to provide your child with the best learning experience possible. With your help we will be able to do just that. Remember to read with your child daily, discuss interesting subjects that you can both explore in written form, and encourage your child to seek help when needed. Together we can all make a difference in the life of your child.


The general capabilities play a significant role in the Australian Curriculum in equipping young Australians to live and work successfully in the twenty-first century.
In the Australian Curriculum, capability encompasses knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions. Students develop capability when they apply knowledge and skills confidently, effectively and appropriately in complex and changing circumstances, in their learning at school and in their lives outside school.
General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum
In the Australian Curriculum, the general capabilities are addressed through the content of the learning areas. General capabilities are identified where they are developed or applied in the content descriptions. They are also identified where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning via the content elaborations, which are provided to give teachers ideas about how they might teach the content. Icons are used to indicate where general capabilities have been identified in learning area content descriptions and elaborations.
Teachers are expected to teach and assess general capabilities to the extent that they are incorporated within learning area content. State and territory education authorities will determine if and how student learning of the general capabilities is to be further assessed or reported.
General capabilities materials are presented to help teachers develop a shared understanding of the nature, scope and sequence of the general capabilities in the Australian Curriculum and to help teachers plan for students’ development of the general capabilities in school and classroom learning programs.
The materials for each general capability include:
- an introduction that describes the nature and scope of the capability, its place in the learning areas and its evidence base
- organising elements and sub-elements that underpin a learning continuum
- a learning continuum.
Learning continua have been developed for each capability to describe the relevant knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions at particular points of schooling. Within each of the capabilities, specific behaviours and dispositions have been identified and incorporated into each learning continuum as appropriate.
Using the learning continua
Students need opportunities to develop capabilities over time and across learning areas. What is learnt in the early years supports all subsequent learning. The learning continua map common paths for general capability development while recognising that each student’s pace of development may be influenced by factors such as their prior experience, sense of self in the world and cognitive capacity.
Learning continua typically, but not exclusively, align with years of schooling. Stages in each learning continuum are labelled from Levels 1 to 6 to emphasise that the continuum presents a sequence of learning independent of student age.
For Literacy, Level 1 is divided into five sub-levels: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d and 1e. Levels 1a–1d represent the development of early literacy skills with a particular emphasis on communication. For Numeracy, Level 1 is divided into two sub-levels: 1a and 1b; to represent the progression from early numeracy to numeracy skills. For Personal and Social capability, Level 1 is divided into two sub-levels: 1a and 1b. Level 1a describes the development of awareness of self and others and Level 1b describes the skills or actions to accompany those understandings about self and others.
For more information on using the general capabilities continua to personalise learning for students for whom English is an additional language or dialect, students with disability and gifted and talented students see Student Diversity.
Viewing on the website
Each general capability learning continuum is available online in two views:
- expected learning across the levels in a table format
- expected learning for each level in turn, in text format .
Users can also see which general capability elements and sub-elements are addressed in the content description by selecting the capability icon.
In the learning areas of the Australian Curriculum, general capabilities are identified, using icons, where they are developed or applied in the content descriptions.
The General Capabilities in the Australian Curriculum documents explain how each learning area addresses all the general capabilities.
The Australian Curriculum includes seven general capabilities, as shown in the figure below.
Resources and support materials for the Australian Curriculum General Capabilities learning continuum are available as PDF documents.


“Music Produces a Kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” ~ Confucious
As a teacher for over 15 years, I’ve seen and heard of a lot of miracle fixes for struggling students. Sure, everything from drinking coffee every two hours to increasing physical activity. True, all these things may be good in and of themselves but aren’t always the fix for every student. However, over the past several decades the use of music in education has seen a definite rise. In fact, there are documented studies that track how music can calm, assist, and enable students to learn better. Now, that is definitely amazing.
Many of my fellow teachers as well as myself used calming peaceful music in the classroom to help students relax and focus. Through all my years of teaching I really haven’t found an instance where soothing music didn’t help children do better with focusing on their school work. However, the key here is that the music must be calming. If the music is excitable in any way, students will be distracted from their tasks and it will be defeating the purpose. Foundationally, music is beneficial for enhancing a student’s attention span and promoting their ability to stay on task.
In preparation for learning, music instruction is one of the key proponents is maximizing potential. Students that are given music instruction in their pre-school years are definitely given a head start. Early music instruction prepares students to learn by enhancing fine motor skills, preparing their young brains for achievement, engaging their memory, and helping them acquire better thinking skills. Young children with music training increase their abstract reasoning abilities and with continued music instruction these abilities continue to improve.
In addition, many research studies have gone a step further to prove that the study of music simply makes better students. One Canadian research study included two groups of six students in which the first group took Suzuki piano lessons and the second group did nothing. The results were published in the journal Brain on September 20, 2006 and showed that the group that took the music lessons excelled far above the other group in literacy, mathematics, and even IQ.
The effects of music are shown through many other avenues as well. For instance, the National Association for Music Education states that SAT takers with a background involving music instruction typically score well above their non-musical peers. Many have been documented to score an average of 56 points higher on the verbal portion and 39 points higher on the math portion.
Music education doesn’t simply help students focus, prepare for school, or test better. It helps them in all areas of learning. Students that have had the opportunity to engage in music instruction often experience advanced math achievement, and more specifically those involved in instrumental music outperform peers in algebra. Yet, this benefit doesn’t just stop at mathematically related subjects. These students also experience excellent skills in the areas of reading, using information resources, and writing; and the gains continue in conjunction with continued music involvement.
It is almost overwhelming when viewing the breadth of research connected with the part music plays in increasing student’s abilities. However, even more simply music can help us with simple day to day tasks. Many people use music to enhance memory skills, and why not? Almost every human can remember something more easily and in much more detail if it is set to music.
Science has even recorded that music has a positive effect on our physical bodies. Listening to music can relieve stress, massage our internal organs, relive fatigue and even boost energy levels.
Finally, music not only affects our cognitive learning, our abilities, our memories, our physical bodies, but also can affect us socially. Good music has been known to bring people together. Often people will sing, play music, or even listen to music together thus creating memories and a bond that increases positive emotions.
Obviously, there is no way around it. Music is a central figure in how humans learn, relate, grow, and achieve. With this knowledge at our fingertips, how can we use music to affect the future in a positive way?
Jamie Gaddy, B.S., M.Ed., Ed.D. has been an education professor for over 17 years. She is also a pastor’s wife, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who now homeschools her six children (ages 5-16) in a sweet tea sippin’, wrap around porch sittin’, sweet southern Georgia town. Jamie is also a contributing author at T4L Community Blog and MomSCHOOL.


Math for Success is a methodology that promotes a connection to daily, real-life math situations.
The goal of this methodology is to encompass all strands, with concepts and skills applied through daily problem solving.
Children learn through the context of problem-solving. I have discovered through experience of using this methodology since 1995, that ALL children learn because of the revisiting of concepts, giving students opportunities to make deep connections. I have also learned that children will master the concepts and skills at their grade level and beyond. They become creative and confident problem solvers.
I have my Masters in Elementary Education, with a focus in Elementary Mathematics, (July, 2010). The literature studied through the Masters program affirmed for me that the research supports Math for Success, which enhances conceptual understanding through the revisiting of concepts, integration of strands and rich problem solving. In 2012, I was awarded the Alberta Education Excellence in Teaching Award.
Of course, I have to teach certain concepts through mini-lessons and students do worksheets to practice concepts, but most concepts are learned through Math for Success methodology.
Math for Success takes the pressure off of planning unit by unit. There's no need to review at the end of a year because you're reviewing and doing daily. I am amazed with how the students have done. Students make huge gains in mathematical ability.
DARLENE KUSICK THE LADY WHO BREATHES, SLEEPS AND EATS MATHEMATICS!
- 28 years of classroom teaching experience
- Written and self-published Math for Success teacher guide books for K-6
- Masters in Elementary Math (2012)
- Excellence of Teaching Award (2012)
- Capping project, Subitizing, The Benefits for Early Childhood Educators published
- Been a mentor within my school and district
- Provided many professional learning workshops and sessions for schools, PLC groups, districts, Alberta Consortiums, MCATA, Early Childhood Conference, Teachers Conventions and NCTM
- Since 2001 I have presented in the following places: Olds, Bowden, Innisfail, Red Deer, Lacombe, Edmonton, La La Biche, Bonneyville, St. Paul, Ashmont, Vegreville, Wainwright, Vermilion, Drayton Valley, Okotoks, Strathmore, Calgary, Lethbridge, Brooks, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, Athabasca, Canmore, Maskwacis , Pincher Creek, Whitecourt, Saskatchewan, Nevada ( I know there are more but it is difficult to recall everyone)
- Continually read educational books and articles to learn and grow in my knowledge about how kids learn math
- Attend many conferences within Alberta and outside of province (U.S.A) to extend my learning.


The 31-unit Single Subject Matter Preparation Program in Music is a sequence of courses designed to prepare music students to become successful music teachers in K-12 school settings. Students receive education in a variety of musical disciplines and pedagogical approaches, including choral, instrumental, general, and world music. The program is approved by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. All music students may take the Subject Matter Preparation Program courses although, in order for students to obtain documentation of completing the program, they must take every course within the program.
Do you have questions about the music education curriculum? Contact Dr. John Eros, advisor for Music Education.
Six (6) units in performance and pedagogy of standard orchestral instruments, voice, and guitar are required:
Six (6) units of developmental basic skills in conducting, as well as more specific skills for choral and instrumental settings are required:
The following ten (10) units are required of all music education students:
These required nine (9) units focus on specific disciplines within music teaching and learning. They are designed to prepare future music educators to teach in a variety of K-12 areas, including instrumental, choral, and elementary music teaching settings.
For course descriptions and more detailed information please visit the Education Certificate University Catalog page.
The Single Subject Matter Preparation Program in Music can be obtained in two ways:
For more information, please contact Dr. John Eros, advisor for Music Education.


About the Suzuki Method
The Suzuki method is much more than teaching children to play instruments. Its purpose is to develop the whole child, to help unfold the natural potential to learn, and to help each child become a productive and well-balanced person. Suzuki teachers aspire to help every child find the joy that comes through making music.
The "Mother Tongue" Method
Children can learn to play the violin as early as age 3 using the Suzuki Method of music instruction, sometimes also call the "Mother Tongue" method.
The Suzuki Method was developed by Dr. Shinichi Suzuki in Japan shortly after World War II. He marveled that children all over the world learn to speak their complex native languages easily at an early age. Could they learn music at an early age as well? The answer is “YES”! With the Suzuki Method, your pre-school child can learn a musical instrument in a way that is similar to how they learn to speak their native language.
Listening—Babies listen to the spoken word long before they actually speak. The more they are around language, the more fluent they become. The same is true with music. If your child listens to recordings of the music he or she will learn to play, learning becomes easier and more fun.
Imitating—Babies repeat words and phrases they have heard and eventually speak in full sentences. With the Suzuki Method, children learn to play songs they have been listening to. Then the child constantly repeats what has been learned. (Young children don't stop saying words once they have mastered them. They build on the old words.)
Reading—As children grow, they learn the alphabet, how to read, and how to write. We don't expect that they will start reading at the same time they are first learning to speak. Suzuki students similarly learn about musical notation, theory, and note reading as they age.
"We Are Suzuki"
Suzuki Triangle—Child, Parent, Teacher
The Suzuki Method requires that the child, parent, and teacher work closely together—the Suzuki triangle. Each child attends private and group lessons with a parent. As a Suzuki parent, you play an essential role in your child's Suzuki music education. You attend lessons and are the child's teacher at home for daily practice. Your role is larger than in traditional music lessons. You are a partner with the teacher to develop your child's musical ability.
You learn the fundamentals of playing the instrument so that you can guide your child in practice at home.
You listen to the Suzuki recordings frequently with your child.
You make practicing a part of daily life.
You expose your child to music.
You offer sincere praise.


If you lived in Mauritania, your meals would be very different than meals in the United States. You would stand or sit with your family around a large bowl filled with meat, rice, and vegetables. You would take food from the bowl along with your family, using only your right hand. The left hand is considered unclean and is not used for eating.
Mauritania lies in northern Africa along the Atlantic Ocean. To the north is Western Sahara – also known as Morocco and Algeria. To the east and south lie Mali and Senegal. Mauritania has one of the richest fishing waters in the world. It also has acres of farmland, but drought and poor farming practices have stripped the soil.
In the northern part of Mauritania live Berbers and Maurs. These Arab groups often live a nomadic life – moving from place to place with herds of goats and sheep. Black Africans live in southern Mauritania. Many of them are farmers. The two groups sometimes have conflicts. Mauritania is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Most children do not go to school and only the wealthy can read. Children are expected to learn how to work and how to be good Muslims. Beyond that, formal education isn’t considered necessary. People believe that disease is caused by bad deeds or destiny. Most people don’t go to doctors.
Fun Facts about Mauritania for Kids
- 3,069,000 people live in Mauritania.
- Mauritania has 397,955 square miles of land.
- People in Mauritania speak Hassaniya Arabic, Wolof, Pulaar, Soninke or French.
- Everyone in Mauritania is Muslim.
- People in Mauritania can expect to live 54 years.
- Only 42 percent of adults can read.
- Drought: severe lack of water; crops and animals die and people don’t have enough food during a drought.
- Nomadic: a wandering lifestyle; people do not have permanent homes or communities
- Formal: organized and serious
- Destiny: a person’s future, for which he or she has no control
All About Mauritania Video for Kids
Here’s a great video for kids on Mauritania:
This is a video documentary about a lifestyle of some people in Mauritania.
Question: Do people have enough food in Mauritania?
Answer: Food is scarce in Mauritania. Because of this, fat women are considered beautiful and healthy. Girls are sometimes forced to eat so they become fat.
Map of Mauritania
Here’s a map of the country of Mauritania and all its cities and villages. Zoom in to get into street level or zoom out to see other countries around Mauritania! You can see the terrain, but also see the roads, images of the buildings and even take a 3D tour through the streets of the cities of Mauritania, as though you are actually there!
Enjoyed the Easy Earth Science for Kids Website all about Mauritania info? Take the FREE & fun all about Mauritania quiz and download FREE Mauritania worksheet for kids. For lengthy info click here.
Cite This Page
You may cut-and-paste the below MLA and APA citation examples:
MLA Style Citation
Declan, Tobin. " Mauritania Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Oct 2020. Web. 28 Oct 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-mauritania/ >.
APA Style Citation
Tobin, Declan. (2020). Mauritania Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-mauritania/
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Parents are a child’s first and most important teacher, and the learning they do together doesn’t stop when children head off to school.
With the start of the new school year, Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) is launching a new initiative to strengthen the home-school relationship and provide families with the knowledge and skills they need to support learning, whether students are learning at home or at school.
District staff members from the departments of Curriculum and Instruction and Federal Programs are working together to develop Parent Learning Modules to support learning of key skills in the core subjects of language arts and mathematics. New modules will roll out each nine weeks, starting with kindergarten and expanding to other grades. The modules will focus on the skills that children need to master in order to be successful at upper grades.
“We’re starting this initiative with foundational skills in language arts and mathematics for our youngest learners since they are new to the school experience, knowing that these basic skills are the foundation for future school success,” says Dr. Clay Hunter, assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instructional Support. “These tools will give their families a window into the classroom and an opportunity to get involved and reinforce what their children are learning.”
The new Parent Learning Modules will including live Zoom sessions to model at-home AKS activities, recordings of the virtual sessions, and tipsheets.
Families will be able to use the modules to reinforce the key skills that children are learning with their classroom teacher. For instance in kindergarten, the sessions will focus on key skills like recognizing the letters of the alphabet and their sounds, and learning to count objects in sequence using numbers names.
The sessions will be hosted by parent instructional coordinators and parent outreach liaisons who staff Parent Centers in the district’s Title I schools. (Title I schools receive federal funds to support services based on a higher percentage of students who have economic disadvantages.)
The Federal Programs team is looking forward to expanding the offerings beyond kindergarten, building tools to support foundational skills at other grade levels. Over time, the learning modules will be available across grade levels and posted on the GCPS website so that all families will have access.
About the AKS
Gwinnett’s curriculum for grades K–12 is called the Academic Knowledge and Skills (AKS). The AKS includes all of the state’s standards, including the state-adopted Georgia Standards of Excellence (GSE) in the areas of language arts, mathematics, science, social studies, career and technical education, and fine arts for all grades (K–12). The Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) are in place for foreign language and health and physical education for the 2020–21 school year. Gwinnett’s AKS is a rigorous curriculum that prepares students for college and 21st century careers in a globally competitive future.
The AKS for each grade level spells out the essential concepts students are expected to know and skills they should acquire in that grade or subject. The AKS offers a solid base on which teachers build rich learning experiences. Teachers use curriculum guides, technology, and instructional resources to teach the AKS and to make sure every student is learning to his or her potential.
The AKS curriculum was developed by our teachers, with input from our parents and community. It is continually refreshed with an annual review by a committee of staff members, parents, and community members.


The Madras Dyslexia Association
(MDA) has adopted traditional games
in the remedial techniques for teaching special children
. The association has witnessed significant improvements with the use of traditional games, which are so vital in developing the pre-skills for all children.
The improvements include areas such as the children’s overall focus, fine motor skills
from playing some of these games.
D Chandrasekhar, president, MDA, said, “We try and add a traditional game in order to tweak kids’ pre-skills, which are vital for academic development
. When you are working with these traditional games, we realized that they were naturally multi-modal and multi-sensory and usually cater to more than one skill. These games can be easily adapted to suit the strengths and needs of each child.”
Traditional games have a way of seamlessly teaching physical growth and development, social-emotional development, sensory-motor development, communication skills, problem-solving, concept building skills, understanding and processing skills, executive functions, perceptual readiness for learning, listening, reading and writing besides several life skills, including social skills.
Below are some of the games that MDA uses for developing certain skills:
- The ritual bath, which helps develop gravity control (vestibular control), body awareness (proprioception) and midline crossing
- The ‘Thooli’ (baby hammock), which helps develop gravity control (vestibular control), body awareness (proprioception)
- ‘Pallanguzhi’ (mancala), which helps develop numeracy skills, fine motor and grapho-motor skills, midline crossing, attention and focus develop
- ‘Paandi’ (hopscotch), which helps develop balance, gravity control (vestibular control), proprioception, tactile stimulation, spatial awareness, focus and attention
- ‘Goli,’ which helps develop proprioceptive stimulation, vestibular control, fine motor control, spatial awareness, visual discrimination and tracking
- ‘Bambaram’ (top), which helps develop proprioception, bilateral coordination, muscle tone improvement, spatial orientation, fine motor control and attention and focus
- Kite flying, which helps develop large motor movement, muscle tone, spatial orientation
- Five stones, which helps develop attention, focus, sequential memory, multi-tasking, active working memory, eye-hand coordination, visual tracking, visual motor association, vestibular control and proprioceptive stimulation


If you enjoy the fun and challenging nature of working with young children, a career as an elementary school teacher might be right for you. These professionals work in public and private schools, where they teach young children one or multiple subject areas. Successful elementary school teachers must be good communicators with plenty of patients, creativity and resourcefulness. They must also earn a college degree.
A Teacher’s Education
What do you study to land a job as an educator? Education, of course. Specifically, you will want to pursue a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from an accredited program. Your curriculum will likely cover subjects like teacher education, instructional technology, classroom management, language and literacy, diversity in learning, child psychology and child development. Because elementary school teachers are often responsible for teaching a wide range of subjects, you may need to take coursework in a blend of subject matter studies, like social studies, elementary mathematics and science. Besides learning in a college classroom, you will have opportunities to gain hands-on experience through fieldwork in schools, particularly through a student-teaching assignment. By the time you graduate, you should understand how to teach young students information in various subjects.
In some states, major in elementary education alone is not enough. You will also need to take extensive coursework in a content area, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported. Often, this means double-majoring in both elementary education and a subject like science, math, history or English. You will have to complete both the requirements for your education major and your content area major.
Teaching Licenses and Certifications
No matter what state you intend to work in, you will need to attain a teaching license if you plan to work in a public school. A license is typically not a requirement for elementary school teachers at private schools, but having one won’t hurt your employment prospects. You will also need to earn certification in teaching early childhood grades, typically beginning with first grade and ending with either sixth or eighth grade, the BLS reported. To earn the appropriate license and certification in your state, you may need to pass teaching tests and possibly subject area tests as well as holding a bachelor’s degree and having student teaching experience.
Elementary school teachers earn a median salary of $53,400 per year, according to the BLS. Often, they also get a two-month summer break plus time off during the winter and spring holidays. As a whole, teacher is one of the top 10 highest paying careers in education.
The occupation is seeing average growth, with the BLS predicting a 12 percent increase in job opportunities for elementary school teachers over just 10 years. Factors like the summer break and the rewarding nature of working with young children led U.S. News & World Report to rank elementary school teacher 3rd among the Best Social Services Jobs and 39th on its 100 Best Jobs list.


Music Education: History in Songs of the October Revolution Song
No matter how belated curses are sent to Lenin and the Bolsheviks, no matter how rampant demonic, satanic forces the October Revolution is declared by some pseudo-historians, the book of the American journalist John Reed is nevertheless named as precisely as possible – “Ten days that shook the world.” It is the world, and not only Russia. And the songs were sung by others – draft, marching, and not decadently tearful or romantically languid.
“I RAISED THE DUBIN AT ITS ENEMIES!” One of such things, as if anticipating, blessing and historically anticipating the social revolution that took place, of course, was Dubinushka. Fyodor Chaliapin himself did not disdain to perform the songs of the October Revolution, for which, in fact, he suffered – the greatest order of Emperor Nicholas II was ordered to “remove the tramp from the imperial theaters.” The poet V. Mayakovsky then writes: “Both the song and the verse are a bomb and a banner.” So, Dubinushka became such a bomb song. Refined aesthetes frowned and hurriedly muffled their ears – just like once venerable academics squeamishly turned away from I. Repin’s painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga”. By the way, the song also speaks of them, the still silent, formidable Russian protest starts from them, which later turned into two revolutions with a small interval.
Here is this great song performed by Chaliapin:
LIKE BUT NOT ONE FACE! The stylistics and lexical structure of the songs of the October Revolution have a number of characteristic features that make them recognizable: at the thematic level – the desire for immediate active action, which is expressed by the verbs of imperative mood: “build”, “let’s go”, “get stronger”, “fly”, etc. ; the frequent use of the common “we” instead of the narrowly personal “I” is already in the first lines of popular songs: “We’ll boldly go to battle”, “Boldly, comrades, keep up”, “we all left the people”, “Our engine, fly forward ” etc.; a set of ideological stamps characteristic of this transitional period: “labor is the ruler of the world”, the dawn of a new life, the “calloused hand” of the proletariat, “the last, mortal battle”, the strength of the fighting spirit, the “kingdom of freedom”, the desire to fan the “world fire” and etc .; sharp ideological demarcation between “ours” and “strangers”, “ours” and “not ours”: “white army, black baron” – “The Red Army is stronger than all”; energetic, marching, marching rhythm with a meaningful, easily remembered chorus; finally, maximalism, expressed in the willingness to die as one in the struggle for a just cause.
AND WRITTEN AND WRITTEN … The song “The White Army, the Black Baron”, written in hot pursuit of the October Revolution by the poet P. Grigoriev and composer S. Pokrass, first contained a mention of Trotsky, which then disappeared for censorship reasons, and in 1941 it was already modified with the name Stalin. It was popular in Spain and Hungary, it was hated by white emigrants: WITHOUT GERMANS it was not dispensed … The story of the song “Young Guard” is interesting, the verses of which are attributed to the Komsomol poet A. Bezymensky: In reality, Bezymensky was only a translator and not inconsiderate interpreter of the original German text of the poet Julius Mozen in a later version of another German – A. Ayldermann.


Reading to Learn South Africa
The Reading to Learn (RtL) programme for teaching reading and writing has been developed in a long term
action research project with teachers in Australia at all levels of education, from early primary through to secondary and tertiary study, across curriculum areas.
The methodology has been developed in response to current urgent needs, particularly of marginalised learners, to rapidly improve reading and writing for educational access and success.
To this end it draws on the theories of Vygotsky of learning as social process; Halliday’s model of language as text in social context, and Bernstein’s model of education as pedagogic discourse.
These theoretical foundations are integrated in a set of teaching strategies that are optimally practical in diverse classroom settings, and accessible for teachers to acquire and use as part of their ordinary practice in their grade or curriculum area.
The strategies have been independently evaluated as four times as effective as other literacy approaches at accelerating reading and writing development, capable of improving learners’reading ability from junior primary to secondary levels within one year (McCrae et al 2000). They are currently being applied in primary, secondary and tertiary contexts in Australia, Indonesia, Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Uganda,) Afghanistan, Sweden and other parts of Europe, Asia and Latin America, with learners from a wide spectrum of language, cultural and educational backgrounds.
Reading levels in South African schools
Read about the 2016 PIRLS results here
The problems facing literacy teaching in our schools has been well documented over the last 15 years by annual assessments and a host of research studies. The most powerful illustration of the cumulative effects of low academic literacy levels are illustrated by the Higher Education South Africa national benchmark tests in 2009 of 12,202 first year university students across South Africa - the best products of the schooling system. Students were measured across three levels: proficient level - able to cope with mainstream programmes without support; intermediate level - would need extra support; and at basic level - serious learning problems needing extensive support. It was found that 48% performed at the intermediate level and a further 7% were at the lower basic level. When one considers that 41% of the intermediate level students were in the bottom half of the range, then the seriousness of the problem is clear.
Criteria for Effective Intervention
To intervene effectively in this situation, a literacy programme must be based on:
1. an understanding that reading is the primary skill for academic success in all learning areas, without which students will not be able to write effectively;
2. a sound understanding of the reading process and a methodology that is based on, and supports learners through the reading process;
3. a sound understanding of the structure and language patterns of different genres across the curriculum which is incorporated into the teaching process
Such a methodology must be able to be used:
1. to intervene at all levels of the education system,
2. to enable those learners who have inadequate reading levels to develop their reading to appropriate levels;
3. and to enable learners to read and write all genres effectively in all learning areas.
Relevance to the South African Context
Linking back to the criteria for effective intervention, RtL would be appropriate in the South African context for the following reasons:
It is theoretically sound. It is based on a clear understanding of the reading process and on the way language works in texts to make meaning for different purposes across the curriculum. Secondly it provides a highly explicit and supportive teaching process, that which constantly affirms students and opens up their learning potential.
Lesson sequences and teacher-learner interactions are carefully planned to provide a high level of support for reading and writing texts of all kinds across the curriculum. The strategies provide underachieving students with maximum support as they develop the knowledge and language resources required to read and write texts independently.
The approach provides a pedagogy appropriate to learners in upper primary and high schools as well as Foundation Phase; is inclusive of students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds; is flexible and adaptable; and is supportive of different levels of literacy development, including reading, writing, spelling, punctuation and grammar.
It is not expensive and is not dependent on expensive and extensive material support. The only essential requirement for its implementation is that teachers have access to a photocopier to provide learners with copies of the texts to work with.
Finally, and most importantly, the structured nature of the programme and the clear step-by-step process makes it accessible to teachers. This, coupled with the extensive training and material support, enables teachers to internalise the methodology and gain confidence and skills in an ordered and methodical manner.


1994-1998 – We propose a nationwide dissemination program for the publication “Using Live Insects in the Elementary Classroom for Early Lessons in Life.” This publication consists of 20 lesson plans for teachers at the K-3 level. Each lesson plan has a health-related topic and fosters a scientific approach to problem-solving. The lessons utilize a whole-language format hands-on experiences brainstorming and discussion to foster inquiry and discovery. The method for developing the lessons involved a partnership between university scientists and elementary-school teachers. Teachers provided input of what works best in the classroom. Scientists provided ideas as to what kinds of projects with insects would be feasible. The scientist-teacher teams that designed the lessons adopted as their guide the State Essential Skills in Health and Science of several states. In so doing they created lessons that address the essential skills within health and science and which fit naturally into teachers curricula. The use of the scientific method is at the heart of every lesson ranging from observation and conjecture at the kindergarten level to experimenting and compiling data in the higher grades. By performing science or science- related activities students acquire a keener understanding of the health topics of each lesson and learn clearly and directly what science is and how to use it in their lives. Teachers who have used the lesson plans in the classroom have found that they are effective and useful. The evaluation showed a significant increase in the number of teachers who felt confident about teaching science in the elementary classroom and 80% of the teachers said that they would continue to use the lesson plans to teach science process. Our objectives for the present proposal are to: Disseminate the lesson plans nationwide. Using a targeted program of Leadership Institutes in 36 states and workshops at the annual National Science Teachers Association meetings we will train about 1200 teachers in the use of the lessons. Perform a path-referenced evaluation of the lesson plans and the dissemination methods Complete a translation and formative essay evaluation of the Spanish version 1991-1994 – This proposal is the first part (Materials Development) of a four part elementary education initiative using insects in the classroom. The project at hand is complete and distinct in its own right. The health related curricular materials developed in this project will be disseminated through the network and training activities. “Using Insects in Elementary Classrooms for Early Lessons in Life” will develop 20 sets of health lessons and activities for students in grades K-3; hold workshops for teachers using the materials; test the lessons and activities in classrooms; and make refinements based on teacher evaluations. In each lesson insects will be studied to learn important concepts of human growth or well being. Living insects were chosen as a vehicle because children seem to have an innate fascination for and curiosity about them. Insects are available inexpensive and many require little maintenance. As a focus of enthusiasm and interest insects will permit teachers to introduce topics that otherwise could be delicate or embarrassing. With insects such topics will arise naturally. To make the materials exciting and attractive each health lesson topic will have hands-on science activities. Children will have opportunities to apply basic skills to interdisciplinary activities while making observations. Basic skills and interdisciplinary tie-ins will appeal to a strength or interest of every pupil. This SEPA project will establish new interactive partnerships of classroom teachers and scientists to develop ideas on specific health topics and to develop complete lesson plans materials lists student data worksheets and closure activities for summarizing the lessons. The final draft lessons will be tested by 191 classrooms: 131 in the area of the University of Arizona. National dissemination will begin by testing the lessons in 60 classrooms in three school districts in Missouri Massachusetts and Mississippi. These sites will become the foci for future national training and dissemination. By blending health and life skills lessons with science activities this project will channel children’s natural curiosity for insects towards expectations of how they can become optimum adult humans. Having a living model to which children can relate will help them remember important health facts in a positive way. One of the side benefits of these insect science activities is prolonging students’ dreams of science careers. In a decade when science careers are decreasing more healthy students considering science careers through their elementary years will have important consequences for American science and technology. Most of the project will center around the University of Arizona. The project staff and main team of scientists and teachers will operate out of the Center for Insect Science at the university. A second small team will operate in the area of the University of Massachusetts.


The beginning of 2020 has seen millions of lives turned upside down due to the global outbreak of COVID-19. Educational institutions across 192 countries have temporarily shut their doors, with closures affecting over 91% of enrolled students, according to UNESCO.
As more and more children are being forced to stay home from school, the risk of students becoming disengaged from or deprived entirely of their education is higher than ever. Here are a few reasons why reading is a past-time that we should be actively supporting during this tumultuous moment in history.
The brain is a muscle that needs strengthening to further its development. Reading is a simple way to help keep students’ minds stimulated and focused during the global upheaval that has created many barriers to education. Not only does reading feed students’ intellect and curiosity towards literacy, but it also aids the development of crucial skills such as analytical thinking, creativity, and comprehension. These are important factors in helping students remain in touch with their learning until formal education systems make a full recovery. Reading fosters literacy, and literacy changes lives.
According to studies conducted by the Journal of College Teaching and Learning, 30 minutes of reading can help to lower one’s heart rate and blood pressure, as well as reducing psychological distress.
Reading affords us the ability to project ourselves into the lives of others and sink into alternative realities. Whether this is the whimsical lands of Roald Dahl’s fiction or a biographical memoir, the act of reading can transport us to new dimensions. This process can help to mitigate feelings of isolation and estrangement which are particularly present during this time of social distancing.
What Larger Challenges Are Being Faced?
While COVID-19 is impacting students in both developed and developing countries, it is critical that we are aware of vulnerable and disadvantaged students. Due to socio-economic challenges, some students are not able to access necessary technological, educational, or financial resources. On top of this, students already facing disadvantages in other areas are those who are least likely to return to schools once their doors reopen, which will only fuel the cycle of socio-economic hardship. This is precisely why international literacy development is needed now more than ever.
By encouraging reading among students who have the opportunity to do so, and focusing on providing educational support to those who don’t, we can take small, yet impactful, steps towards combatting illiteracy during this challenging time.
Find out how what the World Literacy Foundation is doing to help. Take a look at the new digital learning content on the Sun Books tablets focuses on preventative health to quickly upskill children in knowledge about the coronavirus.
The Sun Books team is also encouraging teachers and parents to use the tablets at home and in their communities to keep children learning and reading with the over 400 eBooks and educational activates available on the app without internet required.


Available Curricula for VEX V5
Coding and Computational Thinking with VEX V5
This curriculum provides a structured sequence of programming activities in real-world project-based contexts. The projects are designed to get students thinking about the patterns and structure of not just robotics, but also programming and problem-solving more generally. This curriculum includes videos, animations, and step-by-step lessons designed to help learners foster Computational Thinking using the VEX V5 hardware and VEXcode programming software
Mechanical Foundations with VEX V5
Mechanical Foundations focuses on mechanical concepts such as structural design, weight distribution, drivetrains, fastening, the relationship between speed and torque, and alternate methods of transferring motion such as linear slides and belts and pulleys. This curriculum familiarizes students with the foundational skills needed to understand how components come together and different use cases for creating motion.
Available Curricula for VEX IQ
Introduction to Programming VEX IQ
The Introduction to Programming the VEX IQ Curriculum features lesson for the VEX IQ Microcontroller; the curriculum’s focus is to teach beginning programmers how to program using ROBOTC’s graphical programming environment. All of the challenges in the curriculum have are available in the Robot Virtual World simulation environment. The majority of the challenges found in this curriculum is simulated in the Robot Virtual World Curriculum Challenge Pack.
ROBOTC Intermediate Programming for VEX IQ
The ROBOTC Intermediate Programming for VEX IQ includes programming lessons for text-based ROBOTC, engineering challenges, step-by-step videos, support material, and more. The majority of the challenges found in this curriculum is simulated in the Robot Virtual World Curriculum Challenge Pack.
Available Curricula for VEX EDR (Legacy)
VEX Cortex Video Trainer using ROBOTC
The VEX Cortex Video Trainer is a multimedia-rich curriculum featuring lessons for the VEX Cortex Microcontroller; the curriculum’s focus is to teach how to program, but it also includes multi-faceted engineering challenges, step-by-step videos, and robotics engineering teacher support materials. The majority of the challenges found in the Cortex Video trainer have been simulated in the Robot Virtual World Curriculum Companion.
VEX PIC Curriculum 2.0 (Legacy)
The VEX 2.0 curriculum was developed for the VEX PIC hardware platform. It is no longer available as a product, but many teachers like many of the lessons that are found with this VEX curriculum. Click on ‘More Information’ button to preview the full curriculum.


At a June 23 press conference, Ontario Premier Doug Ford discussed additional measures to help cope with the ongoing COVID-19 crisis and the Ontario government announced that it released the province’s new elementary math curriculum.
Over the course of two years, the curriculum was developed in consultation with parents, math educators, academics and math education experts.
It is designed to reverse a decade of declining math scores and will be available to students across the province beginning in September 2020.
Details were released today by Premier Doug Ford, Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health, and Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education.
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“I made a promise to parents that we would fix the broken education system we inherited, get back to basics, and teach our children the math fundamentals they need for lifelong success,” said Premier Ford.
“Today, our government is delivering on that promise with the first-ever math curriculum in Canada for Grades 1-8 that includes the teaching of coding and financial literacy, both critical skills that will help our students prepare for and succeed in the modern world and in the modern workforce.”
The new math curriculum for Grades 1-8 will build understanding of the value and use of money through mandatory financial literacy concepts, teach coding or computer programming skills starting in Grade 1 to improve problem-solving and fluency with technology, prepare students for jobs of the future and use relevant, current and practical examples so students can connect math to everyday life.
“For over a decade, too many students were lacking everyday math, financial literacy, and numeracy skills,” said Minister Lecce.
“The new curriculum will help students solve everyday math problems, enshrine financial literacy in the early grades, and better prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow by ensuring every student learns how to code.”
The Ministry of Education is also changing how it makes the curriculum available to better reflect how Ontario residents consume information.
Additionally, the new math curriculum will be the first uploaded to the new Curriculum and Resources website, a digital space where anyone can access curriculum and learning resources.
This platform will also help parents, students and teachers see connections between learning in different grades and subjects.
“Our research team provided an extensive background research report giving the Ministry of Education the most up-to-date research and analysis of other curricula,” said Dr. Christine Suurtamm, Vice Dean Research, and Professor of Mathematics Education, Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa.
“Ontario’s new mathematics curriculum builds on what we know about student learning and how students develop an understanding of mathematics. It supports all students to be math learners with opportunities to learn foundational mathematics and engage in current topics. The goal is to support how students use math in the world today, and how they will use math to make informed decisions in the world ahead of them.”


Do you have a budding artist at home? Does your child sing into a hairbrush, put on shows in the living room, or spend hours editing footage he or she filmed on a cell phone?
Topics: summer, lower school, elementary school, fine arts, musical, Middle School, arts camp, 2019, summer camp, pine crest school, music, music education, art, digital media production, music lessons
The Fine Arts play a pivotal role in Pine Crest School tradition. Each year, Pine Crest student-artists on both campuses and in all three Divisions — Lower, Middle, and Upper School — present a musical theater production. Last week, Pine Crest Upper School Panthers will transform into the East High School Wildcats in their production of Disney’s "High School Musical."


NQS (National Quality Standard)
K P Statement
The Kindergarten and Pre-primary Statement sets out the expectations for the development of high quality Early Childhood learning and teaching environments in Western Australia.
All Western Australian children have a fundamental right to high quality early childhood programs in Kindergarten and Pre-primary.
Kindergarten and Pre-primary programs assist in the development of competent, confident and creative learners who grow to become responsible citizens. Children have a fundamental right to access high quality programs, environments and pedagogical practices that acknowledge and respond to each child's uniqueness in the way they develop, grow and learn.
High quality early childhood programs for Kindergarten and Pre-primary in Western Australia are informed by National Frameworks tailored to community contexts.
Educators use the Early Years Learning Framework, the Australian Curriculum and their own professional knowledge to develop high quality early childhood programs that are aligned with whole school plans and initiatives and tailored to community contexts. These programs take advantage of relevant research evidence and are refined and enhanced through reflection, analysis of data and ongoing professional learning. Educators have high expectations for all children's learning and demonstrate understanding of content and pedagogy of the Early Years Learning Framework and the Australian Curriculum, and the relationship between these documents.
Kindergarten and Pre-primary children continue to develop effective learning and life skills through high quality early childhood learning, teaching and assessment practices.
Children in these years continue to build foundations of effective communication (including Information Technologies), literacy and numeracy and are introduced to key ideas and concepts of other learning areas. Building effective learning and life skills require cognitive skill and strategies, social and emotional competence, cultural competence, physical and personal development and creativity to be addressed.
High quality programs complement and motivate children's natural curiosity, sense of fun and zest for learning. Educators provide opportunities for children to learn through an orchestrated balance of play, deliberate and intentional teaching and spontaneous experiences and interactions. Curriculum experiences are active, engaging, challenging and connected to children's lives. Children are encouraged to make decisions and take risks in learning, show initiative, make choices, reflect, problem solve and persist. Kindergarten and Pre-primary indoor, outdoor and temporal environments are used to enrich learning and reflect effective early childhood pedagogy for children of this age.
Educators' knowledge and ongoing assessment of each child's achievements, interests and dispositions are used to build on children's learning. They use assessment data to differentiate the curriculum to provide equitable learning outcomes for all children. Learning intentions are made clear to learners and educators encourage children to reflect on their learning and ways to improve. Educators monitor and evaluate children's learning, develop programs and, if required, access appropriate support to help individual children achieve their potential.
Kindergarten and Pre-primary children have a positive sense of identity and wellbeing.
For children to build a positive sense of identity, considerations of belonging, being and becoming are evident in programs. Educators support children to build respectful, reciprocal relationships that promote a strong sense of social and emotional wellbeing and assist them in working productively with others. Wellbeing is sustained through effective transition processes that support children in moving from home and children's services to Kindergarten and Pre-primary and the wider school community.
Collaborative partnerships and effective relationships in Kindergarten and Pre-primary make significant contributions to children's learning and development.
Educators acknowledge parents as children's first educators and involve families in supporting children's learning and contributing to the program. In Kindergarten and Pre-primary, collaboration and participation are important elements in sustaining parental involvement in children's learning. Effective partnerships with stakeholders that support children's learning and development are built on common goals and expectations, clear communication and mutual respect.


- While we hope that most students have mastered basic decoding skills by grade three, some students will need additional support. The purpose of this guide is to provide resources for you to assess and differentiate for students’ needs in phonics, sight word recognition, fluency, and phonemic awareness. This will help students to meet the foundational standards in the Common Core, to meet reading standard 10 (independently read complex text at grade level), and most importantly, to become successful readers and scholars. The primary goal of the instructional activities in this guide is to support students in developing proficiency and automaticity with decoding skills. Decoding (reading) and encoding (writing) are closely related skills, and the activities in this guide address both. Because of the pivotal and primary role reading plays in academic success, you will want to pay particularly close attention to students’ proficiency with decoding and fluency.
As a teacher of students in third grade or beyond, you won’t want to provide whole-class phonics instruction – though more advanced word study such as word analysis should be a part of your curriculum. Rather, you’ll want to identify the needs of individual students and meet those needs through small group and individual instruction. This is because many of your students will already have mastered the phonics skills they need.
- Education, Elementary Education, English Language Arts, Reading Foundation Skills
- Upper Primary
- Grade 3, Grade 4, Grade 5
- Material Type:
- Lesson, Module, Unit of Study
- Daniel Ervin
- Date Added:
- Creative Commons Attribution
- Media Format:
- Downloadable docs, Text/HTML
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Among 262 Chinese children, syllable awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) at age 5 years and invented spelling of Pinyin at age 6 years independently predicted subsequent Chinese character recognition and English word reading at ages 8 years and 10 years, even with initial Chinese character reading ability statistically controlled. In addition, reading fluency in Chinese was predicted by RAN but not by phonological sensitivity, whereas Chinese dictation was uniquely predicted by phonological sensitivity but not by RAN. Finally, vocabulary knowledge emerged as a unique developmental predictor of all Chinese literacy skills tested. Findings underscore the importance of both early phonological awareness and RAN for literacy development in Chinese as a first language and English as a second language over time and suggest some differences in patterns of literacy acquisition for Chinese, compared with more regular alphabetic orthographies. Copyright © 2011 American Psychological Association.
CitationPan, J., McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., Liu, H., Zhang, Y., & Li, H. (2011). What is in the naming? A 5-year longitudinal study of early rapid naming and phonological sensitivity in relation to subsequent reading skills in both native Chinese and English as a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(4), 897-908. doi: 10.1037/a0024344
- Rapid naming
- Phonological sensitivity
- Chinese children


We’ve seen a societal shift and emphasis on the education of young children. Research tells us that if we can ensure that children learn the foundational skills needed for kindergarten, they are more likely to succeed throughout their lifetime. It is well established that young children need a strong focus on cognitive development, along with attention to their social/emotional development, to reach their maximum developmental potential. Technology is playing a key role in this process. Experts confirm that preschool and pre-kindergarten age children are developmentally ready and able to benefit from instruction with technology. It is now known to have a major, positive impact on social, emotional, language, and cognitive development. That’s where we come in!
For over 30 years, Hatch has been the leading provider of developmentally appropriate technology solutions for early childhood classrooms across the country. It is our goal to provide solutions that allow technology to be a solution in the classroom that builds foundational skills and act as a bridge between the classroom and the home - the teacher and the parent.
Hatch’s Product Innovation team spearheads the research basis for our powerful set of products designed to prepare children to be ready and successful in school. From this research, Hatch has cultivated a solid set of multi-dimensional and interconnected design principles on which the Hatch Innovative Product line is built.
To ensure the games included in Ignite by Hatch® are meaningful to teachers, a field test was conducted with 40 teachers and more than 500 children across three programs, and eight sites. An assessment that is valid in content should sufficiently examine all aspects that define the objective. This paper focuses on field test teachers views on the alignment of Ignite game content to developmentally appropriate expectations for children 28 months through 5 years old.
TeachSmart is an interactive, hands-on tool which enables early childhood teachers to plan for playful and purposeful activities for children. An independent observational study conducted in 2010 shows that TeachSmart’s interactive software can greatly increase school readiness skills and dramatically reduce the number of children who are underprepared for kindergarten. The children in the study made significant gains in the areas of early literacy, print knowledge, phonological awareness, emergent writing and mathematics skills such as counting, operations and shapes. At the beginning of the study, only 46% of children were ready to learn to read and 72% were ready to learn math. TeachSmart Efficacy Study TeachSmart® Research Basis TeachSmart® ELL Research Basis State Correlations Head Start Alignment TeachSmart® ELL Correlations CoreFocus Research Basis Common Core Alignment
The WePlaySmart® by Hatch is a multi-touch table designed to develop social-emotional skills as two or more children work together on fun activities. A recent study was conducted to determine whether preschoolers could and would exhibit cooperation and collaboration when playing in small groups on a multi-touch table with interactive games. With six game types of Uncover, Sort, Find, Vote, Turns and Connect, children are presented with information in a large variety of conceptual and cognitive formats to encourage symbolic thought and reasoning. As these interactions occur with peers, children practice thinking about (considering and appropriately reacting to) the viewpoints of their peers.
The goal of curriculum alignment is to align instruction and assessment practices to ensure that all children are presented with opportunities for learning across content areas and developmental domains (and appropriately reacting to) the viewpoints of their peers. See how the real results of Hatch technology can benefit your organization’s specific curriculum and goals.
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Reading and writing are two facets of literacy. To make learning to read and write easier, we might want to break literacy down and teach just reading or just writing at any one time. Yet, a particular effective way to develop literacy skills is actually to combine reading and writing into one activity.
When reading and writing are combined, a child learns about the link between reading and writing, as well as to read and to write. This is one of the important foundational basics of literacy development.
An example of a game that involves both reading and writing is ‘guided inventive spelling’. In guided inventive spelling, the child is encouraged to try to write out words, without first having seen them written out or heard them spelled out. For example, a caregiver can show a child an object or picture and the child can write down the word as she imagines it is written. Then, the caregiver reads out the word the child wrote, whether it is correct or not. This way of learning to read and write focuses on the link between reading and writing, and sounds and letters. It lessens pressure a child can feel about spelling a word correctly. Importantly, it makes learning into a game!
You can try to incorporate guided invented spelling into everyday activities like cooking and bath time. A child can spell out kitchen related words with magnetic letters on a fridge or bath related words with foam bath letters. There is no need to do a formal sit down learning session! This makes caregiving just a little demanding for the caregiver, and learning a lot more fun for a child!
The scientific sources for our comic:
Sénéchal, M., Ouellette, G., Pagan, S., & Lever, R. (2012). The role of invented spelling on learning to read in low-phoneme awareness kindergartners: A randomized-control-trial study. Reading and writing, 25(4), 917-934.


What skills are needed for a good career? We're not getting them at school. Photograph: photos.com
A report published by the organisation which represents the leading Western economies, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), has suggested that the gap between school and work is increasing, with more and more young people leaving education without basic literacy and numeracy skills, and with little or no experience of the world of work.
The result of this is the the creation of a generation of young people excluded from career and life opportunities, and whose prospects are, at best, limited to a succession of low-paid jobs.
Combining data from surveys, international comparison tests and labour market statistics, the OECDs Skills Outlook 2015 offers the most up-to-date analysis of the skill level and employment prospects of 16-29-year-olds across its 34 member states.
Worryingly, more than 35 million young people across the OECD countries are classed as NEETs, not in employment, in education or training. Currently, in England, more than 130,000 16-to-18 year olds are not in education, employment or training, with one in eight young people being classified as NEETs, the lowest proportion in a decade.
According to the report, across the OECD countries, 10% of new graduates have poor literacy skills and 14% have poor numeracy skills. Among young people who left school without finishing college education, 40% have poor literacy and numeracy.
Britain’s low-skilled young people face the highest barriers to entering the workforce compared with their peers in other industrialised countries, because we've an even higher lack of employable skills which sees them shut out of the labour market. NEETs in the UK lagged far behind the rest of their age group in terms of literacy and problem solving, with the combined gap being the worst among the countries surveyed by the OECD.
In tackling poor skills, the report recommends that policymakers concentrate on helping NEETs to re-engage with education or the labour market. The report found that few school-leavers have experience of a working environment, while even for those on vocational education programmes, fewer than half were involved in work-based learning.
This has meant that young people are having trouble finding work, while employers are dissatisfied with the work-readiness of those who do get a job. Even for those who do manage to find a job, one in four are on temporary contracts, meaning that they are less likely to be developing their skills than those in permanent positions.
In this way, employers are advised to work with the education sector to design qualifications that both reflect graduate skills and respond to what businesses need.
The OECD’s remedy also includes greater efforts in identifying low achievers, to ensure fewer young people leave education lacking basic skills. They suggest that pre-primary education needs to help all children so they can mitigate disparities in education outcomes and to give every child a strong start to their education careers.
Teachers and school leavers can also identify low achievers early on to provide them with support or special programmes to help them attain sufficient skills and prevent them from dropping out of school.
Successive UK governments have sought to solve the problem by requiring young people in England to receive some form of education or training between 16 to 18, which took effect last year.
The OECD was also critical of the abilities of British young people who went on to higher education - with the skills of young British graduates lower than other countries including cognitive and numeracy skills.