- Training And Orientation of target groups
- Academic And Resources Support to the elementry and education system
- Action Research & Experimentation
Acts & Rules
Universalisation of Elementary Education has been one of the most important and basics goals of educational development in India since Independence. Part IV of the Indian Constitution lays down the Directive Principles of State Policy. Article 41, under this Part says that “the State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to….education…” Article 45, under this Part deals with “provision for free and compulsory education for children”.
In May, 1986, Parliament adopted a new National Policy on Education (NPE) and in August 1986, approved a detailed Program of Action (POA) for its implementation. The NPE states the goals of universalisation of elementary education and of eradication of illiteracy.
About Teachers, the Education Commission (1964-66) had observed that “of all the factors that influence the quality of education……the quality, competence and character of teachers are undoubtedly are most significant”. But these in turn depend substantially on the quality of training and other support provided to them. Until the adoption of NPE, this support in the area of elementary education was being provided largely at the national and state levels only- by institutions like NCERT, NIEPA and SCERTs. By the time of adoption of NPE, elementary education system was already too vast to be adequately supported by national and state levels agencies alone. Provision of support to them in a decentralized manner had therefore become imperative. The NPE and POA accordingly envisaged addition of a third, i.e. district level support in the shape of District Institute of Education and Training (DIET). With this, expectation would be of wider quantitative coverage as well as qualitatively better support as these institutes would be closer to the field and therefore more alive to its problems and needs.
Pursuant to the provision of NPE on Teacher Education, a centrally sponsored scheme of restructuring and reorganization of teacher education was approved in October 1987. One of the five components of the scheme was establishment of DIETs.
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Functions of DIET


Most children begin learning phonics by sounding out letters and learning what items represent that sound and that letter, i.e. A is for apple; A sounds like “aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. Children begin learning phonics from parents, siblings, videos, and music at a very early age (2-4 years old) even before entering school.
Phonics and phonemic awareness are comingled when teaching children in this manner. Phonics involves the relationship between sounds and written symbols, whereas phonemic awareness involves sounds in spoken words. Therefore, phonics instruction focuses on teaching sound-spelling relationships and is associated with print. Most phonemic awareness tasks are oral.
Even though parents are the initial teachers, it will take a professional to instill all of the rules of phonics and to teach students decoding skills as they begin to read. Hiring a tutor with experience teaching early learners will ensure a student’s success as they begin elementary school. A professional tutor can also reinforce phonics for those students that were taught the Whole Language approach to reading and are still struggling in 2nd and 3rd grades. Hiring an Advanced Learners tutor is a guarantee that you will receive a professional tutor that can make a difference in a child’s ability to read.
Our Tutoring Service
We believe that one-on-one, personalized, in-home instruction is the most effective way for students to focus on academic improvement and build confidence. We know that finding you the best tutor means more that just sending a qualified teacher into your home. We provide our clients access to the largest selection of highly qualified and fully screened professional tutors in the country. We believe that tutoring is most effective when the academic needs of the student are clearly defined. Our purpose is to help you clarify those needs, set academic goals, and meet those goals as quickly and effectively as possible. Using a tutor should be a positive experience that results in higher achievement and higher self-confidence for every learner.


The relationship between instrumental music instruction and academic achievement in fourth-grade students
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between academic achievement in elementary school children participating in an instrumental music program (band or orchestra) to those children not participating in an instrumental music program. While research in this area has suggested a positive correlation between exposure to music and cognitive abilities (spatial, temporal, mathematical, language abilities), it is yet to be determined if learning to play a musical instrument is related to academic achievement. Seventy, fourth grade children enrolled in regular classroom settings were evaluated in spelling achievement, arithmetic achievement and phonemic awareness in the beginning of the school year (prior to the introduction of instrumental instruction) and reevaluated nine months later, at the end of the school year. Additionally, a short-questionnaire was given to each child. All participants were from a suburban, public elementary school. The comparison groups are: children studying an instrument prior to the introduction of band and orchestra in fourth grade (Group A), children just beginning the study of an instrument (Group B), and children with no experience in instrumental instruction (Group C). For all three groups, the academic achievement scores obtained in the beginning of the year were compared to the academic achievement scores obtained at the end of the school year. Spelling and mathematical achievement were assessed using the Wide Range Achievement Test-III. Tests of phonemic awareness were administered using the Word Identification and Word Attack subtests from the Woodcock Johnson Test of Achievement. While both the experimental groups and the control group were expected to show gains after one year across all dependent variables, it was hypothesized that those children participating in an instrumental music program would show significantly greater gains: (a) on a test of spelling achievement, (b) on a test of mathematical achievement, and (c) on a test of word identification, and (d) on a test of phonemic awareness, than those children not participating in an instrumental program. It was further hypothesized that those children studying an instrument for greater than one school year would demonstrate greater gains across spelling, math, word identification, and phonemic awareness than those children with only one year of experience or no experience. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Educational psychology|Music education
Haley, Jennifer Anne, "The relationship between instrumental music instruction and academic achievement in fourth-grade students" (2001). ETD Collection for Pace University. AAI3026550.
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Лучшая цена на sarah tantillo literacy and the common core recipes for action
The Developing Core Literacy Proficiencies program is an integrated set of English Language Arts/Literacy units spanning grades 6-12 that provide student-centered instruction on a set of literacy proficiencies at the heart of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Reading Closely for Textual Details Making Evidence-Based Claims Making Evidence-Based Claims about Literary Technique (Grades 9-12) Researching to Deepen Understanding Building Evidence-Based Arguments The program approaches literacy through the development of knowledge, literacy skills, and academic habits. Throughout the activities, students develop their literacy along these three paths in an integrated, engaging, and empowering way. Knowledge: The texts and topics students encounter in the program have been carefully selected to expose them to rich and varied ideas and perspectives of cultural significance. These texts not only equip students with key ideas for participating knowledgeably in the important discussions of our time, but also contain the complexity of expression necessary for developing college- and career-ready literacy skills. Literacy Skills: The program articulates and targets instruction and assessment on twenty CCSS-aligned literacy skills ranging from “making inferences” to “reflecting critically.” Students focus on this set of twenty skills throughout the year and program, continually applying them in new and more sophisticated ways. Academic Habits: The program articulates twelve academic habits for students to develop, apply, and extend as they progress through the sequence of instruction. Instructional notes allow teachers to introduce and discuss academic habits such as “preparing” and “completing tasks” that are essential to students’ success in the classroom. The program materials include a comprehensive set of instructional sequences, teacher notes, handouts, assessments, rubrics, and graphic organizers designed to support students with a diversity of educational experiences and needs. The integrated assessment system, centered around the literacy skills and academic habits, allows for the coherent evaluation of student literacy development over the course of the year and vertically across all grade levels.


What exactly is meant by the phrase “labeling children”? To label a child is to say that a child that has a history of behavioral issues is “bad.” You can also label a child as “good”, “athletic”, “shy”, etc. Labeling is such a harmful thing when a child is constantly hearing how bad they are, they begin to feel that everything they do is bad and bad is all that they will ever be. On the flip side, in some situations, labeling a child while speaking to another teacher or adult can be helpful in getting that child the help they need. Children are often labeled to help teachers and parents make sense of the child’s behavior. (thebump.com) When teachers and parents label children, they make it difficult to show the child empathy. By labeling a strong willed child as “troublemaker” the child is assigned a personality trait instead of the adult trying to relate to the child’s struggle.
I chose this topic because as a student that is also working in the education system, I see both sides of the topic. As a student, I see how labels limit us and what we feel like we are able to accomplish. As an educator, I see how easy it is to write a student off as “bad,” or “a lost cause” because after so long, it becomes extremely difficult to help these kids see the potential they have.
Teachers are not the only ones causing harm by labeling. Many times children are bullied by their peers by being labeled with terms such as “weird”, and “dumb.” As of 2010, there were approximately 160,000 children that miss school everyday in fear of being bullied (psychologytoday.com). Labeling can very well be a form of bullying. Parents are also guilty of labeling their children. Many times, a parent with multiple children will label one as “the athlete”, another as “the musician”, or “the golden child”. Labels like that may be harmful to the children because the child labeled as “the athlete” may want to try playing an instrument, but there is already a “musician” in the family. Labels in the home can cause fighting and chaos.
Children are more than just a statistic. Many children are already looked at as just another number or statistic (empoweringparents.com). Labeling them makes them think a label or a statistic is all that they will ever become.
The most common phrase heard around schools and at home is “Oh, they are just a bad kid.” It’s not that these kids are “bad”. Not all children have families that can afford to live in a nice house, have new clothes, and all of the latest technology. There are children in local classrooms who do not get to eat three meals a day. Children who have learned not to be afraid of the dark because most of the time, the lights at home will not turn on. There are children in local classrooms who live in homes full of anger, abuse, and chaos. These children do not always have perfect manners. They are not always taught the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. These children come to school and act out seeking the slightest bit of attention, hoping that someone, anyone, will notice them and notice that something is wrong. They act out and are soon wrote off as “bad,” or “a lost cause” and they begin to think that is all they ever will be.
There is a solution to the problem of labeling these children. All they want is to feel the love from a mother or father figure, to feel the slightest bit of peace, but in school and at home, they are told how bad, worthless, and insignificant they are. As they grow older, they believe it, and begin to act out more and more, eventually becoming extremely angry and violent themselves. It is not that the child is bad, they just need someone to be willing to love them and teach them.
Kiersten Edmonds is a senior at Silsbee High School, as well as a high school helper in a local kindergarten class. She is passionate about youth ministry and teaching Sunday School. Kiersten loves to read, write, and travel and hopes to start doing more of it! She will start her first semester at Lamar University to get her bachelors in elementary education this coming fall!


Through a traditional Montessori education we are a community committed to establishing the intellectual, emotional, and physical foundation that will develop the skills for your child to become a self-directed learner, flexible thinker, creative problem solver, and support their ever-increasing curiosity about the world in which they live.
The Children’s House is child-centered within a nurturing environment where exceptional and experienced teachers support and guide each student with warmth and respect. Our single minded focus is to teach children the foundational skills they will need to succeed in each school they attend as well as in the larger context of their adult lives.
We invite you as parents to become active participants in our learning community. Whether you volunteer to help with class projects or on field trips, we welcome your commitment to your child’s education.
I look forward to welcoming you and your child at The Children’s House of Washington!
The Montessori method of teaching aims for the fullest possible development of the whole child, ultimately preparing him for life's many rich experiences. Complemented by her training in medicine, psychology and anthropology, Dr. Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952) developed her philosophy of education based upon actual observations of children.
Children pass through sensitive periods of development early in life. Dr. Montessori described the child's mind between the time of birth and six years of age as the "absorbent mind". It is during this stage that a child has a tremendous ability to learn and assimilate from the world around him, without conscious effort. During this time, children are particularly receptive to certain external stimuli. A Montessori teacher recognizes and takes advantage of these highly perceptive stages through the introduction of materials and activities, which are specially designed to stimulate the intellect.
Encouraged to focus her attention on one particular quality, the child works at her own optimum level – in an environment where beauty and orderliness are emphasized and appreciated. A spontaneous love of "work" is revealed as the child is given the freedom (within boundaries) to make her own choices.
Montessori teachers are trained facilitators in the classroom, always ready to assist and direct. Their purpose is to stimulate the child's enthusiasm for learning and to guide it, without interfering with the child's natural desire to teach himself and become independent. Each child works through his individual cycle of activities, and learns to truly understand according to his own unique needs and capabilities.
Everything in a Montessori classroom has a specific use or purpose. There is nothing in the prepared environment that the child cannot see or touch. All of the furniture and equipment is scaled down to the child's size and is within easy reach.
A quality Montessori classroom has a busy, productive atmosphere where joy and respect abound. Within such an enriched environment, freedom, responsibility, and social and intellectual development spontaneously flourish!
BEYOND THE CHILDREN'S HOUSE OF WASHINGTON
The Children’s House is proud that its graduates are accepted to schools in the Washington DC area and surrounding areas and transition to traditional classrooms with ease. We have been in Washington for 35 years, serving many local families, and building an admirable reputation. This is due to our wonderful Montessori program and the commitment of our staff to Dr. Montessori’s philosophies.
Disclaimer: the license was verified when this listing was created. We do our best to keep information up-to-date, but cannot guarantee that it is. You should verify the license status before enrolling in any child care program.


This program is designed to enhance language and fine motor skill development. The young child learns through play and in the process learns to cooperate, share and be part of a group. The safe atmosphere of our classroom allows the child to try new ideas, practice his skills and foster his sense of self-esteem and self-control. The teachers within these classes will help the child begin to develop good work habits, learn class rules and follow safety routines. The three year old will be taught through careful guidance, the appropriate techniques of problem solving and conflict resolution.
This program’s curriculum is planned to foster discovery, learning, and exploration. The child can choose to work among several centers of interest and to explore the content areas of math, science, language arts, dramatic play and creative art. Jewish content is integrated throughout all the centers of learning. The children are introduced to the letters of the alphabet, number relationships and the written language. They participate in calendar, journal writing, and large and small group teaching experiences.
Hebrew prayers and the study of traditions, rituals and holiday celebrations are interwoven throughout the child’s daily schedule. Jewish values and family involvement is stressed as part of the three year old program.


It’s hard not to open up the news these days–or reach out to your conservative cousin–and be filled with a paralyzing sense of horror and dread. People seem to be retreating ever further into their own little tribal groups. Republicans vs. Democrats; The 1% vs. Working People. And this is to say nothing of the cultural, ethnic, and racial segregation that seems to be getting more and more socially acceptable in certain corners of the world. What can one person with the desire to reach out and bridge divides do?
It might seem idealistic and even ridiculous to say, Pick up a guitar and strum a tune! But it’s not as purely romantic as you think: Jake Harwood, a professor of communications at the University of Arizona, conducted a study which he published in “Harmonious Contact: Stories About Intergroup Musical Collaboration Improve Intergroup Attitudes” in Journal of Communication, in which he found that music “produce[s] a humanizing effect for members of groups experiencing social and political opposition and that it “models diversity.” And you don’t even have to play the music yourself to benefit from these effects: merely listening to music that was produced by someone culturally different from you or that samples music from different cultures can “reduce negative feelings about outgroup members.”
But a feedback loop can arise: people who are more likely to already be open to diverse cultures will listen to more diverse music and therefore continue to open up; those who are not open, on the other hand, are not going to listen to culturally-expanding music in the first place.
So how do you “model diversity” and humanize those that are different for people who are especially closed off and narrow-minded? The National Association for Music Education (NAfME) has some ideas. First of all, start young. Music educator Jacqueline Kelly-McHale, writing for NAfME, has observed that a reliance on general music instruction that is “focused on placement of Western classical music as the highest form of musical experience, or on methods of teaching that grew out of European music education practices” is to blame for both the perpetuation of the superiority of Western traditions and culture as well as for the sense of isolation and alienation in immigrants, ELL students, and other “outgroup members.” If childhood music educators incorporate non-Western music into their curricula–not merely focusing on it for a day or two, bu really studying it and making it part of their syllabi–“ingroup” and “outgroup” members will learn about different values and ways of doing things and will even come to a mutual understanding.
While you’re not likely to be able to single-handedly completely change these practices as a concerned parent, you can certainly advocate for more diverse music education in your child’s classroom: talk to the teachers and administrators and the PTA; offer to come in yourself and teach for a special music day or days–or recommend someone else who can. Encourage a private music teacher for your children to broaden their repertoire of teachable songs. You can also make sure to listen to culturally diverse music styles at home. The University of Arizona study found that even musicians sampling non-traditional music styles, Paul Simon in Graceland most notably, help to open people up to cultural diversity. Does your conservative cousin love country music? Well what do they have to say about the fact that “pure country” music doesn’t really exist? That that genre borrows heavily from hip-hop, pop, EDM and blues? And that those genres, in turn, borrow from world music including Indian raga, South African instrumentation, Arabic music and Afro-Cuban beats?
So don’t use music to close yourself off; allow it to do what it does best: connect. Huib Schippers, writing for Smithsonian.com, laments the disappearance of “small musics” around the world at the hands of “Christian hymns, military band tunes and Western pop music.” He asserts that “This is the time for all of us who love, make or work in music to collaborate with communities across the world to empower them to forge musical futures on their own terms.” Indeed.


Tracing the roots of the piano to the very beginning of consciousness, when man first became aware of sound.
Pete Johnson (1904 – 1967): American Boogie-Woogie Pianist
Count Basie (1904 – 1984): American Jazz Pianist, Bandleader – 20th Century Period (Big Band/Swing Jazz)
Fats Waller (1904 – 1943): American Composer, Jazz Pianist, Organist, Singer, Bandleader – 20th century Period (Harlem Stride Jazz)
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904 – 1987): Russian Composer, Teacher – 20th Century Period
1905, Frances Clark
Frances Clark (1905 – 1998): American Piano Pedagogue
- AB degree from Kalamazoo College with graduate studies in music from University of Michigan, The Juilliard School, the Paris Conservatory, and the American Academy at Fontainebleau.
- Trained under Nadia Bulanger and Isidor Philipp in Paris, and Ernest Hutcheson and Guy Maier from Julliard.
- Started the first four-year piano pedagogy degree program in the United States at Kalamazoo College (Louise Gross was a student of the first class).
- Along with Louise Goss, Clark was director of piano and piano pedagogy program at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey.
- Co-founded (along with Louise Goss) The New School for Music Study in Princeton.
- Pioneer of group piano teaching. Wrote Questions and Answers (1992) describing her philosophical approaches to group piano lessons.
- The mission statement of The Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy reads in part “to extend the influence of her [Francis Clark] inclusive and revolutionary philosophy of music education at the keyboard.” [ 2 ]
- Kreader, Barbara. "In Memorium Frances Clark 1905 – 1998." Clavier Companion. The Piano Magazine Clavier Companion, Winter 1998. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
- Baker-Jordan, Martha, Dr. Practical Piano Pedagogy: The Definitive Text for Piano Teachers and Pedagogy Students. Warner Bros. Publications, 2003, 2004. Google Books. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Roosevelt Sykes (1906 – 1983): American Blues Pianist, Singer
Little Brother Montgomery (1906 – 1985): American Blues Pianist, Singer, Bandleader
Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 – 1975): Russian Composer, Pianist – 20th Century Period
Art Tatum, Jr. (1909 – 1956): American Jazz Pianist (Stride, Swing, Boogie-Woogie Jazz)
1910, S Stravinsky
Soulima Stravinsky (1910 – 1994): Swiss Composer, Classical Pianist (Son of Igor Stravinsky) – 20th Century period


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Fast ForWord Reading Level 5
Reading Comprehension & Critical Thinking
Fast ForWord Reading Level 5 works on advanced reading comprehension and vocabulary skills for students in middle and high school and for adults.
Fast ForWord Reading Level 5 was recently awarded a new patent for developing critical thinking skills as required by the Common Core State Standards. The program builds reading comprehension and vocabulary skills for all ages. It is often difficult to complete due to the complexity of content in the latter stages.
Fast ForWord Reading Level 5 has five exercises.
Students select the correct words or phrase to build a sentence that best describes a picture. This exercise helps develop reading accuracy and in recognizing the nuances of sentence structure.
Complete an analogy by identifying the missing word or words. Then read a completed analogy and sort it by the type of analogical relationship it demonstrates. This completing and then categorizing of analogies builds critical thinking and abstract reasoning skills.
Students are welcomed to Lana’s Lanes, a bovine bowling experience, where they learn reading comprehension strategies as they work with fiction and nonfiction passages that include a wide range of literary structures and devices.
This challenging exercise requires the re-ordering of multiple paragraph passages and demonstrating comprehension of the fiction and nonfiction passages. This exercise includes sentence completion, literal comprehension and inferential reading comprehension skill development.
Read a word, then sort it by one of the sounds it contains. Then listen to a word and sort it by the spelling pattern needed to correctly spell it. This builds the phonemic analysis required for the more complex words in our language, as well as spelling and decoding accuracy.
Prior to Fast ForWord Reading Level 5, students may have completed Fast ForWord Reading Level 4.


The development of literacy is a pressing concern for government, business communities, general public and educational professionals. Children who experience literacy challenges are at high risk for school failure in their youth and chronic unemployment and poor health in adulthood. Language abilities in earlier childhood predict beginning literacy skills such as phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and concepts about print and reading achievement. Retrospective studies offer enough evidence of the importance of oral language skills in reading achievement. This paper tries to explain how language abilities and deficiencies impact literacy development
Buy Language and Literacy Development essay paper online
Stone (2004) identified Oral language and phonological processing profiles of second grade readers as they were in kindergarten. The poor ones had three times phonological process weakness and up to four times oral language problem. This means that since they had poor language skills, they would not read well neither would their do any literacy work well given they had difficulties in their language development.Want an expert to write a paper for you Talk to an operator now
For literacy to be achieved, there are five ideas that are essential which include phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, accuracy and fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Alexander & Winne, 2006). All these ideas need language for them to be achieved. For a child to learn identification, isolation, and categorization of phoneme, there is need to develop language skills since they form an integral part in doing the same. The arithmetic principle deals with naming of letter of alphabets and supporting earlier understanding of alphabetic principles. In naming letter, a child has to use specific language to ensure he or she is talking about the right thing. Whichever language used is important and there is need to learn language before proceeding to knowing alphabets. This contributes to literacy and a kid who had poor language skills will encounter difficulties in the alphabetic principles. Another aspect of learning is related skills like visual memory, perception and songs to support learning. As a visual memory is stored in terms of pictures, language is needed to name the same for it to be stored and retrieved effectively. Nothing is stored without a name, and that has to involve language skills. Perception is what an individual thinks of when he or sees something. This has to be related to language and there is no way an individual can do that without the use of specific language. Songs that support learning are normally written and done in a specific language and children with poor language skills will have difficulties in using the songs.
It has been proved that children in the rural setups cannot compete effectively with their counterpart in the urban setup (Graham & Zweig, 2003). The major reason for the same is the language that they use in their daily lives. For those in the rural setups, they are normally adapted to rural and local language which is not necessarily used in their schools. This makes it difficult for them to understand what is being taught in school since they first have to learn the required language before going through the other literacy aspects. In this case, their counterparts find it easier to move up the literacy ladder due to the fact that their language skill is well developed.
To achieve some literary level among children, it is important to educate them using their first language. This will make them acquire the skills faster than when they would be taught on a foreign language. Alternatively, a lot of time needs to be set aside to develop language skills before going further with teaching other areas like arithmetic. This means there should be a systematic running process that ensures a student gets skills that will help him or her develop others.
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Our play-based curriculum is responsive to the individual differences for children with and without special needs, and is aligned with the New York State Prekindergarten Foundation for the Common Core. Programming and curriculum incorporate each student’s goals, objectives and developmental levels. Learning Together provides carefully planned activities geared toward helping students develop foundational skills in language, communication and literacy, mathematical thinking and operations, scientific reasoning and exploration, as well as play, socialization, and problem solving.
Our child centered classrooms are well supplied with early childhood materials attractive to very young children for play and learning. With carefully selected toys, books and activities that are featured in various areas in the classrooms called “centers” the teachers promote the academic development of our children. Careful implementation of group activities which are cooperative in nature, as well as structuring of the classroom environment promote interaction between children. Activities and pre-academic tasks are constructive, open-ended, hands-on and collaborative. Students work within the cooperative learning model in learning centers and experience direct instruction in both full class and small group dynamics.
A strong emphasis is placed on social skill development, which is the developmental outcome most likely to lead to success in the early school years. The daily schedule includes activities that develop language and effective social skills, as well as small and large muscle motor tasks and self-help skills, which will be practiced each day. Our classrooms have a sensory diet embedded in the daily schedule to allow for an increased level of organization and help promote a greater “readiness” for students to be more successful when engaging in learning opportunities throughout the school day.
The children of Learning Together learn in a climate of respect, dignity, safety and concern for all. Students are given clear guidelines and expectations for appropriate behavior and opportunities to learn and practice the skills necessary to communicate, interact and resolve conflict in positive ways. The administration responds to all problem behavior in a fair, consistent manner with respect for individual rights and needs. Learning Together uses a positive approach to addressing social & behavioral issues.


A comprehensive resource pack for parents to help Key Stage 2 – Lower children with multiplication and division.
This resource pack has been created for parents to assist their children at home with essential multiplication and division skills.
Using this resource pack, parents will be able to confidently help their children with fundamental numeracy skills and incorporate mathematical thinking into everyday tasks.
This multiplication and division resource pack covers a range of strategies, skills and activities for children in Key Stage 2 – Lower.
Included in the pack is a parent note outlining the topic with suggested resources and fun activities to do at home.
Other Maths Resource Packs for Parents:
- Place Value for Key Stage 1
- Addition and Subtraction for Key Stage 2 – Lower
- Fractions and Decimals for Key Stage 2 Lower and Upper
- Question Prompts and Reflective Thinking for all school-aged children
This teaching resource pack includes:
- Maths Activity Ideas for Parents – Multiplication and Division
- Polygon Puzzles – Multiplication
- Polygon Puzzles – Division
- Maths Word Problem Cards (Division and Multiplication) – Upper Primary
- Mental Maths Multiplication Posters
- Mental Maths Division Posters
- 0 – 12 Multiplication Flashcards – Stars
- 0 – 12 Division Flashcards – Stars
National Curriculum Curriculum alignment
- Key Stage 2 (KS2) - Lower
Key Stage 2 (KS2) - Lower covers students in Year 3 and Year 4.
The principal focus of mathematics teaching in lower key stage 2 is to ensure that pupils become increasingly fluent with whole numbers and the four operations, including number facts and the concept of place value. This should ensure that pupils dev...
- Multiplication and division
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Best Practices at Tier 2
Supplemental Interventions for Additional Student Support, Elementary
Learn how to provide high-quality Tier 2 interventions to elementary students—without hiring additional staff or extending the school day. This RTI at Work resource contains best practices educators can use to provide differentiated instruction as part of a multitiered system of support (MTSS).
An RTI at Work guide for implementing Tier 2 interventions in elementary classrooms
Move away from the way we have always done things and embrace an improved approach to student intervention. At Tier 2 of the RTI at Work™ process, interventions do not require hiring additional staff, buying more resources, or extending the school day. Instead, this book offers a step-by-step process for how to use your current time and resources to ensure all students learn at high levels.
Use this resource to successfully respond to students when they do not learn:
- Receive proven, practical strategies and tools for creating Tier 2 interventions.
- Discover the foundational principles of effective educational practices.
- Understand the roles of teacher, leadership, and intervention teams in the response to intervention (RTI) system.
- Gain tips and best practices for determining student learning levels and how to move student learning forward.
- Review structures and schedules that build time in the school day to support students who need interventions in an elementary education setting.
Product Code: BKF714
Published By: Solution Tree


In this lesson, students perform a part of Macbeth and then discuss how the student groups staged the assigned scenes.
Objective: Students read aloud Act II, Scenes 1-4 and analyze the dialogue of the crime scene
Other foundational skills:
- Familiarity with plays
- Ability to stage a scene
- Ability to work within a group
This lesson is adapted from a submission by Emily Hyland, formerly of Urban Assembly for Green Career, NYC Board of Education.
- Access to Macbeth in braille, large-print, or electronically as preferred by student who is visually impaired
- Students form into groups of five, each group assigned to a specific scene
- Students are given 20 minutes to figure out what is going on in the scene and how to stage it. The group must decide how many characters are needed, who says what and when, who enters and exits. The lines must be divided up so that each member of the group has a speaking part. No lines may be cut; the group's task is to assign all the lines and plan out every action in the scene
- Each group stages its scene for the rest of the class
- Students respond to: What patterns or consistencies emerged in how the characters' lines were assigned and how the scenes were staged?
- Students re-group and assign themselves roles and read the first four scenes of the act aloud, stopping at the end of each scene to write a one-sentence summary of the scene's events
- After reading period is over, each group writes summary sentences for scenes on chart paper
- Each group shares scene summaries: What happens in each scene? What are the most important events of this act so far? What are the similarities and/or differences of some of the summaries?
- Final summary: How is tension building in the play as a result of the murder scene in conjunction with the rest of the events in Act II?
- Remind students that entrance and exit points must be specifically delineated, especially for the student who is visually impaired
- Assign a partner to the student who is visually impaired to show her entrance and exit points if her part requires movement
- When writing summary sentences on chart paper, student who is visually impaired can dictate a sentence, recorded by an assigned group member


Date of Original Version
This chapter examined early childhood pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership, especially for the interaction effect between motivation and teaching beliefs on the parent-teacher partnership among Korean early childhood pre-service teachers. The participants for this study included 265 pre-service teachers in two different types of childhood teacher education programs (early childhood education and elementary education) in Seoul, Kyunggi, and Busan in Korea. The results from t-tests and ANOVA showed that pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership were differentiated by student status in the teacher education program with discrete differences depending on subfactors. Constructivist teaching beliefs were the most significant variable to predict the pre-service teachers’ perceptions of the parent-teacher partnership. Even though there were no statistically meaningful interaction effects between intrinsic motivation and constructivist teaching beliefs, two-way interaction plots implied interaction effects between these two predictors. Based on the results, we discussed the implications of the results in regard to curriculum development and educational policy for future endeavors to enhance teacher education quality and educational effectiveness.
Kim H., Lee S.J. (2018) Korean Pre-service Teachers’ Perceptions of Parent-Teacher Partnerships: The Effects of Motivation and Teaching Beliefs. In: Guo Y. (eds) Home-School Relations. Springer, Singapore
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0324-1_14


environment It is a physical, biological, social, economic and cultural environment in which human beings and other living things maintain their relationships and interact with each other throughout their lives. Its preservation is very important and valuable for living life. For this reason, we should instill environmental awareness in individuals at an early age and turn them into people who love the environment. At this point, we should not forget that the most important tasks fall to the families and educators, and we must act hand in hand with our children to save the increasingly difficult world.
What can be done to raise environmental awareness for children?
Organizing excursions: Sightseeing to provide children with information about nature
the facility is excellent. Children should be provided with nature and make observations by going on excursions. Children should also be encouraged to ask questions about nature or curiosity should be raised by the educator. Educators should be able to confuse their tiny minds with a little bit of attention during the trip and make them think. Children What is this ?, Why ?, Why? etc. It should not be forgotten that the immediate answer to questions such as this does not help them to learn, and the answer will not be permanent as it does not make children think. Adults' habit of responding to children's questions immediately prevents children's desire to explore nature independently and build their own knowledge (Galvin, 1994).
Reading books about the environment: Environmental education or science-nature reading should be read and environmental awareness should be created in children, they should be interested, sensitive and willing to explore their environment. (Dighe, 1993). Children should be encouraged to explore their environment through books about the environment. From time to time, imaginative worlds should include expressions and examples.
Gamification of environmental issues: Children and gamification of nature and environmental issues should be supported in the program. Thus, by embodying the events, children are provided with learning by living and facilitated. Participation of trainers in these games will enable them to guide in the game, evaluate the opportunities and help children to express themselves.
Art education: From a very young age, children should be given art education to increase sensitivity to beauties and the ability to observe should be improved. The message that art is a part of life should be given to children. In addition, to prevent the use of real vegetables-fruits and cereal-legumes in artistic activities, eating them instead of being used in pressures or easy works is an important dimension of environmental sensitivity (Dighe, 1993). The use of residual materials and recycled paper, or the use of backside instead of tearing paper with unpopular images, are the environmental dimensions we will pay attention to at the events.
Modeling: Children learn to love and care for the environment by taking a model and observing their behavior, as in many other subjects. When adults take care of trees, flowers or insects and take care of them, children can be born and developed environmental awareness and environmental awareness can be developed (Galvin, 1994). Children also model environmental behaviors from adults, such as avoiding unnecessary use of paper, water and light.
Contact Idil directly


Art is everywhere – How to Really Look at Things
Have you ever wondered why our senses become more alert and sensitive and we see things that continually surprise and inspire us when we visit a city for the first time as a tourist? On the other hand, why does it often seem that nothing extraordinary or exceptional ever happens during our everyday routines? Is it possible to discover something wonderful and special without necessarily visiting museums, monuments, or places that are different from where we habitually go?
‘Art is Everywhere’ combines science, hands-on practices used in art workshops, and clear and simple language to answer these questions (and raise some others). This illustrated book aims to stimulate readers to observe the world as they have never seen it before by suggesting how ordinary things can be seen differently and how art if made more accessible to everyone, can help us see things differently.
The author triggers the reader to see the world with fresh eyes and to discover art in everyday things. The workshop that is part of this book can be applied very well in art education starting from secondary school level.


Resources › For Educators Hand Over Hand Prompting for Children With Disabilities Share Flipboard Email Print Jamie Grill / Getty Images For Educators Special Education Applied Behavior Analysis Behavior Management Lesson Plans Math Strategies Reading & Writing Social Skills Inclusion Strategies Individual Education Plans Becoming A Teacher Assessments & Tests Elementary Education Secondary Education Teaching Homeschooling By Jerry Webster Special Education Expert M.Ed., Special Education, West Chester University B.A., Elementary Education, University of Pittsburgh Jerry Webster, M.Ed., has over twenty years of experience teaching in special education classrooms. He holds a post-baccalaureate certificate from Penn State's Educating Individuals with Autism program. our editorial process Jerry Webster Updated October 02, 2019 Prompting is an important tool in teaching children with disabilities, especially those whose disabilities significantly affect their ability to learn functional or life skills. The goal of this technique is to provide instruction and support when a student is learning a new skill by encouraging them through the steps. Prompting is used often in general education classrooms but manifests itself very differently and serves different purposes in a special education setting. Prompting children with disabilities may require employing either invasive and physical cues or less invasive, nonphysical cues. Prompting helps foster independence in students with disabilities as they become able to perform more tasks for themselves. The appropriate direction depends on the scenario and the child, so be sure to always consider individual needs and think about your relationship with the child when deciding on the best choice. The most common method of physical prompting is the hand over hand technique. What Is Hand Over Hand Prompting? Hand over hand prompting is the most invasive of all prompting strategies as it requires a teacher to physically manipulate a child's body. Also known as "full physical prompting," it often involves performing an activity with a student. To use this cueing system, the person teaching a skill places their hand over a student's hand and directs the child's hand with their own. Hand over hand prompting can teach a child how to perform important skills such as properly using a pair of scissors, tying their shoes, or writing their name. Example of Hand Over Hand Prompting Emily, a 6-year-old with multiple disabilities, requires a very high level of support when learning gross and fine motor skills. In an example of effective hand over hand facilitation, her aide, Ms. Ramona, places her hand over Emily's as Emily learns to brush her teeth. Ms. Ramona shapes Emily's hand into a proper brush grip and guides her student's hand through the back and forth brushing motion while holding it in her own. Considerations When Using This Technique Hand over hand prompting should be used sparingly and is not be used exclusively (in most cases—consult a student's IEP to identify necessary adaptations). Less invasive teaching techniques tend to be most appropriate long-term. For this reason, full physical prompting is best-suited for initial instruction and should be phased out as a new skill is acquired. Visual, written, and other nonphysical prompts should eventually be used in place of hand over hand prompting and multiple types of prompting can be joined together at once to make this transition more fluid. Examples of Phasing Out Hand Over Hand Prompting A teacher and student use a pair of scissors together for the first few times the child performs the action. Once the student understands what they are expected to do, the teacher begins to present visual cue cards as they execute the action together and use their hand over the child's hand for less time. Soon, the child will be able to demonstrate the desired behavior using only the cue cards as a reminder. To replace full hand enclosure when teaching a child to brush their teeth, a teacher can tap a finger on the back of a child's hand to remind them of the grip formation. With enough practice, the student can brush their teeth independently upon verbal direction. Other examples of nonphysical prompting that can be integrated into a child's routines in order to phase out hand over hand prompting are verbal direction, modeling, photographs or cue cards, hand gestures, and written cues.


BookBox creates animated books with Same Language Subtitling (SLS) to support reading and literacy development around the world. Language learners can listen to stories as they read Spanish subtitles. With stories from BookBox, kids build reading and listening skills.
Videos are a great way for children to learn Spanish. Check out all our Spanish videos for kids.
The stories on the BookBox website are free. The not-for-profit enterprise PlanetRead is the parent organization of BookBox. Through PlanetRead, BookBox gifts one hour of reading to a beginning reader for every story watched.
BookBox in Spanish: What You Need to Know
- BookBox has 18 animated stories in Spanish to watch free online on their website or on the BookBox channel on YouTube.
- Most of these stories have excellent native speaker narration at a pace that allows children to take in the illustrations and the text.
- Two of the stories in Spanish, La princesa campesina and El viento y el sol, are not narrated by a native speaker.
- The animated images are designed to support the narration.
- Text-sound association is an excellent way for beginning readers to develop literacy skills.
- The difficulty of the stories varies, but if you are looking for a place to begin, El pequeño pianista is one of the simpler stories for Spanish language learners.
- You can download a free audio mp3 of all the stories.
- You can download a free PDF of the text of 13 stories.
- 14 of the Spanish stories have games to play online or download. They are based on the illustrations. There is no audio or text, but they provide an opportunity to talk about the characters and the storyline.
- 14 of the stories have coloring pages to download and print. These are based on the illustrations. Talking about the pictures is a good way to give children repeated exposure to language from the story.
- All of the game and stories are listed together. For now, the 14 stories available in Spanish that have games and coloring pages are:
Santa’s Christmas / La navidad de Santa
Elephant Goes to the City / Un elefante va a la ciudad
The First Well / El primer pozo
The Whispering Palms / Las palmeras susurrantes
The Four Friends / Los cuatro amigos
Zippy the Zebra / Zippi
The Boo in the Shoe / El kato en el zapato
Tucket the Bucket / Hugo el cubo
The Elves and the Shoemaker / Los elfos y el zapatero
Turtle’s Flute / Tortuga y su flauta
The Wind and the Sun / El viento y el sol
The Princess Farmer / La princesa campesina
The Flying Elephant / El elefante volador
Prince Amir / Alegría


WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:
- How to read data from a single or multiple bar chart.
- How to interpret stacked bar charts.
- How to interpret horizontal bar charts, including those using a percentage scale.
- How to find averages from bar charts.
1. SAMPLE ON-SCREEN QUESTION (CALCULATOR)
A school was visited by inspectors in 2015, and again in 2017. On each occasion, the inspectors observed and rated forty lessons. The ratings are shown on the bar chart below.
What was the percentage increase in the number of lessons rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ in 2017 compared to 2015?
The ‘Guide to the QTS Numeracy Skills Test’ book contains a full chapter on bar charts, including step-by-step explanations and demonstrations of all the skills that you need to know, and a practice exercise on the topic with 20 questions.
If you would like to be sent fully worked solutions to that exercise, just pop your details in the boxes and we will send them over to you.
If you are still struggling with this topic, we have created a selection of resources to provide all the help you need.
- QTS Numeracy Revision Book – The Guide to the QTS Skills Tests book devotes a whole chapter to the topic of bar charts, with detailed methods, worked examples and plenty of practice questions for you to have a go at.
- Practice QTS Numeracy Tests – Want to put your skills to the test and see how ready you are? Take a look at our selection of practice papers for the QTS numeracy test.
- QTS Numeracy Revision Cheat Sheets – Our cheat sheets boil down everything you need to know to just the key points on the topic. They are a perfect resource for your last minute revision!
- QTS Numeracy Coaching – Coaching is the ultimate in personalised support. Book your one-on-one Skype video calls where you can work through the issues that you struggle with at a pace that suits you.


We follow the new Primary School Curriculum drawn up by the Dept. of Education in 1999.
The curriculum incorporates the child centred principles of its predecessor, Curaclam na Bunscoile (1971). It identifies three primary aims of primary education:To enable the child to live a full life as a child and to realise his or her potential as a unique individual
To enable the child to develop as a social being through living and co-operating with others and so contribute to the good of society
To prepare the child for further education and lifelong learning.
The curriculum is learner-centred. It emphasises the importance of literacy, numeracy, and language, while at the same time responding to changing needs in science and technology, social personal and health education, and citizenship.
The curriculum is presented in seven areas, some of which are further subdivided into subjects. These are:
- Language: Gaeilge and English
- Social, environmental and scientific education (SESE): history, geography and science
- Arts education: visual arts, music and drama
- Physical education
- Social, personal and health education (SPHE)
- Religious or ethical education is the responsibility of the different school patron bodies.
New Primary Language Curriculum for English and Irish – Junior Infants to Second Class
The new curriculum for English and Irish is for all children from Junior Infants to Second Class in all schools (English medium schools, Gaeltacht schools, Irish medium schools and Special schools).
More information can be found online at: www.curriculumonline.ie/Primary/Curriculum-Areas/Language-New-Junior-infants-2nd-class


If you are a teacher, particularly if working in a Local Authority school, we would recommend that you look into any opportunities there are for Dyslexia training that are free for your Local Authority, or that your school is willing to fund in your area.
Dyslexia is the neurodiverse condition that you are most likely to encounter in your career with an estimated 1 in 10 individuals experiencing Dyslexic difficulties in the UK. Despite this, teacher training leaves us woefully under-prepared to support Dyslexic learners in the classroom.
“I remember entering my NQT year and being aware that Dyslexia meant that children would have issues with literacy, but it wasn’t until I found out I had four children in my class who had Dyslexic difficulties that I realised I had no idea how to actually support the child in front of me. I spent so much time reading books and studying how to support them myself when I had all of the other pressures of a NQT year. This should all have been covered at University.” (L- teacher fot 10 years)
If there are no free opportunities in your area or your school is unable to bring in specific trainers or fund a course, there are other opportunities available for you.
FREE, online distance learning
For Community Learning and Development practitioners: www.open.edu/openlearncreate/dyslexia-inclusive-practice-CLD
The Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit is FREE to access and aims to, “guide you through the steps from initially identifying some early signs of difficulty in literacy development, ensuring appropriate teaching and support, evaluating that support, and where appropriate, considering whether the term dyslexia is appropriate.” (Dyslexia Scotland)
You can find out more about the Toolkit here.
Dyslexia Scotland: https://www.dyslexiascotland.org.uk/addressing-dyslexia-toolkit


The Lebone Literacy Programme (LLP) has developed from a Love Reading Club initiative once a week in the early years of the Centre’s existence, to a full-time programme serving approximately 600 children aged 0 – 9 years in 4 different schools and a number of community settings. In addition, there is a strong focus on the promotion of early literacy, through working with parents of young children, and also immersing preschool children in literacy activities.
The Lebone Literacy Programme consists of 4 main programmes:
The focus of Project Read is on developing English language and literacy skills in learners, and to induct them into a love of books and reading. For the majority of these children, English is a second language, but it is the medium of instruction. Starting with a pilot project in three local schools (George Dickerson, Grahamstown Primary and St Mary’s Primary) in August 2011, Project Read has grown to embrace 4 school sites, with some 120 learners and 75 volunteers involved. A number of these volunteers are B.Ed students from Rhodes University, who participate in Project Read as part of the practical requirements for their degree.
The programme utilises the Ready, Steady, Read & Write programme developed by Wordworks, with the added element of story reading and the opportunity for learners to take books home every week. Parent information meetings are held for the parents of the learners involved, and a Game Pack is issued to each home in order to reinforce what is done during the Project Read sessions at school.
Between 2015 and 2017, funding from the Vestas Empowerment Trust has enabled us to equip 21 Foundation Phase classrooms with classroom libraries. These have consisted of lockable, mobile book cabinets, about R5 000’s worth of books each, and extras such as carpets and book plastic. The teachers in these classrooms have been trained through a series of workshops with regard to the implementation and management of a classroom library. The classrooms libraries represent access to enriched reading material and the all-important whole language experience which would otherwise not be possible for these learners.
The intention of this project is to provide more children access to enjoyable and enriching reading material, in support of their literacy development.
In the belief that parents are important role players and stakeholders in their children’s educational development, the Lebone Literacy Programme has been running a Parent Workshop series for three years at four different schools. Attendance varies, but the programme has reached approximately 200 parents over the three-year period. Some of them have gone on to become Project Read volunteers or reading club facilitators. The material used is that of the Home-School Partnership Programme developed by Wordworks.
Nal’ibali Reading Clubs
Reading for enjoyment, and the motivation this brings to children to read more and in the process improve their literacy levels, is at the heart of the Nal’ibali philosophy. From 2017 – 2017, as part of the Vestas-funded literacy programme, Nal’ibali reading clubs were run for Intermediate Phase learners at three different schools, with an average attendance of about 22 per club. At the end of the year, each participant received a take-home book and a set of stationery.


Instruct (formerly known as InfoLit Modules)
Extend the reach of your library's instruction
Today’s college students arrive on campus without well-honed foundational skills like information literacy and critical thinking. Creating high-quality, standards-driven instructional materials to cultivate these skills requires extensive time, staff, and technical expertise. Instruct offers a solution to this growing problem, providing tools for libraries to conduct formalized ACRL and AAC&U-aligned instruction, both in-person and online.
How can Instruct help you and your library?
Librarians are using Instruct to teach crucial information literacy and critical thinking skills students need to thrive in their academic careers and beyond.
Jumpstart library instruction with this robust collection of high-quality, standards-aligned videos
View gives libraries a head start on instruction programming with a suite of ready-made videos to help students learn essential information literacy, communication, quantitative literacy, and critical thinking skills
View will help your library:
View features 60+ concise, informative videos to help your students grow as learners, researchers, and thinkers.
View opens up new possibilities for your library instruction program:


This is the second in a three part series on educating the whole person and music education. Yesterday, I gave an overview of parts of the whole person, and in general how music engages several of those parts. Today I will discuss in detail the relationship between music and the physical and psychological pathways identified by Comer.
Research in the area of music cognition has shown that the human brain processes music to a large extent as movement. Music engages the location in the brain where physical movement is activated whether or not the person is actually moving. This movement may or may not be synchronized with the tactus, or with a beat at all. As a child is able to be conscious of an internalized beat, s/he can move to form and/or expression while continuing to track the beat. This makes expression of phrases, dynamics, and emotions without losing temporal connection to the music possible. When children are young, both kinds of movement–to the beat and for form and expression–are important so that eventually the two can be integrated into one experience with music. Because movement is so important to perceiving music, the physical pathway is always active when music making occurs, whether through performing, listening, or composing.
The psychological pathway includes self-awareness and emotional management. Researchers have found that children, particularly adolescents, use music to modify feelings. This ties music to the psychological pathway in that it is a technique for managing emotions. Music can alter emotions by cheering a person or motivating them from a relatively sedative state, can calm a person by slowing the heart rate and the initiation of movement, or confirm an emotion being felt in a kind of empathy with the music to which the person is listening. The latter use of music is a form of emotional self-awareness, which is also part of the psychological pathway.
For the most part, students move to and manage emotions with familiar music on their own. Music educators do not so much need to introduce or teach students how to do this, as they need to introduce a diversity of musical genres to students. When students are familiar with more musical genres, they have a greater choice of music to which to respond with movement and or emotion. As less familiar genres are introduced, they may be unsure of how to know what emotions is being expressed, or of how to move to the music, particularly where art music styles are concerned. Art music has a much more subtle beat than the popular music they are likely to listen to frequently, and the expressive vocabulary of art music composers is also likely to be unfamiliar to many students, or at least something to which they have not given conscious thought. Music teachers can “walk” students through an expressive piece of music, and having the students list all expressed emotions they hear in the music, and then isolate excerpts to discuss which emotion is expressed in each.
For movement, beats at different metrical levels can be performed. For example, beats at the one-measure, half-measure, tactus, and divided tactus levels can all be performed. Students can discover a freedom in not being locked into the metrical level the drummer blatantly performs, and make the transition from moving to beat to moving to form and expression as beats at higher levels, such as the two-measure or phrase level, are discovered and expressed through movement. The goal is to take the natural abilities of moving and feeling and develop and expand them using a growing repertoire and vocabulary. Response to music activities are also valuable. Students can write about music they have heard by describing kinds of motion or objects in motion that they imagined while listening. Students can also write about what emotions the music elicited in them, or can invent a story which transfers perceived emotions to characters in the narrative. While not all students express emotions through story invention, some do, and it is a valid option for students’ interpretive responses. In a recent class I taught, I asked how many often make up stories as they listen to music, and about one-quarter of the students did. For them, this method of reporting emotions they perceived in music was enjoyable and effective, but other students preferred to identify the emotions directly, or compare them to personal experiences. As usual, allowing students a choice in how they respond and demonstrate understanding is the best approach. Tomorrow, I will conclude this three-part series on educating the whole person and music.


Our teaching programs prepare children for lifelong learning, by looking at early education as a whole process for developing abilities required for life. Some of these ideas are interdisciplinary, emphasis on projects; play based learning, relationships among concepts, others such as rich tasks, flexible schedules, flexible groupings or individual child lead topics.
Programs like music, yoga, meditation, arts and technology are big part of our program where children will learn the best tools for life. Our program will not just lay a strong foundation for literacy and numeracy skills, but also the deepen your child’s love of learning, stimulate your child’s creativity and imagination, increase learning absorption and boost your child’s concentration , heighten the senses of your child: intuitive, observant and sensitivity and this will ultimately improve both IQ & EQ. Children will also learn how to be calm and relax, how to be happy via music and play.


- Our Programs
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- About Us
Anxious about math? You’re far from alone. For millions of adults, a lack of confidence in math skills – often tracing back to negative childhood experiences – has had lasting repercussions. Besides leading to missed career opportunities and ongoing frustration in everyday tasks, studies show that math angst can even be transferred to others. For parents, that’s something to keep in mind as children begin their lifelong relationship with math.
“The foundation for our critical thinking capability and comfort level with math is shaped during our earliest years, when the brain is growing exponentially,” noted Dr. Susan Canizares, Chief Academic Officer, Childtime. “Unfortunately, some of the most widespread fallacies about math are also tied to early childhood. By dispelling these myths and providing positive, developmentally appropriate learning opportunities, we can ensure our children build the fundamental skills and self-assurance they’ll need for future success.”
These Math Myths Don’t Add Up
Whether you’re an arithmophobe (yes, that’s a thing) or a math maven, you may have encountered some of these common misconceptions:
MYTH #1: You’re born good or bad at math.
“Every child is born with the ability to think mathematically and has the potential to develop critical academic skills – with the proper support,” said Canizares. “Many factors shape our interest and ability level, but being born with a ‘math gene’ is not one of them. We help children build confidence and develop a deeper understanding of math when we explore concepts like quantity, patterns and measurement in ways that are meaningful for them – through games and in conversations about their everyday world.”
MYTH #2: If a child doesn’t get the basics of math early on, they can always catch up.
“Math is part of a core set of learning domains including cognitive, language, physical and social development that all contribute to school readiness,” explained Canizares. “Each supports the others as a child develops a foundation on which to build more advanced skills. Studies show that children who haven’t grasped the fundamentals by the early elementary years are likely to continue to struggle throughout middle and high school. By this point, ability and confidence have become negatively intertwined. Early math development is as important as early literacy development. We must do everything possible to prevent an achievement gap for all children.”
MYTH #3: Kids can’t solve math problems.
“Children learn by thinking about different ways to achieve their goals,” noted Canizares. “They are problem solving all day, every day. It’s important for parents, teachers and other role models to project a positive attitude about math, recognize a child’s effort and provide encouragement. A big part of that is helping children understand that solving problems in math is just like any other problem solving effort; creativity, perseverance, and trial and error are each a necessary part of the process.”
MYTH #4: Boys are better than girls at math.
“The gender gap regarding math achievement has more to do with cultural factors than biological differences,” said Canizares. “Research indicates that while boys and girls share the same developmental abilities, girls tend to doubt their mathematical capabilities early on, often due to subliminal or unintended messages. This lack of confidence intensifies during adolescence, causing girls to lose interest in math – which ultimately shuts them out of the professional fields where math is essential.”
MYTH #5: Preschool math is just memorization.
“Part of early math certainly includes naming colors and shapes, recognizing numbers and being able to count. Fluency in these skills requires knowing them by memory,” acknowledged Canizares. “However, early mathematical knowledge for preschoolers is highly conceptual and includes foundational skills such as understanding sizes and patterns, spatial relationships, sequencing, classifying, and measuring. It’s critical that teachers help children to see and live their world mathematically –meaning that they guide them in active explorations, use descriptive language about attributes and changes they see in things, and provide plenty of opportunity for children to express their ideas, make predictions and think critically.”
Check out this video for more info on some of the most common math myths!


A child's motor skill development is linked to his or her cognitive development and future learning abilities. That is why, exercise and sports are important from young. The Sports Medicine Service, KK Women's and Children's Hospital shares more.
Parents who encourage their pre-school children to favour sport over sedentary play involving video games or mobile device games may be enhancing their cognitive development and future learning abilities.
“The extent to which a child develops literacy and language skills is related to the development of fundamental movement skills. Early motor skills development helps lay the foundation for early learning and language development,” says Mr Micheal Lim, Head and Senior Clinical Exercise Physiologist, Sports Medicine Service, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH), a member of the SingHealth group.
A child develops basic walking and running skills naturally, but for more complex movement skills such as leaping, jumping, throwing and catching, children need facilitated play and structured activities, and usually, need to be taught in a sequential manner.
“Development of fundamental movement skills is especially important for children aged 3 to 10,” adds Mr Lim.
Types of fundamental movement skills
- Locomotive movement skills
Involve moving the body from one place to another (e.g. leaping, jumping, hopping, walking, running).
- Manipulative movement skills
Involve the ability to control objects using hands and feet (e.g. throwing, catching, striking).
- Balancing skills
These help to stabilise the body when it is stationary (e.g. standing on one leg – an example of static balance) or in motion (e.g. walking across a beam – an example of dynamic balance).
How fundamental movement skills impact learning
Fundamental movement skills are essential because they stimulate a child’s brain development. When children engage in movement play, they are constantly interacting with the surrounding social and physical environment. This forces their body and mind to interact, and in the process, they form neural connections, which helps develop sensory motor pathways.
Continuous sensory integration arising from movement helps provide a foundation for more complex sensory integration required for learning tasks such as reading, writing and numeracy, as well as psychomotor skills like riding a bike.
Psychomotor skills require balance and complex hand-eye coordination. Once learnt, they become automatic.
Developing fundamental motor skills
Here are some activities that parents can facilitate to help their children develop various fundamental motor skills:
- Long jump (into a sandpit)
- Ball games
- Throwing balloons in the air and catching them
- Kite flying
- Kicking and dribbling (e.g. soccer)
- Walking in line (e.g., pretending to walk on a tightrope)
- Mini obstacle course


Part 1 — Crossing the Cultures
by Sandra Wright Smith1
This is the first article in a four-part series on teaching in a multigrade classroom.
Many see education and learning as one complete culture when, in fact, there are several cultural frameworks facilitating differing approaches and methodologies. Multiage or multigrade education is a unique, vital, and rich culture.
In intercultural training, a game is used which introduces cultural paradigm differences. Participants are divided into 3-4 groups. Each group is instructed in how to act and react within certain parameters. Individuals from different groups are traded and given the task of understanding a differing culture through observation and participation.
Difficulties come when visiting members base their understanding and solutions on their own home group cultural parameters. It can become quite humorous at times as a game, but in real life such approaches are not only frustrating but detrimental to one’s initial purpose.
Over and over educators have used a home, monolevel culture to evaluate and develop strategies for the multigraded culture. Though progress is made toward understanding, more often than not the approaches and methods prescribed are based on the monolevel culture and are ineffective. In fact, they can be actually destructive to the learning process within the multigrade setting.
At the core lies an erroneous premise that monograded instructional culture equals the only quality education. Consequently, teachers are given ways to manage or survive until quality can be implemented.
But we desire to see teachers succeed, not just survive. Thus, effective tools are needed to enable them to understand and walk through the critical paradigm change toward the joy of teaching and true effective learning within the multigrade culture.
The first step into a new culture is to look at it closely with an open paradigm. Many things will look familiar and can be easily identified. Yet other items will challenge your thinking.
So what exactly does this culture look like?
The most successful definition explains multigrade instructions as… an instructional setting made up of students of several ages, abilities, and grade levels functioning within the framework of the grade level system, but facilitating a student focused instructional design rather than locked grade level standards (Franklin, 1967).
Within this rich culture, we see treasures of…
- individual student learning needs met
- instructional approaches that allow the teacher to work with all the students on various levels at the same time
- built-in basic review and accelerated presentation of materials
- uncontrived learning motivation
- potential for individual learning programs
- peer tutoring and cooperative learning
- student understanding and acceptance of the individuality of others
- development of social skills beyond peer orientation
- improved impact on values training
- students trained in basic lifestudy skills and lifelong learning.
Recently a study was done by the Department of Labor in conjunction with the Department of Education to determine the qualities needed by a high school graduate to be successful in the work force. A list of essential qualities was compiled which paralleled the list of character developments resulting from the cultural treasures of the multigrade classroom.
How exciting! Students trained within a true multigrade culture are given tremendous opportunities to learn through one of the richest educational environments.
Crossing any culture requires that one come to understand and assimilate the foundational values and principles upon which the cultural thinking is based. In the next article we will look at the foundational principles upon which successful multigrade instruction is built.
Franklin, M. P. (1967). Multigrading in the Elementary Education. Childhood Education, 43 (9), 513-515.
Miller, B. A. (1991 March). A Review of the Qualitative Research on Multigrade Instruction. Paper presented to the NRSSC, Rural Education Symposium, Nashville, TN (ERIC Document Reproduction Services No. ED 287 646).
Miller, B. (1991). Teaching and Learning in the Multigrade Classroom: Student Performance and Instruction Routines. ERIC Clearing house on Rural Education and Small School, Charleston, WV (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 335 178)
Go to Success or Survival in the Multigrade Classroom: Part 2 — Laying the Foundation (article two).
Permission to copy, but not for commercial use.


My students need a new Kindergarten phonics program called FUNdations to help understand and apply the basics for reading.
Dr. Seuss so wonderfully proclaimed, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." My students are eager to learn how to read on their own! We can help by providing the resources they need to reach their goals.
My students are bright, motivated and one-of-a-kind individuals.
They put a smile on my face each and every day, and they all enjoy coming to school and succeeding in the classroom. I feel so blessed to be their special education teacher and I am lucky to work in such a rewarding field.
Even though it has become extremely difficult and sometimes frustrating to educate without needed supplies, our students still come to school eager to learn. Our school rarely has extra funding for enriching material and if they do, the funds are used for older students. Many of my students' families will never have additional money to purchase educational materials; therefore, I hope to be able to provide a fun and interesting way of learning so my students can succeed in life.
As a teacher, I am constantly trying to incorporate the best academic programs, in my classroom, for my diverse learners. I have recently attended a phonics workshop called Fundations which is through Wilson Language. This new phonics program will enhance my student's five key components for reading; phonemic awareness, phonics and word study, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This program is geared to each students individual developmental levels and overlaps skills instead of teaching these foundational skills in isolation. This will make a huge difference in my special education classroom and provide my students with the instruction they need to become successful, confident readers.
My goal is to teach students to understand and apply letter-sound correspondance to decode new words to become independent readers.
By funding this project, you will be providing us with the tools we need to help our students become confident, fluent, and independent readers!
Expand the "Where your donation goes" section below to see exactly what Ms. Marassa is requesting.See our finances
|Fundations Teacher's Kit K • Wilson Language||$355.00||1||$355.00|
Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.View complete list Show less


Preschool Phonics and Learning to Read
A common stumbling block for children learning to read is difficulty understanding phonics, that is, letters and their corresponding sounds. One of the best ways to overcome this problem and prepare young children for reading is to engage them in pre-literacy activities, such as preschool phonics instruction.
Good phonics instruction helps kids learn, understand and make use of letters and their corresponding sounds in their reading and writing. Preschool phonics activities can start at home. Singing, playing, reading and talking with your child are all ways to help them build great pre-literacy skills. When speaking with your child, ask them to name the letter that certain conversational words begin with.
A wide range of preschool phonics games can be found online. Researchers have found that online phonics games can be successful in teaching children to read provided they form part of a larger systematic program of instruction that teaches five key literacy areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension.
ABC Reading Eggs offers a systematic suite of instructional lessons that comprehensively cover all five key literacy areas. ABC Reading Eggs lessons target phonics instruction by introducing individual letters and their corresponding sound to the child with highly interactive activities. These activities, which feature colourful visuals and animations, provide step by step instruction that reinforce letter-sound relationships. The ultimate goal is for beginner readers to understand the alphabetic principle – that every letter and letter combination has its own particular sound. With fun activities that are as enjoyable as they are educational, ABC Reading Eggs provides preschool phonics instruction that keeps children motivated to learn more.
I believe that Reading Eggs is an exciting, on-line reading program that engages students fully and ensures that they have fun while they are learning to read. It is simple to use, caters to all students and makes learning to read FUN. Well Done! Ann Forbes, Glenmore State School
I am amazed and how much my 3-year-old is learning with Reading Eggs! He can identify all of his letters and knows their sounds. At the rate he’s learning, he’ll be reading by Kindergarten. He LOVES to “play” it and views it as fun, not work. He had never used a computer before trying Reading Eggs, but it’s presented in a way that is intuitive for him, as he can work his way through it on his own. He was even using the mouse like a pro after the first day!” R. Martz


According to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress, two out of three children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency. This decline has prompted a renewed debate over the best way to teach reading. In theNew York Times article, “An Old and Contested Solution to Boost Reading Scores: Phonics”, the author, Dana Goldstein, describes two different theories on the most effective reading instruction (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/us/reading-phonics.html?referringSource=articleShare). The predominant theory that has been used in schools over the past few years has been the “balanced literacy” theory which prioritizes instilling a love of reading in children by exposing them to a variety of interesting and high-value literature rather than spending a lot of time on phonics instruction (sounding out words). This is in contrast to the new “science of reading” theory which focuses on a more phonics-centric curriculum. Proponents of this theory do not believe teaching phonics exclusively is the answer, but advocate that it should be a greater part of the reading curriculum.
At Neighborhood Lit, we have always used research-based practices and incorporated them into our games and activities so that our students have the skills and motivation to become lifelong readers. This article aligns with the theories we have followed since our inception. We offer many opportunities for phonics practice through a multitude of different games and activities. However, we also spend time teaching word identification using sight words and focus on developing reading and word comprehension, whether it is through a reading response activity or using a word in a sentence to demonstrate understanding. Our Reading Workshops also include read-alouds and reading opportunities to promote interest and engage our student readers. Over the years, we have noticed that our students have greater reading success at our school when they participate in similar activities at home which is why we email weekly activities for them to do with their families. As you can see, our curriculum at Neighborhood Lit reflects our belief that effective reading instruction should be based on the most up to date research available and should yield results that show our students are improving their reading skills while also developing their love for reading.
Any questions? Please email us at Janice@Neighborhoodlit.com. Taylor Burke is a teacher and Director of Communications at Neighborhood Lit. and works closely with Janice Migliazza, a Reading Specialist and owner of Neighborhood Lit, Route 34, Colts Neck to bring you this information.


1118654102 – Helping Children Learn Mathematics by Robert E. Reys
The 11th Edition of Helping Children Learn Mathematics is designed to help those who are or will be teachers of mathematics in elementary schools help children develop understanding and proficiency with mathematics so they can solve problems. This text is built around three main themes; helping children make sense of mathematics, incorporating practical experiences and using research to guide teaching. It also integrates connections and implications from the Common Core Standards: Mathematics (CCSS-M).
Category: Elementary Education Books
Author: Robert E. Reys
Pub Date: 10/20/2014
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A Research Base For Art Curricula In Teacher Training Institutions
In the early 1970's, Eliot Eisner, Professor of Art and Education at Stanford University, conducted a study which was designed to gain a clearer picture of the achievements and attitudes of college and university students in the visual arts. He developed two instruments - the Eisner Art Information and Art Attitude Inventories (Eisner, 1972, pp. 146-1521 _ which could be used to test students' accumulated knowledge of the visual arts; and their attitudes towards, and involvement in, the visual arts.
His conclusions, based on the results of this study, indicated that U.S. schools had generally failed to provide students with the art education which he thought was desirable. It was found that students' knowledge of their culture contained in the visual arts was severely deficient; and their attitudes were based on narrow opinion and shallow foundations.
It is interesting for those involved in art education in Australia to speculate on the degree to which these findings might be coincidental with student achievements and attitudes in this country. Eisner's findings certainly strike a familiar chord with candid observations made by teachers of the visual arts in Australia. In order to determine the general achievements and attitudes of incoming student teachers into the Institute of Advanced Education at James Cook University, the author designed a series of tests which were used to indicate the achievements of students in terms of their knowledge and skills in the visual arts and the attitudes which they held towards this field. The information obtained in the author's opinion, is most helpful in the development of courses which most appropriately prepare student teachers for the role of teaching art in the schools.


Will you support our students to improve their literacy and gain confidence learning?
Bluecoat Primary Academy offers a caring, nurturing and secure environment that enables everyone to strive to be the best that they can be. We share a life-long love of learning and recognise that students and staff alike are on a journey of personal development.
In doing this we are highly committed to developing students’ literacy skills both in and outside of the classroom. Especially at such a young age. However, many of our students have learnt English as an additional language and a small proportion of them receive targeted support to help them access the curriculum. Moreover, a number of our students have a variety of specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia, and so may not be able to independently access reading materials in the classroom or at home.
We want to empower all our students to develop a love of reading and have full access to the breadth of their curriculum. Therefore we wish to invest in a number of reader pens to support students who would benefit from reading assistance. These reader pens scan words and sentences to verbally read them back to students, either out loud or using headphones, and can access dictionary definitions of over 216,000 words and phrases to help students understand the meaning of words as well as how they sound. The pens provide students with access to reading materials that they would otherwise find difficult to understand, giving them the opportunity to work more independently and gain confidence in their own abilities.
Academic research has found that these pens improve students’ reading comprehension, encourage a more positive attitude to learning, and promote higher emotional well-being and confidence with reading both with and without the pens. Our own in-house research complements these findings, showing that the pens improve students’ reading accuracy and comprehension. We have also found that as students grow in confidence using the pens, they become less reliant on support staff, meaning that staff can focus on the students who require the most support. We are keen to spread this positive impact across all our students with reading difficulties, so that they can take ownership of their literacy development both in school and at home.
If you wish to partner with us as we empower our students’ literacy development, your contributions are very welcome and much appreciated!


*This is part 3 of our Game-Based learning series. You can check out part 1 and part 2 here.
The Ultimatum Game is popular in Economics and Psychology courses but it can be applied to a variety of different course subjects like History, Math, and Literature. Below, you will see a few examples of how this game can be used in different educational contexts on VoiceThread.
How does the game work? … Continued
This is a guest post by 3rd Grade Teacher and VoiceThreader, Traci Blazosky.
Every year, my students celebrate Major League Baseball (MLB) day. This day happens in my classroom on opening day for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The entire day is devoted to baseball related activities that all align with the Common Core. For ELA, we read a poem by Ernest L. Thayer, titled Casey at the Bat and complete a comprehension activity. … Continued
This is a guest post by VoiceThread Certified Educator Curtis Izen.
In my online and f2f business information courses, I use VoiceThread for a variety of assignments. This includes an “ice breaker”, transforming discussion boards, group PowerPoint and using individual research assignments to be shared for the entire class to learn from.
This semester, I wanted to try an assignment utilizing a feature in VoiceThread that I have yet to explore. … Continued
This is our third post in the VoiceThread A to Z series. In the first post, we discussed ways to use VoiceThread for early semester activities and in the second post we discussed creating presentations. This post will focus on incorporating storytelling into your curriculum. Upcoming posts will focus on other innovative lesson design and assessment ideas. Stay tuned!
Which types of courses can use storytelling as a lesson design framework? … Continued
This is a guest post by Instructor and VoiceThread Certified Educator, Dr. Kathy Melago.
With modern technology, the job interview process frequently begins with a phone or video interview. As the head of our music education program, I work closely with our students as they look for jobs and prepare for interviews. While I have conducted live mock interviews in the past, one thing I had not done previously was to help students practice phone and video interviews, yet those are usually the screening interviews that actually get applicants to the in-person interviews. … Continued
This is a guest post by educator and VoiceThreader, Dr. Maureen Cuevas.
Teaching in an online asynchronous format for the national MSW program at Our Lady of the Lake University, I have come to depend on Voice thread in every class I teach. And as we redevelop our courses to make them more interactive, I recommend to every faculty member that they try to use the incredible power of this tool in each class. … Continued
This is a guest post by Boise State professor, Yu-Hui Ching.
I am an assistant professor of Educational Technology at Boise State University. I have been using VoiceThread for discussions and ice-breaking activities in my online courses for two years. My students and I enjoy VoiceThread because we can see and hear each other, which helps us build a more connected learning community.
In my recently published research article, I tackled a problem that concerns many online instructors – how to guide students to provide quality peer feedback. … Continued