For classical players, borrowing from jazz and bluegrass traditions can provide the first steps toward improvisation and more confident playing
If you’re a classical player and are interested in spicing up your playing with improvisation, consider borrowing from jazz and bluegrass. You can learn a lot about creating your own motifs and figures and incorporating them into your own playing by starting with some exercises and borrowing ideas commonly used by jazz and bluegrass players.
Violinist and fiddler Martin Norgaard, assistant professor of music education at Georgia State University and author of many jazz string method books for Mel Bay, has some suggestions.
1) Dilly-Dally Around
Most classical players practice their scales exactly how Kreutzer and Flesch (and their teachers) tell them: They start at the root, go up an octave or two, come down note by note, and end on the root.
Norgaard suggests trying this: Start on your root and go up, but pick a different note to end on before descending. Come back to your root and then ascend to a different note, descend to a note other than your root, and so on [Ex.1].
“I call this dilly-dallying up and down the scale,” Norgaard says.
Even that relatively simple exercise is improvisation—it introduces the element of choice, he says. “This exercise will help you learn the scale better because it forces you to practice with more flexibility,” he adds.
2) Skip Around
First, make sure you’re comfortable with practicing scales in broken thirds [Ex.2].
Then, dilly-dally up and down a scale as described earlier but include some intervals of a third instead of simply playing the next note on the scale.
You can mix in consecutive thirds with parts of your scale or scatter individual thirds throughout the scale [Ex.3].
“Thirds are the most often used skip in tonal music,” Norgaard says. “Practicing with skips helps flexibility in scale usage. Players who think they know a scale very well often have problems improvising on a scale using skips, to their surprise.”
3) Add Rhythms
Make up some jazzy rhythms or get started with a simple jazz rhythm [see Ex. 4].
Swing the eighth notes and experiment with syncopation. Use the scales, including scales with skips, that you’ve been practicing. When you’re just starting out, go ahead and use a metronome, and to keep things simple, stay just in the first position, says Norgaard. You can also experiment with some bluegrass rhythms. Try this one to start out [seeEx. 5].
For inspiration, Norgaard suggests listening to early Miles Davis for jazz ideas and any fiddler playing with Bill Monroe for bluegrass ideas. You can also use a play-along recording or software package such as Band-in-a-Box as an accompaniment.
4) See the Chord
To help you visualize chord tones on the fingerboard, pick a scale and identify the tonic triad. For example, say you pick a C major scale and the C triad.
Then improvise on the scale so that the notes of the triad, the C, E, and G in this case, are played mainly on the first and third beats of each bar [Ex. 6].
This exercise helps you emphasize underlying chord structures and visualize the chord tones on the fingerboard, bridging theory and practice. “If you can emphasize a particular chord in your improvisation, your thinking resembles that of an advanced jazz player,” Norgaard says.
It helps a player learn to emphasize chord structures and chord progressions and therefore the direction of a phrase.
“It’s the first baby step toward being able to play on changes (improvising melodies that fit the underlying chord progression), which both jazz and bluegrass players do,” he concludes.


Q. 15.0( 3 Votes )
What were Chawls? (CBSE 2013, 2014)
Chawls were the multi-storeyed structures which were found in Bombay in the 1860s.
1. Many people took refuge in the same room, having no other option.
2. There was a lack of toilet facilities, and people had to use public toilets often.
3. There was a space constraint, and hence mundane activities like washing clothes and bathing took place outside the vicinity of the chawls.
4. This led to the creation of an unhygienic ambience.
5. People regularly met downstairs and discussed various issues, laws and political actions.
6. In the space between some chawls, Nandi Bulls, Snake charmers, wrestlers, etc. entertained the residents.
Hence, we can assume that the living conditions were poverty-ridden.
Rate this question :
Why was the compulsory Elementary Education Act passed in 1870? Give three reasons.Together With Social Science
Name the most important modern city in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century.Together With Social Science
Explain any four Characteristics of marginal groups in London.Together With Social Science
What is meant by asphyxiation?Together With Social Science
What is a metropolis?Together With Social Science


My kids LOVE to write. When I say love, I mean love. The usual “come to the carpet for Writing Workshop” is usually met with groans, not because it’s time for writing, but because my kids just want to write. They know it’s time for a mini-lesson, and they just want to write. Narrative writing, informational writing, opinion writing… they love it all!
I don’t tell you this to brag or to pat myself on the back. I am blessed to have kids who love to write. And I still have students who struggle and need extra supports to write. But they LOVE to spend time jotting down new notes and stories in their journals. I want to share my successes with you so that you can be successful too!
Here are some simple tips to get them writing and LOVING to write!
TIP #1: Allow students to bring in their own notebooks. I love to write, and I love to pick out a fun new journal that I love when I run out of room in my journal. Because I get to pick a journal that brings joy for me, I am able to write more (and better) because I love my journal. For students who don’t (or can’t) bring their own notebook or journal, I buy some cheap composition notebooks and then give the students time to craft. A little construction paper, glue, and buttons come together to make
TIP #2: Let them pick their own topics. In my class, we call this our Passion Topic(s). Informational text can be tough, and I am well aware that eventually, students will have to learn to write about things they don’t have a choice on. However, to help build foundational skills in my 4th grade classroom, having choice in a topic is critical to getting my students loving my writing block. I do set parameters (for example, we write historical informational texts, and I let them choose anything that has some connection to Ohio). Even a choice between three different topics is still a choice!
TIP #3: Write in color. I was guilty of saying that my students had to write using
With just a few minor tweaks, you can easily turn writing workshop – especially your informational text unit – into something amazing!
Check out these other great ideas to spark a love of learning in your upper elementary students!
Spark a Love of Learning with Games | The Owl Teacher
Spark a Love of Social Studies | Tried and True Teaching Tools
3 Ways to Inspire a Love of Fractions | Mix and Math
Just-Right Reading: I Love Myself! | Reading by Heart
5 Ways to Ignite a Love of Math Problem Solving | Think Grow Giggle
Absent Work that Students and Teachers Love | Elementary Inquiry
Loving to Write Informational Texts | Mikey D Teach
Valuing Student Voice to Create a Love of Learning | Wild Child?s Mossy Oak Musings
Developing Grit: Learning to Love a Challenge | Kerry Tracy
How to Inspire a Love of Geometry | Love Learning


In these troubled times, teachers show how determined they are, as well as how vital it is to be an educator. Disaster-proof education helps you keep going on no matter what happens. Just remember that you shouldn’t panic, try not to overwhelm yourself or your students, consider teaching asynchronous classes and most of all, have each other’s backs.
The most important thing to always keep in mind when adapting any teaching activity for online education is that online learning doesn’t have to happen at the same time as online teaching. Adopting an asynchronous mindset is going to really help educators become even better at what they do.
A STEM curriculum is based on the key idea that disciplines should not be taught as separate and discrete subjects, but in an integrated manner that focuses on real-life application, to create problem-solving skills. If we use technology in real life to find innovative solutions to technical problems, why not use them with STEM students as well?
When we talk about empathy, we tend to see it as an innate ability: you either have it or you don’t. However, empathy can be taught and the earlier we teach it, the better. In K-12 education, teaching empathy might help students deal with their insecurities, improve their self-esteem and boost their abilities to make friends.
As a educator who experienced firsthand the challenges of teaching amidst natural and man-made disasters, Jen is an advocate for Disaster-Proof Education. Disaster-Proof Education is a proactive measure that makes teaching and learning continue with the help of edtech and good pedagogy – anytime and anywhere.
E-learning is a promising option for students who weren’t able to find success in a traditional classroom, and music education may help bring everything in balance. By making music a cornerstone of your lesson plan, your students may discover that they can more easily process ideas and concepts, propelling them towards success both in and out of their virtual classroom.
Teachers often feel as if they’re competing with technology for the attention of students. The presence of devices and apps in their students’ lives seems to be in the way of instilling a habit of reading. Technology can be both a distractor and a positive factor, which gave me an idea to celebrate this month by making a case for the latter.
There are many digital tools that can be used in the classroom to build a variety of skills. To decide where to start, think about some of the tasks that might be taking up a lot of your time, or reflect on some issues or challenges you might be having. With so many options available, we can provide something for all students that can meet their interests and specific learning needs.
AR is still far from being present in day to day teaching, but its usefulness can easily be seen. Including AR in class will increase students’ motivation and engagement. What is more, AR stimulates creativity and critical thinking, but also facilitates collaboration, which means it contributes to the development of the 21st century skills.
In EFL (English as a Foreign Language) classrooms, things tend to follow the old paradigm of sage on the stage. However, we argue that a more “guide from the side” approach is also possible and even more beneficial for EFL learners. An LMS can make a smooth transition towards the flipped classroom model and will empower students to form their own methods of language learning.


Florida State University’s world-renowned Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) today announced a multi-year partnership with SoapBox Labs, to create and deliver next-generation language and literacy assessments that could transform how young children around the world learn to read.
Pioneering reading research center leverages speech recognition for early literacy assessment
“SoapBox Labs has developed a unique speech recognition technology that actually works for children,” said Dr. Yaacov Petscher, an Associate Director at FCRR and Associate Professor at FSU. “This collaboration is about harnessing the transformative potential of speech recognition technology to develop next-generation literacy assessments that will enable educators to better understand children’s reading and language skills. Speech recognition holds immense potential, to better identify a child’s likelihood for literacy success, and to reduce the risk of bias for dual language learners or children who speak with a dialect variation. An immersive, reliable, and efficient assessment system like this can hopefully revolutionize the way we think about assessing children.”
Developing literacy skills during early childhood is a critical foundation to later student success in school and life, but literacy remains a challenge for millions of children around the world. While literacy assessment is critical to identifying challenges early on, young children are unable to perform the sort of tasks associated with traditional formative assessments.
Unlike the speech recognition technology found in mainstream voice assistants, SoapBox Labs’ speech recognition technology was built specifically for kids and their early literacy needs.
“This technology was developed to identify at a very early stage when kids are struggling with language or literacy development,” stated Dr. Patricia Scanlon, Founder, and CEO of SoapBox Labs. “Our technology delivers an interactive process that is accurate, providing immediate feedback to children, parents, and teachers on a child’s progress along the journey to literacy.”
FCRR’s pilot studies of SoapBox Labs’ speech recognition technology commenced in September 2019 with assessments of 1,000 students – from kindergarten through second grade – across Florida, Oregon, Atlanta, and South Carolina.
The partnership between SoapBox Labs and FCRR is part of the Reach Every Reader initiative, a partnership between the Harvard Graduate School of Education, the MIT Integrated Learning Initiative, Florida State University, and expert practitioners, students, and families across the US to develop effective solutions for readers. Reach Every Reader was launched in early 2018 with funding from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI).


Why Is Early Childhood Education So Important?
|Curriculum Resources||Research Literature|
|Montessori Method||Waldorf Method|
Early childhood education has long been debated by varying opinions. Some feel that young children belong at home and separate from instruction. Others feel that the ages up to 5 years are the most important years of education. It has been said that this is the time period when the brain does the bulk of its growing. This could mean that the learning process should be introduced during these years.
Results have proven that early childhood education can be the correct choice for some children. There are many phenomenal early childhood learning programs around the country. These programs are sometimes called daycare. They are not, however, daycare facilities of old. Those facilities operated primarily as babysitting services. Today's early childhood offering focus on the learning process along with other important functions.
They assure parents of the safety of their children throughout the week. Along with the time spent in these facilities, children enjoy learning curriculums, play, and socialization. Each of these works together to equip these young children with skill they will need in kindergarten. Some children will certainly progress more effectively than other children. They will advance far ahead of their age group is expected.
Being introduced to the learning process is an important step for these children. They soon embark on a whole new world of learning. These children are not only experiencing normal brain growth, but verbal and physical skills as well. Early childhood education teachers use a variety of techniques for instructing. They use lesson plans, worksheets, and even teacher resources for these young students.
The similarities between this sort of learning and what they will experience in the future are close. Many families have chosen to incorporate this sort of education at home. Home education systems focus on this same age group. They are performed in a less threatening and familiar environment. In home early education and outside early education can enhance the learning capacity of these children.
Children in some cases will become much more advanced. This is apparent in children who have undergone some sort of early childhood program. This process is also known to teach and enforce important skills for the future. Verbal skills, communication skills, and coordination are taught through various techniques. Software programs designed for this age group have been used in homes and facilities around the country.
In group settings, early childhood education provides kids with special skills. Children in these settings learn how to work well together, as a group or a team. This is particularly important for children without siblings at home. Goal setting is another topic that is taught through these learning programs. Children see the benefit of trying hard, focusing, and paying attention. Each of these will soon be crucial to future education years.
Preparation from early childhood education will follow these kids for years to come. When they are older students they will still be incorporating these skills with their learning process. The merits of learning in this way for these children are endless.
Websites That Are Dedicated To Early Childhood Education
- A-to-Z Kids Stuff
- Early Childhood Development
- Early Childhood
- Educarer World of Infants
- Embracing The Child
- ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education
- Idea Box
- Little Worksheets - Has worksheets just for Kindergarten, Preschool, and First Grade Students.
- Technology and Young Children
- The Perpetual Preschool


School enrollment has increased globally, but class sizes in the poorest regions are often so large that teachers can’t possibly focus on individual children,
warns aid agency World Vision. It’s one reason why 250 million children are still not learning basic literacy skills, especially girls, children with disabilities,
and those living in conflict zones. Photo/Tiatemjen Jamir / World Vision
- The primary school net enrolment rate in developing regions has reached 91% in 2015, up from 83% in 2000.
- The number of out-of-school children of primary school age worldwide has fallen by almost half, to an estimated 57 million in 2015, down from 100 million in 2000.
- The literacy rate among youth aged 15 to 24 has increased globally from 83% to 91% between 1990 and 2015.
- Globally, 250 million children – including many of the most vulnerable – are not learning basic literacy and numeracy skills even though half have attended school for at least four years.
- Half of the out-of-school children live in countries affected by conflicts and war.
“Class sizes in the world’s poorest regions are often so large that teachers can’t possibly focus on individual students. It’s common to see 50-70 students in a classroom with just one teacher. These children learn to sit relatively still and quiet so as to hear the lesson, but there is absolutely no chance for interactive learning, asking questions, offering comments, or reading out loud for the teacher,” says Nancy Del Col, Global Education Specialist, World Vision Canada.
“We must ensure that children are not only in school but are learning when they get there. Governments, communities, teachers and parents must work together to create a culture of literacy inside and outside the classroom. This is possible with more emphasis on training teachers and providing after-school reading support for children,” says Linda Hiebert, Senior Director, Education and Life Skills, World Vision.
“Global leaders must refocus on the role of education in poverty reduction. Literacy unlocks human potential and is the cornerstone of development. It leads to better health, better employment opportunities, and safer and more stable societies. Developing literacy skills in the early years is crucial to a child’s success in school and later in life,” says Linda Hiebert, Senior Director, Education and Life Skills, World Vision.
“We’re still not educating the most vulnerable children. We must continue to remind leaders that children in conflict-affected states, girls, children with disabilities, and other marginalised groups must be prioritised in the new post-2015 framework,” says Linda Hiebert, Senior Director, Education and Life Skills, World Vision.
International Literacy Day
Tomorrow (September 8) is UNESCO International Literacy Day
, which recognizes literacy as a human right. This year’s focus is the critical link between literacy and the new Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs), to be adopted later this month at the United Nations. A new SDG to “ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning” will set the international agenda for progress on education for next 15 years.
World Vision’s Work
World Vision works to ensure:
• Teachers know how to make learning effective and fun
• Parents are equipped to help their children learn in the home
• Community volunteers are trained to host after-school activities
• Whole communities get the opportunity to create learning materials for children that reflect their traditions, values and language
• Burundi: Clovis now lives in a literacy rich environment
• Ethiopia: Addisu moves from ‘not knowing to knowing’ at a reading club
MISSISSAUGA, ON – While curriculum and classroom size are top of mind for Canadian parents and teachers, soaring school enrolment in developing countries is straining the capacity of education systems. Since 2000 great strides have been made towards universal education for children, however, this progress is posing challenges for poorer nations to provide quality learning for children, says aid agency World Vision, which works in approximately 100 developing countries.


(Borrowed from Edmonton Public Library: but great advice anywhere!)
Early literacy is everything children know about reading and writing before they can do it themselves. It’s never too early to start; starting as newborns, children are developing skills that will help them throughout their lives.
The great news is that caregivers are already doing many of the activities that help develop literacy skills. Even better? The best way to further develop these skills happens to be fun for you and your child. What are the best ways for caregivers to foster early literacy development in children?
EPL programs like puppet shows, crafts and storytime for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, as well as our recommendations for great books and activities, will help develop the early literacy skills essential for reading success when your child is older.
Download your copy of the 100 Great Books to Read Together booklet now.


Teaching handwriting in early childhood
Relegating handwriting to the back burner of early childhood education ignores the close relationship between fine motor skill development and early success in math and reading.
Technology isn’t the enemy, but jumping to keyboards and calculators before mastering pencil and paper may not be developmentally appropriate for young learners.
Manuscript handwriting does make a cameo appearance in the Common Core for kindergarten through third grade, but the standards have abandoned cursive handwriting completely.
Handwriting is the direct precursor skill to note-taking, writing and sketching out ideas and plans. We can document practical benefits for students who master legible handwriting, including:
Better grades for neatly written work
A tighter focus on content and ideas, not the mechanics of letter drawing
Better motivation and confidenceÑwith less frustration about handwriting
Education technology and blended learning advocates recommend teaching basic computing skills before the age of 5 or 6, and the Common Core standards’ computer-based testing is pushing down typing and computer skills from middle school to kindergarten.
As we assess these dissonant signals, the research-based study of childhood development should play a larger role. Digital keyboards don’t deliver the same fine motor skill benefits as putting pencil to paper. Here’s why:
When we print the letter A, there is something essentially different happening than when we print the letters B or C. When we first learn how to form these letters, we go back and forth, looking at an A, B or C and the letters we draw ourselves.
On the other hand, we can press the A, B or C key on a keyboard without thinking of their differences. The result is perfectly formed letters. We don’t get the benefit of following the letters’ shapes in detail, and we don’t have to struggle with our fingers. As a result, research shows, young students in a school environment dominated by keyboards and touch screens don’t recognize as many letters as those who learn to write by hand.
Enter brain science from radiological imaging: Letters are symbols, maps, geometric shapes and directional arrows, and the brain creates a special pathway for each one as we absorb those shapes and draw them.
We decode letters using the visual cortex, but actually writing them stimulates the brain’s prefrontal cortex, a region responsible for restraining bad behavior, sustaining attention and avoiding bad habits. These mental processes are essential for success in learning.
In a 2011 study, our team examined the academic success of 1,000 second-grade students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. We found a strong connection between their grades and academic scores, on the one hand, and the fine motor skills when they were in pre-K classes.
Students who received good grades on fine motor writing tasks in pre-K had an average GPA of 3.02 in math and 2.84 in readingÑB averages. Those who did poorly had an average GPA of 2.30 in math and 2.12 in readingÑC averages.
Moreover, those who excelled at fine motor writing tasks in pre-K out-scored those who did poorly in both the reading Stanford Achievement Test (59th percentile vs. 38th) and the math SAT (62nd vs. 37th) in second grade.
We concluded that early writing difficulties can alert us to potentially global learning difficulties for young children, and that positive early writing experiences reinforce impulse control.
Clearly, developmentally appropriate fine motor skills and handwriting readiness deserve more space in the early childhood curriculum, and the benefit of more documentation and research. We can learn much more from these developmental experiences of these early learners.
Laura Dinehart is an associate professor of early childhood education at Florida International University.


Research Seminar “Culture and Inequality”
- In addition, students will be able to explain culture preferences through social stratification perspective, understand the link between cultural production cultural consumption, generate research hypothesis, develop academic skills in reading, writing, and presentation.
- be able to understand and discuss topics related to culture and inequality and improve skills in developing research design in the framework of culture and inequality studies
- Culture and Inequality (Course introduction)Why does art and cultural consumption matters. Status symbols and status groups. Schools, labour market and marriage markets as spaces of exclusion.
- Taste culturesArt perception as decoding process (Bourdieu original thesis). Code and legitimate culture. Abstract and contemporary art as specific objects for decoding. Upper classes as main consumers of legitimate art. Disinterested vs. Interested involvement: decoding or decorative qualities of art objects.
- Art as a professionDevelopment of artistic educational institutions & art museums. Art academies and challengers in art education. Dominating and competing groups: curators, trustees, managers. Conflict between curatorial and educational functions inside museums. Neoliberal turn and stimuli for marketization.
- Cultural production and urban milieusDistinction and reproduction of symbolic boundaries. Consumer “sets” or repertoires. Symbolic boundaries and negative choices (dislikes). Symbolic exclusion and musical taste. Contradiction between Bourdieu statements and contemporary political cultures. Preferences for democracy and tolerance. Race VS. status intolerance.
- Сultural production as labourConcept of creative labour. Creative careers. Cultural and creative industries. Inequality and precariat in creative industries.
- Art-world structure: producers, consumers, prosumersH. Backer’s circular model of art world. Professionals vs. mavericks. Professionals, art institutions and definition of creativity. Conventions. Who creates genius? Prosumers as recent phenomenon.
- Networks and creativityArt-production as two-mode data. Core-periphery structure of cultural industries. Advantages and disadvantages of periphery positions. Weakness and strength of core positions. Team position and composition. Small-world phenomenon in creative industries. Legitimacy vs. innovation dilemma.
- Class cultures and inequality reproductionClass cultures and cultural capital. How to measure cultural capital. How cultural capital influence educational attainment and chances on marriage markets.
- Interim assessment (3 module)0.4 * Class participation + 0.2 * Exam + 0.4 * Homework assignments
- Alexander, V. D., & Bowler, A. E. (2014). Art at the Crossroads: The Arts in Society and the Sociology of Art. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.25367D5F
- Tanner, J. (2003). Sociology of Art : A Reader. London: Routledge. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=111300


I have been looking over this old image I made back in 2016. I wanted to look at different ways of viewing square numbers. The image at the top right is one of my favourite and I first saw it on the nrich website: https://nrich.maths.org/2275
I have been playing around with some ideas and questions on Area and Perimeter. I was looking at the changes to the perimeter when I doubled the length of one side and then looked at how it affected the area when a rectangle was enlarged. There is quite a difference in the difficulty of each question. Whilst I was looking at some of these ideas in Geogebra I thought about the idea of moving one vertex of a triangle, whilst maintaining the same area and what the possibilities were. I thought it might make an interesting question when looking at the area of a triangle. I usually start looking at the area of a triangle by using a prompt like the one below. I find it fascinating that moving one vertex of a triangle along the line parallel to the line joining the other two vertices always results in the same area.
I have been looking ahead at some topics I will be teaching in the first term and one of those is inequalities. I wanted to look at some activities where students could identify shaded regions. I thought one activity could be to identify correct inequalities when the co-ordinates were substituted. Then once co-ordinates were identified as lying in a region I thought that then next step was to use this to find the correct inequality.
I have been playing a game called ‘Cheeky Monkeys’ with my daughter and the winner is the one that has the most bananas (the bananas are being held by the monkeys) I watched how my daughter lined them up in rows and then proceeded to count the bananas. I started counting the 1s and then the 2s and 3s so added 4 and 6 and 9 and made 19 but then considered the fact there was 3 rows of (0+1+2+3) and then an additional 1 too. This made me wonder about how we add up groups of numbers that have repeated rows Empty Boxes
I was thinking adding up numbers like these and at first I wanted to group the 8s but then thought that 8+7+3+2 was 20 and then it was just 20 times 6. I often like to check this by doing 48+42+18+12. So I thought it might be a good activity to try with my year 7 class in September. There are lots of ways I could extend it too.
At the school I work at, we have a lot of shared classes because we are a split site school. We often have classes once a week and the other teacher has the class 3 times a week. At KS3, it was decided last year that the once-a-week teacher should work on numeracy skills. I have been playing around with some numeracy resources I wanted to try out with my once-a-week classes based mostly around the Distributive and Associative Laws.
It’s funny that sometimes the most straightforward ideas can sometimes be quite surprising (for me anyway) The latest such idea is that the circumference of a circle with diameter 8cm is equal to the length of an arc of a semicircle with diameter of 16cm. I know this to be true but it just surprises me every time I see it.
I’ve added in the slide with AREA of semicircles too but just so students can see that area is affected differently to perimeter when scaling the diameter.


There is definitely something to be said for creating novel Christmas science activities for the holidays. Our magnetic science Christmas ornaments are perfect. My son gets really excited for these experiments but also seems to understand the science behind it all because we have explored the ideas with so many variations throughout the year. Easy Christmas magnetism science for kids.
MAGNETIC ORNAMENTS CHRISTMAS SCIENCE
I really love Christmas. No, I mean I really, really love Christmas which is why we have a huge collection of Christmas science activities that is sure to please.
Now on to our magnetic ornaments Christmas science activity! If you haven’t played around with magnets before, it is a lot of fun for kids. My son will take a magnetic wand and explore the house to see what is magnetic and what is not.
You will want a simple magnet kit to get started, but as you will see below, we love to use what we have around the house. Magnetic objects come in many different shapes and sizes. You can also try a Christmas themed magnetic sensory bin.
MAGNETISM WITH FILLABLE CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS
This activity is so simple to set up! You can make a basket of these ornaments for kids to explore! Add a magnetic wand or bar magnets and give your kids space to explore. A great invitation to play with Christmas science.
RELATED POST: Christmas STEM Challenge Cards Countdown
I purposefully did not seal the ornaments so he could open them up to explore. If you think it’s better to seal them with a bit of tape, then go ahead. If you don’t have these ornaments, set out the contents on a cookie tray for the kids to explore instead.
RELATED POST: Slime Filled Plastic Ornaments for Kids to Give and Get
What are fun supplies to have to make these magnetic ornaments Christmas science activity you ask? Jingle bells! Cookie Cutters! Nuts, bolts, and washers! Mini clothespins! Pipe cleaners twisted into wreathes! What else can you find? Oh and mason jar lids too.
EXTEND THE ACTIVITY
My son had a great time exploring each ornament. Mostly he wanted to try and get all the items up to the top and hang down. He noticed that some of the items were harder to gather than others.
You could put a little twist on the experiment by adding non-magnetic items to some of the ornaments. Let your kids predict which are magnetic and which are not. Have them test their guesses!
Open the ornaments and count the objects for extra math practice. Who can pick up the most items on their magnetic wand. Turn it into a fun jingle bell game too.
Don’t forget to grab your FREE set of Christmas STEM challenge cards…
Our favorite was the cookie cutter we added to our Christmas magnet science experiment.
There are a ton of fun ways to explore the sciences for every season and holiday. We especially love Christmas science and we also love winter science too. We hope you will make some of your own magnetic ornaments to play around with this season.
EASY MAGNETIC ORNAMENTS CHRISTMAS SCIENCE
Check out some cool Christmas math activities while you are here too!


Unfair! Unfair! How often have we felt that “life” was not fair? We’ve all experienced the burn of unfair treatment at one time or another, some life changing injustices and some real or perceived favoritism. So what did we do?
Center for Folk and Community Art (“CFCA”) artists, Dena Stewart and Stewart Stewart, went to high schools in inner city neighborhoods and asked teenagers to write a personal narrative about being in an unfair situation, and how they handled it. Then Dena and Stewart showed them how to visualize what they wrote and taught them how to illustrate their stories.
Most of the teenagers described typical unfair situations. Some weren’t picked for a team or club they worked hard to qualify for, but in their view someone less talented was selected, and that was unfair. Some believed their siblings received preferential treatment by their parents, and that was unfair. One young lady lost her mother at a young age, and that was unfair. Some had physical disabilities or chronic health problems that interfered with them participating in athletic or social activities, and that was unfair.
A 15-year old boy wrote, “I get good grades in school, I am a good person. So why are my parents so ashamed of me that they call me names and tell me they wish I was never born? Why do they hate me for being gay? I sometimes want to die. They should love me because I am their son, not abuse me. The way they treat me is unfair.” (As part of our outreach, we contacted the LGBT Center closest to his school and at our next workshop session we gave the boy the name and phone number of a social worker for him to call or text to set up a private meeting at a location of his choice.)
These teenagers had NO prior art education, so while they were learning to illustrate, they experienced the creative process and learned new methods to confront and overcome frustrations. By sharing their stories, they developed empathy, sympathy and integrity.
We THANK our Sponsors for helping us make this Project happen.
June I. Dressler and David Polansky
READ SOME OF THE STORIES


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The following Materials List contain the items required to successfully complete the Abeka Academy program.
The K4 readiness program teaches children to read through phonics instruction with one-and two-vowel words in small readers. Children learn number concepts 1 to 20 and counting from 1 to 100. The curriculum includes cursive writing, Bible, art, music, poetry, and language development activities.
Reading/Phonics—learn letters, sounds, blends, one-and two-vowel words in small books
Writing—cursive writing letters and words
Numbers—number concepts 1 to 20, count 1 to 100
Bible, art, music, poetry, language development activities
Books are available through ABA with an ABA enrollment. All materials listed above will be ordered for a K4 enrollment.
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The Importance of Art Education
In the recent past, educators have appreciated the shift away from the heavy emphasis on common core subjects like math and reading towards more subtle school curriculum elements like the arts. This is especially the case amongst children of kindergarten age given that simple and creative aspects associated with the arts should not be considered as a luxury but a critical building block towards holistic child development (Greenea and Sawilowsky 215). This literature review addresses the positive correlation between art and student learning as well as the benefits of incorporating art into purposeful cognitive and psychomotor learning amongst kindergarten learners.
The Correlation between Art and Student Learning
Teachers in a kindergarten setting primarily use art as a means to communicate with learners. According to Frey (para 3-4), through art, learners are accorded the opportunity to communicate their intricate and unique feelings and experiences to the outside world. By inspiring kindergarteners to make careful observations on what they perceive from a given art form, the teacher is able to inspire them to take steps further. Experiencing the art expressed by others, children are taught to be keen observers and to think critically on what they are able to perceive through their sense and comprehend in their minds. It also accords the teacher to actualize child centered learning models as learners are transformed into active and respectful listeners during classroom discussion involving peers (Fernandez para 9). This is in line with observations made by Frey (para 6-8) that for kindergarten aged learners, engaging in art for learning not only empowers them with finer understanding of visual images but also supports further learning outcomes. These include greater potential for l


Little Learners Child Care offers a loving, caring and nurturing infant environment for children, 6 weeks through 1 year of age. Dedicated teachers help to teach infants the fundamentals they will need to discover the world around them.
The Little Learners toddler program provides a strong foundation and rapid literacy development for children ages 1-2 years.The program uses music, arts, crafts and manipulatives to strengthen the child's knowledge and teaches them to learn by play experiences.
The two- year program, for children ages 2-3 will excite the imagination and curiosity of students. With daily lesson plans and monthly themes, this program teaches children about discovering the world around them and the basic fundamentals such as writing, reading and basic knowledge.
The pre-school program is a specially designed program for children 3 years and older. It prepares children for kindergarten by educating them on topics such as math, reading, science and basic writing skills. Different monthly themes enable their understanding within a wide ranges of areas.


Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Ecological Art Exhibition as Transformative Pedagogy
ECOLOGICAL ART EXHIBITION AS TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY Stacey Skold, Ph.D. University of Nebraska, 2020 Advisor: Mary Alice Casto Environmental degradation is considered one of the biggest issues facing humankind. The problem is deep and global with fast fashion playing a significant, yet underrealized role. Scholars have established that developing the sustainable behaviors necessary to mitigate the effects of environmental degradation is a complex process, that knowledge of environmental degradation alone is insufficient to develop sustainable behaviors, and that both attitudinal and behavioral transformations are necessary for global environmental action and stewardship. As a result, researchers have called for new approaches to environmental education to promote transformative learning. Art experiences can function as a powerful tool in learning and transformation, but art exhibition experiences are underutilized in environmental education. This quasi-experimental study was designed to determine whether an ecological art exhibition, Canary Concepts and the Hidden Danger of Ubiquitous Things, could be associated with internal factors related to sustainable behaviors in fast fashion consumption—specifically an environmental attitude consisting of knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors. This repeated measures study compared pre-exhibition and post-exhibition knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors test scores of 163 University of Nebraska-Lincoln student participants. They consisted of 148 females and 15 males ranging between 18 and 34 years-of-age. Two-tailed t-tests were used to determine whether there was a statistically significant increase in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors associated with the exhibition-intervention. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors supporting the primary hypothesis that an ecological art exhibition experience can be an effective educational intervention and transformative experience. Results also demonstrated the importance of the holistic nature of the exhibition experience, as the majority of participants attributed changes in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors to the exhibition-as-a whole rather than individual labels or installations. Relationships between participants’ characteristics and changes in knowledge, values, and intended sustainable behaviors were also explored. Keywords: environmental attitude, ecological art exhibition, environmental education, environmental degradation, sustainable education, fast fashion, textile industry, environmental attitude, environmental knowledge, values, transformative learning theory, fashion footprint, chemical pollution, plastic pollution
Environmental education|Sustainability|Museum studies|Art education
Skold, Stacey, "Ecological Art Exhibition as Transformative Pedagogy" (2020). ETD collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. AAI28085936.


WonderWorks: A K-6 Reading Intervention Program
WonderWorks: An Overview
Level Up with WonderWorks
WonderWorks supports struggling readers and writers through research-based, data-driven, systematic instruction. WonderWorks rapidly accelerates students back to grade-level standards and promotes literacy by building foundational skills, developing close reading skills, providing differentiated instruction with scaffolded support, and informing instruction through assessment.
Components for WonderWorks
Targeted intervention instruction to support students toward leveling up to grade-level standards.
Interactive Worktext(Grades 2–6)
Students work with the same weekly themes, skills, and strategies as the core Wonders curriculum, with additional on-page scaffolding and support for intervention.
Practice Book (Grades K–1)
Blackline masters that provide meaningful, scaffolded practice activities based on the weekly skills.
Decodable Readers(Grades K–3)
Allows students to apply phonics and high-frequency word skills to connected text.
Apprentice Leveled Readers(Grades 2–6)
The Apprentice Leveled Readers are two grade levels below and offer support to level up to the Approaching Leveled Reader in the core Wonders curriculum.
Foundational Skills Kits (Grades 2–3 and 4–6)
The Foundational Skills Kits offers explicit instruction, practice, and assessment of phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and word recognition to remediate identified gaps in skills.
The kit includes Foundational Skills Lesson Cards, Practice and Assessment BLMs, High-Frequency Word Cards, a Decodable Readers package, and may more interactive instructional components.
Foundational Skills Lesson Cards
These cards offer teachers a flexible way to access and use foundational skills lessons. Each skill is color-coded, so teachers can find all resources to practice a particular skill.
Foundational Skills Practice and Assessment
Practice pages in grades 2–3 are for phonemic awareness, phonics, and structural analysis. Practice pages in grades 4–6 are for phonics and structural analysis. Speed drills are included to practice word automaticity.
Blackline masters (BLMs) that test students on skills taught throughout each unit.
Resources for Hands-On Learning
High-Frequency Word Cards
Support acquisition of high-frequency vocabulary.
Photo Cards (Grades K–2)
Brightly colored picture cards to increase content area and domain-specific vocabulary.
Laminated cards support instruction in medial short-vowel sounds, final consonant sounds, and vowel variants.
Write-on/wipe off response boards for students to practice tested words.
Visual Vocabulary Cards
Full-color, photo-word cards introduce specific vocabulary for the week. They provide instructional support for phonics, vocabulary, and language development.
Set of individual cards that students can manipulate in practicing spelling.
Sound Box (Grades K–1)
Three-dimensional box with pockets and markers that support phonological and phonemic awareness.
Word-Building Cards (Grades 2–6)
These cards support letter recognition and word-building skills. Each card represents a specific letter or sound-spelling pattern, which students combine to form regularly-spelled words.


Our Music Program
Music Education Throughout The Grade Levels
Our music program provides a challenging and supportive learning environment for all students regardless of their level of expertise. Repertoire is drawn from a range of styles, periods, and cultures, and students gain an understanding of the role that music plays in daily life.
Lower School Music
In the Lower School, students explore their talents as performers and music creators using approaches that include Kodaly, Orff, and Dalcroze. Students learn the foundations of sight singing, vocal technique, improvisation, composing, music reading, and instrumental work. In Middle and Upper School, students pursue a variety of musical options, performing in concerts, productions, showcases, assemblies, and community events. Private music lessons are available after school.
Middle School Music
Starting in fifth grade, music options include chorus, where students learn different vocal techniques and voice parts, orchestra where they develop technical skills to play violin, viola, or cello, and jazz band, where they improvise and play repertoire on wind and brass instruments.
Upper School Music
Ninth and tenth grade music offerings include chorus, jazz band (by audition) and chamber ensemble (by audition). At this level, courses dive deeper into sight reading, dictation, music history, theory, and composition, and instrumental students maintain a practice schedule of at least 45 minutes a day.
Our International Baccalaureate (IB) program offers a performance focus in chorus, chamber ensemble or jazz band, with participation granted by audition. Students learn performance and technical skills and study music in Western society, international music, musical literacy, and music theory.


Art history is a discipline dealing with artistic works and movements throughout history, including paintings, sculptures, architecture, and more. While completing an online art history program, you will learn about various aspects of art, including works from different eras, regions, mediums, famous and influential artists, and factors that influence art, such as culture, religion, and society. Your online degree program in art history will give you an understanding of art and the impact it has had on society over time. In many cases, these degrees are earned by individuals who want to teach others about art, whether in a classroom setting or in places such as museums or art galleries. Art history degrees can be earned at all levels.
Online Associate Degree Programs for Art History
An online associate degree program in art history will give you foundational knowledge of art history. Many of the courses you complete will be introductory level, introducing you to various areas of art history. These typically focus on either a specific time period or culture. For example, the curriculum for the online associate degree in art history program offered at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills, Calif., includes courses such as Introduction to Art, Introduction to Asian Art, Art History: Middle Ages to Renaissance, Introduction to Islamic Art, and American Art. An online associate degree program can typically be completed in around two years for full-time students, depending on the program. This degree may lead to entry-level positions at museums and art galleries, or used toward a higher-level degree.
Online Bachelor’s Degree Programs for Art History
Online bachelor’s degree programs in art history are usually four-year programs, if you attend full time. However, some programs may take up to five years. These programs typically require you to complete 120 credit hours, consisting of general education courses, art history core courses, and electives. Many online art history bachelor’s degree programs, such as the one offered at Mansfield University, are divided up as follows: 30 credits in art history, 55 credits in general education, and 35 credits in electives. A bachelor’s degree may qualify you for numerous positions, or, if you want to pursue a graduate degree, your bachelor’s degree should meet the admissions requirements.
Online Master’s Degree Programs for Art History
Online master’s degree programs in art history can typically be completed in around two years, if you attend full time. However, a common enrollment requirement is to hold at least a bachelor’s degree in art history or a related field prior to beginning the master’s degree program. This is because the majority of online art history master’s degree programs will not incorporate general education courses. The courses you take will generally be advanced level, focusing on specific areas of art history. Many of these programs focus on art education and can lead to teaching careers.
Online Doctoral Degree Programs for Art History
Doctoral degree programs online in art history may be completed in around two years for full-time students, if you already hold a master’s degree. If you only hold an undergraduate degree, the program may take around four years to complete. The curriculum in an online art history doctoral program will consist of highly advanced courses in art history topics. Though many career options may be available for those with a doctor of art history degree, this degree is typically used toward a teaching career at a major university. Therefore, many of your courses may also emphasize education.
Online Degree Programs in Art History in the Work Place
Your art history degree may lead to a career as a curator where you use your knowledge of art to expand collections found at museums and art galleries. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that curators typically earn an median annual income of $42,310 and are expected to see an increase in employment of 25% through 2020.
You might also pursue a career helping others gain an understanding of art. For instance, you might use your bachelor’s or master’s degree to become a high school teacher, where, according to the BLS, the median annual income is $53,230 and there is an expected 7% increase in employment. Or, with a doctoral degree, you might become a postsecondary teacher at a college or university, where, according to the BLS, the median annual income is $62,050 and there is an expected 17% increase in employment. However, what you earn will depend on several factors, including your employer, location, and amount of experience.


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Evan-Moor materials are based upon current research and best practices in education. Our editorial team
is constantly investigating new trends and developments in educational pedagogy to effectively meet
the needs of today's students. Read the research behind our materials:
Most teachers understand the diverse needs of students within their classrooms but have difficulty providing the range of materials needed to consistently support their varying needs. This whitepaper reviews current research on lesson differentiation and modalities of learning, and how Evan-Moor’s TeacherFileBox resource effectively supports teachers’ access to meaningful lessons and students’ access to engaging standards-based content-area instruction.
By supplying a set of specific criteria for thinking and communicating about writing, the Six-Trait Writing model offers a practical and successful technique for teaching, implementing, and assessing effective writing. This paper reviews selected research studies that demonstrate the effectiveness of using the Six-Trait Writing model to enhance student achievement in writing and language arts.
Most research on vocabulary instruction has focused on teaching general use vocabulary. More recently attention has been given to a special class of vocabulary called “academic vocabulary.” This paper reviews selected research studies that demonstrate the importance and value of teaching academic vocabulary through direct instruction.
As differentiated instruction has gained momentum in 21st century classrooms, both teachers and school administrators have come to understand the importance of providing multiple opportunities and formats for students to acquire skills and understand concepts. This paper reviews how Evan-Moor’s Daily Centers support the three critical elements of differentiation—content, process, and products.
The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from research studies that support frequent, focused practice as an effective strategy for teaching elementary school children language arts skills. This paper explores Daily Language Review in context of the research: “frequent, focused practice leads to mastery and retention of the skills practiced.”
To ensure solid skill acquisition, effective phonics instruction should provide multiple practice opportunities for students to use what they have just learned by decoding and encoding words and, gradually, connected text. Daily Phonics provides teachers with a systematic and explicit format to teach students fundamental phonics skills.
The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from research studies that support frequent, focused practice as an effective strategy for teaching elementary school children mathematics skills. This paper reviews Daily Math Practice and Daily Word Problems in this context.
In order to develop reading comprehension, students need sufficient practice in research-based strategies and skills. This paper presents key reading comprehension strategies and skills, and examines how Daily Reading Comprehension builds and reinforces strong reading habits that will generalize to any core curriculum.
According to recent research, a holistic approach to science and reading instruction results in improved student achievement in both areas. Daily Science helps teachers effectively integrate science instruction into the reading curriculum. This paper reviews the effectiveness of using engaging content-area instruction of scientific concepts and direct instruction of science content vocabulary.
High-interest reading materials are designed to motivate and facilitate learning, particularly among struggling and unmotivated readers. The purpose of this paper is to review relevant research studies that support the view that high-interest materials taught in the manner prescribed by Hot Topics: High-Interest Reading will have a positive effect on student learning.
Nonfiction writing is an important part of authentic lifelong learning and is therefore a crucial component of elementary curriculum. Evan-Moor’s Nonfiction Writing series provides teachers with the instructional materials they need in order to support students’ skill development in the above areas, as well as in daily activities to build and reinforce written language skills that generalize to any core curriculum.
Evan-Moor’s Everyday Literacy: Science helps PreK through 1st grade teachers effectively integrate foundational science instruction into the reading curriculum. This white paper reviews current research on developing science literacy, overall literacy skills, and standards-based science instructional practices.
Evan-Moor’s Everyday Literacy series provides teachers with the instructional material they need to support students’ skill development in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. This white paper reviews the most current research on instruction that develops skills across the language continuum and the effect of daily practice on the development of language skills.


Do this activity to promote your child’s literacy and numeracy skills! This is great for the little ones to learn letter order and counting.
- Letter recognition
- Fine motor practice
AGE: 3 – 5 Years Old
TIME: 10 Mins
CATEGORY: Literacy, Numeracy
- Toy Car
- Play the Alphabet song on repeat while doing this activity, to reinforce the alphabet order.
- This race track can also serve as a mini board game! Incorporate counting in it by saying a letter and having your child count the number of spaces it takes to arrive at the said letter.


Learning With Music
- Paperback: 286 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (8 Aug. 2017)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1138192597
- ISBN-13: 978-1138192591
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 1.7 x 24.6 cm
Learning with Music offers an accessible introduction to music education theory for those working in the early years. Using real case studies and rich examples, the book provides practical suggestions to develop the formative ideas of music education, such as melody, rhythm, pulse and timbre, into games and activities for every early years setting.
Chapters include a range of tried-and-tested lesson sequences and accompanying developmental benefits, allowing practitioners to confidently create tailor-made lesson plans and manage music sessions, ranging from one child through to larger groups. Each concept is grounded in child development theory, as well as music education theory, giving practitioners an insight into the research-based principles and priorities of music education for their own unique setting.
With a clear focus on the benefits of teaching music from birth to preschool, Learning with Music is essential reading for all early years practitioners, as well as students on Early Childhood courses.


The Curriculum Design, both innovative and comprehensive, provides for three major domains with opportunities for every learner to actively participate in each of the three with choices of subjects and activities built therein.
Education today is far more and far beyond just the academic achievement. It is about evolving physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, culturally with well-developed personal and social skills coupled with linguistic, numerical, logical & analytical competencies.
Art Education; Developing aesthetics and connecting with joyful existence. Students shall opt for at least one skill in each of the following;
Citizenship Studies - Sensitizing to their society and environments – making them good and responsible individuals and citizens.
Clubs & Societies - Development of whole persona of the student – they blossoms and blooms in all manners and through all seasons.
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) Education – Getting future ready
School Health Program
1. Physical Education & Sports
2. SEE Learning [Socio, Emotional & Ethical Learning] are the personal skill sets that every individual must have so as to connect with cohorts. In world rife with conflict, disease and poverty, SEE skills and competencies become an essential attribute of every DPSG Student.
Goal Setting – Fostering a culture of ownership of learning by students; students set and monitor their goals supported by teachers.
Value Added Preparatory Programs: these may be provided to students preparing to appear for specialized entrance tests, Olympiads or other competitions like NTSE & KVPY.


Academic achievement plays an important role in children's development because academic skills, especially in reading and math, affect many outcomes, including educational attainment, performance and income at work, health, and longevity. A new synthesis looked at the relation between academic achievement (reading, math) and cognitive abilities (working memory, reasoning, executive function), and offered suggestions on how to improve educational and cognitive outcomes.
The synthesis was carried out by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge. It is published in Child Development Perspectives, a journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
"It's widely thought that being smart helps you do better in school, but does doing better in school make you smarter?" asks Peng Peng, assistant professor of special education at the University of Texas at Austin, the lead author of the synthesis. "Research has long supported the idea that cognitive abilities are foundational, that is, that being smart leads to better academic achievement. For example, students who learn how to solve math problems at school can develop the reasoning abilities to solve problems in real life .We found that sustained and high-quality education directly fosters children's academic and cognitive development, and that it may indirectly affect academic and cognitive development by triggering a sort of bidirectional action that amplifies both."
This bidirectional action is especially important for children with disadvantages, who often lack the resources or foundational skills to trigger and benefit from it. The authors note that short-term cognitive training may be insufficient to improve academic performance. This is because beneficial relations between academic skills (reading and math) and cognitive abilities (working memory, reasoning, and executive function) are modest and take time to develop. However, over time, such modest effects can have large and lasting impacts.
"This emerging field suggests that it's better to think of school-based skills such as reading and math, as well as cognitive abilities such as memory and reasoning, as part a system that has positive interactions among each other and that together, support development," concludes Rogier A. Kievit, group leader at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, who coauthored the synthesis. "The ultimate hope is to support both cognitive abilities and academic skills by better understanding these processes."
More information: The Development of Academic Achievement and Cognitive Abilities: A Bidirectional Perspective, Child Development Perspectives, DOI: 10.1111/cdep.12352
Provided by Society for Research in Child Development


The message of this book is a simple one: children learn to draw by acquiring increasingly complex and effective drawing rules. In this regard, learning to draw is like learning a language, and as with language children use these rules creatively, making infinite use of finite means. Learning to draw is thus, like learning a language, one of the major achievements of the human mind.
Theories of perception developed in the second half of the 20th century enable us to construct a new theory of children's drawings that can account for their many strange features. Earlier accounts contained valuable insights, but recent advances in the fields of language, vision, philosophy, and artificial intelligence now make it possible to resolve the many contradictions and confusions inherent in these early writings.
John Willats has written a book that is accessible to psychologists, artists, primary and junior schoolteachers, and parents of both gifted and normal children.
Table of Contents
Contents: Preface. Introduction. Part I: Studying Children's Drawings. Contradictions and Confusions. In the Beginning. The Early Years. Where Do We Go From Here? Regions. Lines, Line Junctions, and Perspective. Part II: Mental Processes. "Seeing in" and the Mechanism of Development. The Drawing Process. Part III: Child Art. Children as Artists. Art Education. Summing Up. Appendix.
"This new, pioneering book addresses the typical questions about this complex research area, but does it in a way that feels more convincing than most other writings on the subject. It is an especially rigorous look, which takes nothing for granted and does not hesitate to doubt even the most sacred assumptions about children's drawings."
—Leonardo Digital Reviews


Music is a significant piece of our life as it is a way of communicating and expressing our feelings and emotions. A few people think about music as an approach to escape from the torment of life. It gives you relief and helps lessen the stress. Music is a way to make you either calm down or excited.
Music plays more significant roles in our life than merely being a source of entertainment.
- Music is the key to creativity.
Music energizes the brain and in this way, fills our creativity. A creative mind can make discoveries and create innovations.
Tuning in to instrumental music and playing a musical instrument enable you to tell the story without words. Both require great right brain usage, which practices one’s creativity and intellect. The Arts, including painting, writing, dancing, and theater, can make a similar effect.
- Music makes education increasingly enjoyable.
Music is engaging in the school classroom and is an effective tool for memorization. Music is a more effective way to memorize and retain information quicker. It is said to be a good option to learn new things quickly with the help of music.
In bringing up kids, music education can be utilized to keep kids focused. However, a few types of music can impact kids in negative manners. Notably, music has the capacity to affect how we dress, speak, think, and live our lives. Profane and savage lyrics can have a negative impact on kids.
- Music is the language of the universe.
You’ve heard this on numerous times, however, what does it really mean? Music is universal in that there are no limits to understand music. Indeed, even creatures like birds, dogs, and whales can comprehend music in a specific way.
- Music can create a mood, makes you express your emotion.
Music can make time feel frozen, makes you nostalgic. Music likewise has the ability to propose movement. All these are associated with the human senses.
There are times that some songs make you feel sad, happy, or upbeat. Be that as it may, how do tones make such an impact on our senses? Nobody truly knows why or where it originates from; however, many studies have shown that there is an understanding of which emotions relate to specific scales, harmonies, and chords.
- Music Brings People Together.
What is astounding about music is that it is embedded inside us all. Everyone can get it and feel something if you open yourself up. Playing music with other people brings an incredible feeling of joy. There is a particular sort of connection that comes when you make music in a group. The same thing goes for those individuals who are making their own music and let others, especially of the same interest, listen to it. This is possible with Spotistar where you can share your talent to a wider audience, whatever your genre is or the region you belong to.


Build & create with our sandpits for schools
Sand and water play in school is so magical and exciting for children, opening up a world of new experiences to explore with their peers and teachers. We understand that tactile play is so vital for children in the early years and through primary school. This invaluable style of play enhances the senses, encouraging children to explore the different materials and feel the variety of textures. So we're very proud to provide a range of high quality sandpits for schools, helping to facilitate this wonderful style of learning.
Weights, measures & numeracy skills
Sandpits and water play equipment provide the perfect setting for learning about weights, measures and mass. With the addition of resources including measuring jugs, spades and scales, a sandpit can support numeracy and science lessons with hands-on sensory play. Experiencing and learning about the changes in texture, weight and mass by really feeling and seeing this happen is a wonderful way of encouraging children to take part in the lessons, supporting the numerous skills and knowledge gained in each lesson.
Think creatively & experience new textures
Sandpits and water play equipment promote imaginative play, using lots of creativity to build shapes and objects. Building sandcastles encourages children to think about how different amounts of sand and water work together to create different textures and consistencies.
Develop communication & social skills
Children love to get messy and play with their little peers, so getting stuck in with sand, water and mud is so much fun. Exploring messy play activities together encourages little ones to communicate and share imaginative ideas with each other, helping to develop strong friendships.
Using multiple senses at once, there's lots of new experiences to explore and absorb, creating lots of excitement and fun in the play area. Listening to each other's ideas and creativity, watching the adventures unfold and feeling new textures are all happening at the same time, keeping the little ones fully occupied and encouraging valuable communication skills.
Interactive & inclusive play
Sensory activities in preschool and primary school are interactive and inclusive, bringing children together and opening up opportunities to talk to each other and develop important social skills. Sand and water play equipment is perfect for incorporating into lesson plans in early years and key stage 1, or provides an exciting sensory play area for preschool.


Creating and engaging with art has been a fundamental part of human existence for thousands of years. Archaeologists discovered musical instruments dating back more than 35,000 years, and music is linked to the origins of human language. Today, music surrounds us, from the background of our favorite television shows and movies to the $15 billion global recording industry.
With music playing a key role in our development and continuing to remain deeply rooted in our day-to-day life, it is particularly crucial to ensure children and teens have access to a well-rounded education that includes music as a core area of study.
“Music education has powerful and undeniable effects on student learning, achievement and lifelong success,” according to the Arts Education Partnership’s recently released Music Matters report — updated in partnership with the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation and the Country Music Association Foundation. A growing body of evidence continues to identify music’s positive impact on student success and support findings that music education equips students with foundational skills to learn — while also increasing their engagement and achievement across a variety of academic subjects and contributing to lifelong success.
With an interest in increasing student access to and participation in music education, states, districts, schools, educators and nonprofit organizations are working in a variety of ways to engage students in music. In Tallahassee, Fla., one music teacher uses a classroom music rug to help students work together as a team, engage them in active-learning activities and teach the rhythm and dynamics of music. Through participation in the Street of Dreams Musicians for Education program, teen mothers receive support in obtaining the credits they need to graduate high school and pursue a college degree. And a recent announcement from the NAMM Foundation shared the selection of 583 school districts and 135 schools across the country as 2018 Best Communities for Music Education for their efforts supporting music education as part of a well-rounded education.
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides important opportunities, like those mentioned above, for engaging the arts in education, including:
- As part of the definition of a well-rounded education.
- As a means for achieving the goals of Title I, ensuring all students in all schools have access to a high-quality education.
- As a lever to support effective educators.
- As part of a comprehensive system of education that includes schools and community-based organizations providing learning opportunities to support student achievement.
As demonstrated across the country in state ESSA plans, policymakers have embraced the arts as a way to promote deeper learning, student engagement and academic success. For example, Connecticut and Illinois include access and participation rates in music education as part of their planned accountability systems under ESSA; and 36 states address music and arts as part of a Title IV-funded, well-rounded education. Early and sustained educational experiences in music deliver skills that can effectively predict long-term success in college, careers and citizenship. By investing in music instruction across the P-20 spectrum, education leaders, policymakers and practitioners can continue to provide students with the tools to support their learning and develop the foundational capacities for lifelong success.
Interested in using Music Matters in your music education work? Contact Cassandra Quillen at email@example.com to purchase copies of the Music Matters brochure.


One of the most promising areas of modern architectural rendering is 3D design (it stood out from graphic design in a separate direction). This profession requires specialists to have a good level of knowledge and experience in working with 3D editors and professional 3D modeling programs.
In order to become an expert in this field, just the desire and artistic taste not enough, that requires a special art education. In addition, it must be remembered that the work of 3D designers has much in common with the work of graphic designers, but the work of visualizers, modelers, animators, and other 3D specialists is characterized by its specific features.
A 3D designer is a professional in the field of three-dimensional graphics, who customizes computer characters for game animation, provides movement of drawn models and objects. Speaking in a high syllable, the art of a 3D designer is to breathe the soul into the character and create a living, animated world around.
There are various specializations in the field of 3D design, here are some of them:
A visualizer is a specialist who creates design projects on the basis of documentation, plans, sketches, and drawings. The fate of the whole project often depends on high-quality visualization.
The visualizer can translate any ideas into 3D: from architectural structures and interior design to clothing collections. For successful implementation in the profession, the visualizer must have a variety of qualities and skills, both creative and technical: volume-spatial thinking, artistic taste, sense of style, be aware of the latest trends in design and be proficient in computer programs for 3D modeling.
A 3D animator is a specialist who is able to customize computer characters for game animation, as well as high-poly models (visualization takes place with the help of graphics polygons) for filmmaking and video.
Using the classic principles of animation, 3D-animator creates three-dimensional dynamic objects that perform a variety of movements. Despite the fact that the 3D-animator uses modern computer technology, the profession is based on the classic principles of animation, known since the days of Walt Disney.
A 3D modeler is a specialist who, on the basis of real and imaginary objects, builds their visual models, at the same time working through every detail: from the dimensions and bends to all the roughness and flaws of the simulated object.
This profession has a very low entry threshold and attracts more and more creative people – artists, architects, sculptors. But to become a professional in it, one needs to work hard, as well as know the basics of topology, shading, lighting, etc.


HIPPY – Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters
HIPPY is a home-based programme that supports parents to be involved in their children’s learning. Children start HIPPY programmes when they are 3½ to 4½ years old and work with their parents for 15 minutes a day, for 30 weeks of the year over two years.
The HIPPY programme includes 60 weekly workbooks with lesson plans, 18 storybooks and supporting materials and these activities are complemented by what children learn at their local early childhood education centre, kohana reo or language nest.
Parents help their children to develop cognitive skills including language, problem solving, logical thinking, perceptual and other school readiness skills. All HIPPY activities can be linked to learning outcomes in the early childhood curriculum framework, Te Whaariki, or the New Zealand Curriculum Framework for primary schools.
HIPPY Tutors & Results
Parents who have recently completed or are currently working on a HIPPY programme with their own child can train to tutor other parents in the HIPPY method. Being in the same community as other parents with young children gives tutors a deep understanding of the families they support and they can form trusting relationships.
HIPPY children start school ready to learn and able to settle into the learning environment. They often score better on measures of literacy, numeracy and understanding appropriate school behaviour than non-HIPPY peers and retain their reading and numeracy skills.
ATWC supports the HIPPY programme which is based at its St Mary’s Centre headquarters in Otahuhu and run by Great Potentials.


PK-8 General Music
PK-8 General Music Maps*
Learning in general music classes is most effective when students are actively involved and have quality aural experiences. Performing, working in small groups, active listening, creating, moving to music, and independent projects result in deeper learning than lectures and worksheets. Courses in general music, therefore, should provide developmentally appropriate opportunities for performing (voice, guitar/ukulele, keyboard, percussion, handbells, electronic generated music and other instruments); responding (movement, listening-based classes such as music history and literature); creating (electronic music, improvisation, composition); and making connections to other arts, disciplines, cultures, and personal life. Because performing, responding, and creating are the modes through which musical understandings are achieved, even listening-based classes should include appropriate performing and creating activities. Recommended activities, such as listening, performing, creating, improvising, and responding are efficient hands-on learning modes, attract and hold the students’ interest, and give students a key to lifelong enjoyment of music.
Special consideration needs to be given to developmentally appropriate early childhood music education. As stated in the Wisconsin Music Curriculum guide, “Music education for young children involves a developmentally appropriate program of singing, moving, listening, creating, playing instruments, and responding to visual and verbal representations of sound.
*Standards maps may be reproduced if Wisconsin Music Educators Association is cited as the original source.


From Music in Our Schools Month, to this month’s International Jazz Day or Buy a Musical Instrument Day – there are plenty of opportunities throughout the year to celebrate the influence of music on our lives and raise awareness of the importance of music education. At HARMAN, we’ve witnessed first-hand how music and musical education can help build self-esteem, foster a curious mind, and encourage a love of learning. Take a closer look at some of the ways we’re helping spread the power of music…
Make Music Day
Celebrated annually in June, Make Music Day is an international ‘festival’ of music that encourages people of all ages to experience the joy of making music. For the past several years, HARMAN has partnered with the Make Music Alliance as the official sound of Make Music Day Street Studios. These mobile recording studios are equipped with state-of-the-art microphones, speakers, recording equipment and a variety of instruments from HARMAN, all readily available for any passerby to come lay down their own track. Over the course of the day, musicians of all levels – from experts on the guitar to burgeoning drummers – can discover the expressive power of music.
Little Kids Rock
An early introduction to music is key to the musical and imaginative growth of every child, and Little Kids Rock is dedicated to helping teachers and schools build, restore, and expand music programs as diverse as the kids they serve. By partnering with public school districts in some of the nation’s most underserved communities, Little Kids Rock helps bring the gift of music-making to students by supplying musical equipment and providing training courses to teachers and educators. HARMAN’s partnership with Little Kids Rock began with the development and launch of Jam Zone in 2015 – an innovative online tool that provides free music instruction to kids and adults of all ages. Since then, we have expanded our partnership to provide modern and professional development training, curriculum, and instruments to music teachers in cities including Dallas, TX, Detroit, MI, Los Angeles, CA, and New York, NY.
Grammy Music Education Coalition
Our latest partnership found us working with the Grammy Music Education Coalition (GMEC), a non-profit collective of organizations dedicated to bringing universal music education to schools nationwide. The Coalition expertly designs music education programs based on the specific needs of the schools so that the programs will be sustainable for many years to come, ensuring that students, teachers, and parents fully realize the benefits of music education. Since joining the Coalition Founders Circle last year, HARMAN is helping provide the resources necessary for well-rounded music programs. This year, the first HARMAN Inspired Studios will be built in underfunded public schools located in New York, NY and Nashville, TN, followed by Los Angeles, CA in 2020.
Our appreciation of music has always been the driving force behind HARMAN – ever since we introduced the first FM tuner up to the sophisticated personal headphones we produce today, we have always wanted to bring its transformative energy to communities all over the world. Together with our partners, HARMAN remains dedicated to helping spread the power of music education. For more on what we’re doing to nurture music education: https://www.harman.com/inspired


Named from Greek words for “stone” and “writing,” a lithograph print is made from flat plates with no etching or carving. Invented by German author Aloys Senefelder, the technique traditionally used limestone tablets, although contemporary artists may use aluminum or zinc plates instead. This style of printing, also known as “offset,” produces a high volume of copies at a reasonable price.
Putting on the Prints
To make a lithograph, the artist transfers the desired design to the stone with waxy grease pencils or crayons, followed by an oil-based ink. After that, a sheet of paper is pressed to the tablet to transfer the image. For color prints, each of the four main print colors requires a separate plate and transfer. The artist may also choose to hand-color a completed black-and-white print.
Pamela Martin has been writing since 1979. She has written newsletter articles and curricula-related materials. She also writes about teaching and crafts. Martin was an American Society of Newspaper Editors High School Journalism Fellow. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Teaching in elementary education from Sam Houston State University and a Master of Arts in curriculum/instruction from the University of Missouri.


English Language Arts
In the 21st Century, our most compelling challenge is to prepare students with the literacy foundation needed to contribute locally and globally, deepen their skills as thinkers, and develop their intrinsic desire to read and write in order to achieve their goals. If we are to meet this challenge, we must provide students with significant opportunities to engage with and respond to rich texts that reflect the diverse backgrounds and experiences of every student.
In order for students to view themselves as readers and writers, we must create a culture that celebrates the foundational role that literacy plays in lifelong learning.
In order to best support educators, purposeful, evidence‐based, ongoing literacy professional development is key to improving the methods, practices and strategies that effectively address student literacy needs. Teachers must have quality resources to deepen their knowledge, instructional skills, and cultural competency to effectively meet the needs of our diverse student population. Additionally, teachers need time to collaborate with colleagues at all levels, as well as opportunities to review, design, curate, and share exemplars.
Ultimately, successful literacy education is achieved through a partnership among all stakeholders: teachers, students and their families, school, and the community. The task of the Beaverton School District, then, is to foster a thoughtful climate in which all students are valued for their diversity, supported in their literacy development, motivated, and challenged to continue learning throughout their lives.
The current ELA curriculum was adopted by the School Board on May 16, 2016. The adoption process followed the procedures outlined in the Instructional Materials Selection Administrative Regulation II/IIA-AR.


Our young people need to build a whole range of skills required to function well as a valued member of society and to be independent, and successful in further/higher education and work.
All of our skills training is based on pupils achieving independence to complete daily life tasks. Pupils are taught, for example, about shopping, finance, travel, research and catering. This is dovetailed with our PHSE curriculum looking at choices and decision making as well as community inclusion.
We recognise that developing functional literacy and numeracy skills are core to support successful adult life. Maths and English are taught as both discrete and embedded subjects, with small group and one to one sessions to allow pupils who are behind to catch up, and our able and gifted pupils to achieve their full potential.
Work related learning raises aspirations, promotes a greater awareness amongst pupils of the world of work and the development of key skills and employability.
Academic and vocational accreditation is available from Entry level 1 to A level.


The Hiekanpää campus in Pieksämäki in Eastern Finland encourages a learning process focusing on experiences. The building and its outside areas function as objects and tools of investigative learning. The architectural and technical solutions illustrate mathematical, physical, technical and artistic notions and phenomena in a concrete manner.
The buildings form a learning environment that enables and supports different learning paths. The orientation in the environment is intuitive and the surroundings are in close interaction with the functions. The new spaces encourage natural, informal encounters between students, staff and working life. Division in classes in learning environments will disappear in the future and the focus will be on large entities of information and knowledge. The new learning environments at Hiekanpää enable studying thematic entities.
The learning will sometimes take place under the supervision and guidance of a teacher, sometimes individually or in groups by investigating, experimenting and by playfully moving around. Each pupil has their own teaching group but in addition to this collaboration projects will be formed in elementary education, secondary education and adult education combining different age groups and even different generations. The activity can also engage external partners, for example local businesses, entrepreneurs, artists and organizations. The modus operandi requires pedagogic proficiency, innovation together with collaboration and interaction on various levels as well as an advanced use of information technology together with flexible spaces that can adapt to various functions.
The aim is to create a common culture of doing things together. A flexible space designed specially for the learner supports versatile learning in varied groups. The space opens towards external learning environments, encourages encounters and inspires learners by offering interesting stimuli and tools for individual learning. Mobile learning and virtual surroundings are an important part of an environment built for the learner: the tools needed for studying are not necessarily bound to a certain place but can be taken anywhere. This is how the learning environment expands: the nature and the urban space become the classrooms of tomorrow.


David Young Cameron described James Craig Annan’s photogravure of Venice as ‘a dream in the softest tones dedicated in loving homage to the Bride of the Sea lying enchanted and far away across the long low lines of grey lagoons’. Annan’s print was also a homage to Whistler, whose well-known ‘Venice Set’ etchings may have inspired the 1894 trip from which these works arise.
Annan and Cameron worked side by side, as their results show. Both use the horizon line as the dominant compositional element. Annan’s photograph, made with a small hand-camera, is tightly cropped, whereas Cameron allows the verges to disappear, as in Whistler’s treatment of the subject. Cameron has left out the gondola mooring posts that provide vertical counterweights for Whistler and Annan. Annan has gently enhanced the edges of the buildings outlined against the sky, mirroring an effect seen in Cameron’s pencil drawing. Such hand-work was possible with photogravure, a fine photomechanical process that Annan had learned from its Viennese inventor, Karel Klic, when Annan’s father Thomas bought the British rights to the process for his printing company, T. & R. Annan. The firm made gravure reproductions for artists, and James became close to ‘the circle of young Glaswegian artists like James Guthrie, John Lavery, E.A. Walton, [and] D.Y. Cameron, now known as the ‘Glasgow School’. Annan added: The constant communication with these men and the most careful studies of the old masters were the only art education I received and regard it as extremely valuable.’
The etchings and nocturnes of James Abbott McNeill Whistler inspired photographers, who adopted his atmospheric subjects and aesthetics. While photography had achieved a technical sophistication that allowed photographers to produce highly resolved, realistic images, many chose to pursue soft-focus effects rather than detail and precision. Such photographs paralleled the unpeopled landscapes of contemporary artists of the day.
Jacobi, Carol, and Hope Kingsley. "Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the Modern Age" , 2016. pl. 85
Morrison-Low, A D, Julie Lawson, and Ray McKenzie. "Photography 1900: The Edinburgh Symposium" Edinburgh: National Museums of Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland, 1994. fig. 22.
Stevenson, Sara, and Duncan Forbes. "A Companion Guide to Photography in the National Galleries of Scotland". Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2009. p. 118


Today with the Toddler children we made a Peppa pig cake; Donna gave the toddlers a cake mix to make. Making cake is a great activity to teach children how to mix, blend and bake. It is a great chance for the children to build upon their self-help skills and independence.
The children were able to use fine motor skills while mixing the cake ingredients together using the utensils. We prepared all the materials needed for the cooking activity such as mixing bowl, cupcake tray, patty pan, big spoon and whisk. Everyone wore their gloves to minimise the spread of germs, Tilly mastered putting on her gloves quite quickly. Marcus attempts to put the gloves on himself needing a little assistance from his educator. Brianna laughed and showed me her oversized gloves.
Marcus poured the cake mixture into the mixing bowl, and the children began to stir it all together. Each of the children had a turn of mixing on their own blending the ingredients to make the cake batter. Tilly slowly mixed the cake, Brianna and Marcus needed some help with how to mix it. The children looked as though they were having fun doing the activity as they were laughing with each other.
Marcus said “me”, Tilly said” my turn”.
After everyone had their turn mixing the cake they poured it into the cupcake tray using a big spoon to make 10 cupcakes. We then gave it to Donna to put in the oven to bake. When the cake was cooked we put some Peppa Pig picture decorations and a little bit of icing on top. The children were all very excited to see what they had created and ready to eat it for our afternoon tea.
This activity was a fun and educational activity for all of the children.
EYLF 1.1.2: This activity helps to develop Literacy and numeracy, confidence, independace and fine motor skills.
What next? This was an activity the children enjoyed we will continue to include baking and cooking experiences within the curriculum that will help with, confidents, independence, literacy and numeracy skills using different kinds of cooking methods and utensils used for cooking.