Common Core State Standards
6.RP: Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
6.NS: Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Reading
Reading 2: Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10: Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Language
Language 1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
Vocabulary Acquisition and Use 6: Acquire and use accurately a range of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases sufficient for reading, writing, speaking, and listening at the college and career readiness level; demonstrate independence in gathering vocabulary knowledge when encountering an unknown term important to comprehension or expression.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening
Comprehension & Collaboration 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
Comprehension & Collaboration 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally
Presentation of Knowledge 4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
MS-PS1-1: Develop models to describe the atomic composition of simple molecules and extended structures.
MS-PS1-3: Gather and make sense of information to describe that synthetic materials come from natural resources and impact society.
HS-PS2-6: Communicate scientific or technical information about why the molecular-level structure is important in the functioning of designed materials.
HS-ESS3-3: Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies – National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
- Theme 1: Culture
- Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
- Theme 3: People, Place, and Environments
- Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
- Theme 7: Production, Distributions, and Consumption
- Theme 8: Science, Technology, and Society
- Theme 10: Civic Ideals and Practices
College, Career & Civic Life (C3)
D4.6.6-8: Draw on multiple disciplinary lenses to analyze how a specific problem can manifest itself at local, regional, and global levels over time, identifying its characteristics and causes, and the challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address the problem.
D4.7.6-8: Assess their individual and collective capacities to take action to address local, regional, and global problems, taking into account a range of possible levers of power, strategies, and potential outcomes.
D4 .7.9-12: Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
National Standards for Music Education – National Association for Music Education (NAfME)
Core Music Standard: Responding
- Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators’ and/or performers’ expressive intent.
Core Music Standard: Connecting
- Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding.


School administrators and parents should know that music and art training at pre-school level helps in making students better prepared for middle school education. A report on a recent study conducted by researchers at the George Mason University Arts Research Center provided evidence of a link between elective courses in visual art, music, dance and drama, and better academic performance in middle school.
Adam Whitler, Professor of Applied Developmental Psychology at the university,who led the study, explained that their goal was to determine if students who elected to take middle school arts differ from students who do not. Their evaluation and examination of archival pre-school to middle school public-school records of a diverse group of students, showed that those with prior training in music and arts had more advantage. Their edge over students without music and art background was evident even seven years earlier, having developed stronger social skills and cognitive language as early as age 4.
After taking hold of statistical data to validate their assessment, their next goal was to establish whether taking up art and music courses in middle school can be linked to later academic results until they completed 6th, 7th and 8th grade levels. Their assessments yielded positive results.
Underscoring the Importance of Creative Learning
According to Professor Adam Winslers, they followed a group of 31,331 students; 61 percent of which were Latino, while 31 percent were African-American. Fifty-five percent of the group were English Language Learners, while 81 percent in the group received free lunch or lunch discount.
Based on their assessment of the group’s school records, students who were exposed to middle school arts training, mostly came from families with higher income and with both parents living in the household.
In light of those findings, this article links the significance of the George Mason Study to an article on education published by Jana Sosnowski at Seattle PI dot com. Through the article,
Ms. Sosnowski who, holds a Master of Science in Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology underscored the importance of Art, Music and Physsical Ed in Elementary Schools.
Yet art and music programs in public schools are on a decline. In most U.S. states, because the creative courses are the first to be eliminated when budget cuts take place.
Ms.Sosnowski used a report by the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation, in citing how budget cuts in education throughout the country between 1982 to 2008, resulted to a decline in art and music education at a rate of 23 percent,.
That is why by 2008, 57 percent of students who attended schools, had enrolled in educational institutions that offer music education as part of instructions.


Coping and social support as mediators between work environment and burnout in elementary school teachers
This study examined coping and social support as mediators between work environment and burnout in female third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school teachers (N = 95). Predictor variables were scales from the Work Environment Scale-Form R. Mediating variables were factors scores from the COPE Inventory and the total score from the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List. Criterion variables were the three scales of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey. Denial, Disengagement, and Humor demonstrated a stress buffering effect for the cognitive demands of the work environment as manifested in Task Orientation, but it did not demonstrate this beneficial effect for the emotional demands of the work environment as manifested in Work Pressure. Teachers who reported the highest level of Planning and Active Coping reported the lowest levels of Depersonalization and the highest levels of Personal Accomplishment. Social support did not mediate any relationship between work environment and burnout.
Elementary education|Psychotherapy|Occupational psychology
Puwalowski, Sarah, "Coping and social support as mediators between work environment and burnout in elementary school teachers" (2006). ETD Collection for Fayetteville State University. AAI1449362.


Kinney, D. W. (2019). Selected nonmusic predictors of urban students’ decisions to enroll and persist in middle school and high school music ensemble electives. Journal of Research in Music Education, 67(1), 23-44.
What did the researcher want to know?
Who enrolls in urban middle school and high school music classes?
What did the researcher do?
Kinney obtained student demographic information from one large midwestern metropolis area. This district was comprised of mostly minority students (62% Black, 26% Caucasian, 9% Hispanic, 3% Asian, <1% Native American), and 78.5% of students were enrolled in free/reduced lunch programs. Since elective choices began in 6th grade in this district and state standardized tests were administered in 6th, 8th, and 10th grades, Kinney collected data for students in those three grades.
Kinney assembled a database that indicated whether each student in 6th, 8th, and 10th grade was enrolled in band, strings, or choir. This database also included the following information for each student:
- reading achievement test score
- math achievement test score
- free/reduced lunch status (as an indicator of SES)
- number of parents/guardians in the home
- district mobility (whether the student had moved into the district in the past year),
- school mobility (whether the student had transferred schools within the district in the past year)
Kinney used these factors as variables in conducting a multinomial logistic regression to build a predictive model for initial 6th grade enrollment and 8th/10th grade enrollment/retention in band, orchestra, and choir.
What did the researcher find?
Statistical analyses revealed the following student characteristics to be significant predictors of whether a student was more or less likely to enroll in elective music classes at each grade level:
What does this mean for my classroom?
Results suggest that students with higher math achievement are more likely to participate in instrumental music in urban schools. However, the fact that this was consistent across the span of grade levels suggests “that higher achieving students are attracted to instrumental programs from the outset and that systematic differences between this population and the general school population remain relatively stable over time” (p. 36). This provides evidence against the common argument that participation in music raises standardized tests scores and instead implies the difference lies in who chooses to participate in instrumental music in the first place.
Band teachers should be aware that student SES can predict whether a student participates in band. Teachers should be conscious of the fact that SES can be a limiting factor for student enrollment and find ways to make access to band class accessible to students who might struggle to afford an instrument or other supplies.
High school band programs typically involve various before- and after-school requirements (e.g., marching band, pep band), which may be why students from two-parent/guardian homes were more likely to participate in band in high school. It is possible that single-parent/guardian homes encounter more challenges in navigating these extra activities. For example, a single parent who works the night shift may not be able to transport their child to or from before- or after-school activities. High school band teachers should be aware of these challenges and work to mitigate them so that all students have equal opportunity to participate.
Finally, teachers should be aware of the ways in which enrollment trends may reflect racial and gendered “norms” of who participates in band, orchestra, or choir. Only band reflected a more balanced enrollment of males and females, while females were two to three times as likely as males to enroll in orchestra or choir. While race/ethnicity trends varied across grade levels and ensemble types, the data implies that white students tend to more consistently enroll in ensemble classes. Teachers can be mindful of these trends in their recruiting efforts, and all music educators can work to defy racial/ethnic and gender stereotypes in the repertoire they choose, the materials they use, and the musicians who are represented in their classrooms. “Through deliberate, conscientious efforts to reach students often underserved by music ensemble offerings, teachers will no doubt create a more democratic, equitable, and viable elective choice for all” (p. 41).


Today, 15th May 2019, is National Numeracy Day. You may have noticed the topic trending on twitter and other social media platforms, as well as the campaign being supported and promoted by the likes of the DfE, Virgin, BBC, Rachel Riley, Martin Lewis and countless other big names and individuals. National Numeracy Day is run by the UK charity, National Numeracy. So what’s it all about and how can you improve your EYFS Numeracy activities in your early years settings?
So what’s it for?
Attitudes towards numbers is widely regarded as being negative for a very long time. National Numeracy wants to help make people feel confident and recognise the value and presence of numbers in everyday life.
Why is LearningBook in support of National Numeracy Day?
As a provider to the educations sector we think numbers are important, they help our staff and peers in the day-to-day functioning of LearningBook and within schools, preschools and nurseries. We use numbers and the skills gained through mathematics to help us solve problems and support our customers every day. As well as encouraging adults to improve their number skills we think it’s only right we should also start encouraging a love for numbers and mathematics at the very start of life – in the early years.
As you know Mathematics one of the specific areas of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), and acts as a key foundation for when children move from EYFS on to KS1. By establishing a positive relationship with numeracy early we feel that his may go some way to helping this National Numeracy’s cause.
Here’s a few simple, fun and exciting activities for you try in your early years setting (some are focused and some can be worked in throughout the day during other activities) in order for you to progress your children through their EYFS numeracy skills:
1) Number Rhymes
Resources: Your voices!
Activity: Sing lots of songs that include numbers and amounts during play time and pack away time, or maybe even when you’re waiting for breakfast, lunch or tea to be served. For example, “Ten Green Bottles”. You could use props and act out the different songs, remember to ask children “How many bottles are left?” or “Can everyone count the bottles on the wall?”
2) Dice Rolling
Resources: Big dice
Activity: You can use dice for just about anything and to encourage child’s behaviours. For example, children can roll a dice and the number that appear can be how many toys they can take out of the box. Or it can be the number of children on table 1, etc. Ask the children “What number do you see on the dice?”, or ask “How many toys can you take out of the box?”
Resources: Books with counting element, e.g. “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle.
Activity: During story time ask children to count certain aspect of the book. For The Very Hungry caterpillar ask the children to count the number of pears, or “How many pears has the caterpillar eaten?”. You could even ask the children, “ Which caterpillars are big and which are small?”
4) Straw Sucking
Resources: One straw per child, a ong piece of colourful card, paper/card pieces with numbers 1-10.
Activity: Scatter the pieces of paper/card that have the numbers on them on the floor or table. Use the colourful piece of card as the number line. Ask the child to use their straw to suck up the numbers tin order or say certain numbers you want them to move. This will help them recognise names of numbers, as well as being able to order them consequtively.
5) Role Play
Resources: Children’s imagination!
Activity: This activity can include any role play area of your room, e.g., a farm shop, or it can be when children are role playing in general. Children can act as shoppers and shop keepers and count out the number of carrots and other fruit and veg on their stall. They can also add the amount of money to buy the different food. Encourage the children to ask each other “How many carrots would you like?” or “How many apples do you have?”.


* Curriculum *
At the LOLC, students will have the opportunity to engage in weekly classes that focus on the following goals and curriculum structures:
- Interdisciplinary inquiry-based lessons that will give students the opportunity to research and delve deeply into teacher and student selected thematic topics in writing, reading, social studies and math that align with Oregon State Standards. Students will continue this work at home with weekly direction and guidance from the center’s teachers.
- Creative enrichment opportunities that will also allow for the further practice and development of foundational skills
- Grouped learning projects that allow for students to develop constructive teamwork, communication and collaboration skills within the context of authentic work
- A supportive environment for working on individualized math curriculum materials selected by each students’ family. Given the freedom to use a math curriculum chosen specifically for your child’s needs seamlessly encourages a continuity in learning between time spent in the classroom and at home. The learning center will give students the time and space to work on their individual math plans with access to teachers and parent volunteers. (Teachers and staff are happy to offer different curriculum options for your child, if you prefer some suggestions.)
- Opportunities to participate in lessons and activities as part of a stable social learning community that supports, guides and encourages constructive social interactions (i.e. through playing learning games, working on collaborative research projects, public presentations of work, participating in civics or history simulations, etc.).


I have several different digraph ck phonics activities and games to share with you. These ck games and activities engage your students through interactive, hands on, and fun ways to practice -ck words and spelling rule. Let’s get started!
Over the past several years I incorporated Phonics Friends into my phonics instruction. Phonics Friends are “friends” that help students remember phonics sounds and spelling rules. You can read more about Phonics Friends and what they are here.
DIGRAPH CK PHONICS ACTIVITIES AND GAMES
Phonics Friend Linebacker Jack will be an anchor for your digraph ck learning. He helps students remember the ck sound and spelling rule. When you introduce him to your class, really play it up – throw on a football jersey, bring in a football or anything else that fits the part and welcome your students to GAME DAY! His job is to stay at the back of the word to protect the vowel from any other vowels trying to join the word. When Jack puts his arms out, he says, “ck”, “ck”.
Roll and Draft CK is an interactive partner game where students take turns flipping over a word card, identifying if the word is spelled correctly using -ck, and rolling a die to see what they need to do with their -ck card. Only the -ck words can be drafted!
Drafting CK is an independent activity where students are applying the spelling rule for -ck.
Finger Football is a fun partner game to practice word reading. Partners take turns flicking the paper football with their finger, reading the word that the football landed the closes to, and then recording that word and the corresponding points on their scoreboard.
Race to the End Zone is also a word fluency game. Students work with a partner to read as many -ck words as they can before the timer goes off. They record a tally mark each time they make it to the end zone!
Who remembers hopscotch? Finger Hop is just like that game, but with fingers! This is a partner game where students take turns reading -ck words!
End Zone Sounds is a sound game to practice segmenting -ck words. This is a great game to reinforce that -ck makes one sound!
Dab It Out is another sound segmentation activity. Students use bingo markers to dab out the sounds in the word.
Touchdown Bingo is a played just like the regular game of bingo – the teacher calls out the word and students cover that word with their game piece. Add some extra fun to it with pretzels or goldfish for the game piece counters!
Let’s take a look at some word work activities…
Puzzle Cards are always a good interactive way for students to practice building, reading, and recognizing words. There are 2 different puzzle options for students to use.
Build It mats are another great way to practice building words. These mats can be used with the paper letters that are pictured, or you can use magnetic and/or plastic letters.
These Word Cards can be placed in a pocket chart on the board for students to reference to if they need it when completing the Build It Mats.
Write the Room gets students up and moving around the classroom. Tape the cards in your room and students walk around the room and record the answer on their recording sheet.
You can find all of the above activities plus LOTS more in my CK Phonics Friend resource here.
Like these activities and want to share them with your friends? Pin this pic!


Do you have the knowledge and instructional ability to effectively teach foundational skills and to support students who show signs of reading difficulties? It is a tall order — and one that challenges many new and veteran teachers. How to Prevent Reading Difficulties, Grades PreK-3 builds on decades of evidence and years of experience to help teachers understand how the brain learns to read and how to apply that understanding to Tier 1 instruction. The book includes:
• step-by-step descriptions of techniques for effectively teaching phonological awareness, spelling, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension
• specific Tier 1 activities, routines, and frameworks that build and strengthen word recognition and language comprehension
• links to video demonstrations and online resources
• clear, practical explanations of the science of reading, including the Eternal Triangle and the Simple View of Reading, to help teachers understand the fundamentals of the reading process, recognize how difficulties arise – and understand how to address them
Author Mark Weakland brings new energy to teaching high-priority foundational skills. By blending the science of reading with the best instructional practices that lead to authentic reading—the ultimate goal of balanced literacy—teachers can prevent many reading difficulties in K-3 learners.


Date of Award
Doctor of Philosophy
School of Education
Professor Caroline Barratt-Pugh
Professor Lim Cher Ping
Dr Jenny Lane
Digital literacy learning has become a requirement created by the wide development and application of new technologies for communication and representation. In the context of this study, ‘digital literacy’ is defined as a set of skills that enable an individual to use technologies to work with information. It builds on the traditional literacies of reading, writing, listening and speaking and includes elements of information literacy, media literacy and technology skills.
The purpose of this study was to investigate digital literacy learning in terms of the set of competencies - aspects of digital literacy - that a student in an upper-primary school English-language classroom in an international school in Hong Kong needs to possess to participate meaningfully and actively in representing through digital multimodal texts such as digital stories. In this study, digital storytelling is defined as a contemporary strategy for the creation of digital multimedia content for expressing ideas, representing knowledge and otherwise communicating information through digital artefacts.
This study adopted a case study approach, mapping the development of digital literacy skills in three students. Data collection included, a whole class student questionnaire, interviews with the three case study students, participant observations, class discussions, students’ written reflections, peer evaluation, discussion of planning documents and digital artefacts by the researcher and three students as well as analysis of the digital artefacts by the researcher. In the course of the study, the three participants engaged in the planning and creation of three digital stories based on different genres: pourquoi story (narration), story review (response) and show & tell (personal story with a predefined genre). Analysis of the collected data provided insights into how digital storytelling supports digital literacy learning in an upper-primary-school English language classroom, what aspects of digital literacy develop through digital storytelling and what are the factors that inhibit the effective implementation of digital storytelling.
The key findings of the study suggest that digital storytelling is an effective strategy for digital literacy learning in a Primary 6 English-language classroom. Digital storytelling has supported the digital literacy learning of the three participating students and provided a context for the development of digital literacy. In addition, it has enhanced other aspects of teaching and learning that contribute to digital literacy development. To identify and analyse the aspects of digital literacy that the three students developed, an assessment rubric was constructed by the researcher. The application of this rubric produced evidence that suggested that all aspects of digital literacy were developed through the three digital storytelling projects.
Each of the three projects completed by the students enabled them to build on their skills while learning new digital literacy skills. The study also found that the implementation of digital storytelling in the classroom was mediated by a range of issues that were affected by both curricular and extracurricular constraints. The study produced a number of recommendations for teachers and curriculum designers in relation to integrating digital storytelling into the school curriculum.
Churchill, N. (2016). Digital storytelling as a means of supporting digital literacy learning in an upper-primary-school English language classroom. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1774


How to Design a Foundation Planting
A foundation planting highlights the home while hiding an otherwise unattractive foundation. The plants grown near the home should complement the overall style of the house and other landscaping. The root system of the selected plants is also important, as large shrubs with strong root systems can damage your foundation, causing cracks or leaking. Before plunking down a row of bushes or random flowers, create a design plan to ensure the plants selected work well at your foundation.
Measure the length of the foundation where you want the plants. Measure out from the home's foundation to the front edge of the planting bed. Match the depth of the foundation planting bed on either side of the front door to create symmetry.
Assess the style of your home's architecture to guide plant selection. For example, neat, pruned plants work best for formal or classical homes, while billowy plants, like ornamental grasses, mesh well with a casual, cottage-style home.
Evaluate the growing conditions along the foundation. Track the hours of sunlight received by the area so you can choose plants with corresponding sun needs. For example, if the area receives shade for several hours, you'll need plants that can thrive in shady conditions.
Visit a local nursery to get an idea of the types of plants that grow well in your area. Make notes of the plants you like, including the ideal growing conditions.
Sketch a picture or photocopy an actual image of your home to plan the foundation planting. Draw in shrubs and plants to help you select sizes, shapes and styles of plants. For example, if you draw in large shrubs on either side of the front entrance, you might decide the scale is wrong and you would prefer smaller plantings in that area. Alternatively, cut general shrub or plant shapes from another piece of paper. Lay the paper cutouts on top of the picture so you can move them around and try different arrangements and spacing.
Choose an accent planting on either side of the front door to highlight the home's entrance. For example, position a large urn of perennials or a trellis with vines on either side of the entrance.
Position tall plants, like dwarf trees or large shrubs, at the corners of the home to make the house seem bigger. Avoid tall plants along the front of the home, as they obstruct the house and provide burglars with a place to hide.
Choose an evergreen shrub or perennial as the base plant along the home. This gives the foundation planting year-round color and reduces bare spots.
Fill in around the evergreen base with perennials that bloom at various times during the year for continuous color. For example, include tulips for spring color, hydrangeas for summer and mums for rich fall color.
Arrange plants with the tallest against the house. Position remaining plants in a graduated layout with the shortest plants up front where they are visible.
- When planning the layout, consider the full size of each plant at maturity to determine spacing. Leave enough room for the selected plants to fill out.
Based in the Midwest, Shelley Frost has been writing parenting and education articles since 2007. Her experience comes from teaching, tutoring and managing educational after school programs. Frost worked in insurance and software testing before becoming a writer. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education with a reading endorsement.


SSA is implemented as a flagship programme of GoI for universalizing elementary education. Its overall goal includes universal access and retention, bridging gender & social category gaps in education and enhancement of learning levels of children.It provides a variety of interventions inter-alia opening of new schools, alternate schooling facility, construction of schools,drinking water facility, textbooks etc.
The programme was launched in the State of J&K in the year 2002-03.
Primary and Middle Schools
Enactment of RTE Act implies providing of free and compulsory Elementary Edthe Act is not applicable in the State of J&K as on date.ucation to 6-14 years age group. However,


The lower school years are the time to build a foundation for a lifelong appreciation of the arts.
Children engage in music, theater, dance, drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics and are encouraged to explore and experiment. They visit museums and cultural institutions and study the works and lives of artists.
Arts activities are integrated in the classroom curriculum, whether students are creating clay sundials during the first grade unit on Mexican culture or making Japanese prints during the fourth grade unit on East Asia.
Our young artists strive for educational excellence through practice and constructive critique, reflecting on, revising and refining their work over time. We also strive to use our exhibit and gallery spaces to validate the student experience while engaging our community in an exciting, celebratory, and thought-provoking manner. The visual arts play a significant role in the intellectual life of our students. The arts enhance thinking - the ability to use observation, metaphor, interpretation and imagination. We believe that analysis, creativity, the process of creating something, and innovative thinking are life skills that the arts develop.
Respectfully valuing all perspectives and voices produces a more tangible understanding.
The Heart of an Artist
Junior kindergarten students didn’t just paint hearts for Valentine’s Day in February. Instead, they used their artistic skills to honor one of the most celebrated African-American painters of the 1940s, Jacob Lawrence. The students learned that the Harlem artist painted everyday life as well as historical narratives of African-Americans, including The Migration Series, a pivotal set of pieces that focused on the movement of hundreds of thousands of African-Americans from the rural South to the North, and their adjustment to the Northern cities. Students then created works on paper hearts that focused on their own home and items around it in an effort to showcase the communities represented in their classroom.
Highlights and Shadows
Second graders create self-portraits in the style of Pablo Picasso.
Performing arts are represented in the lower school by general music, band, and dance/movement. From the earliest years, students in music classes begin with what they do instinctively: play. Imitation, experimentation, guided exploration, and personal expression lead effectively into music literacy. The music curriculum is based on the Orff Schulwerk approach of exploration, while it incorporates the music reading, aural literacy and movement-based principles of the Kodaly, Gordon and Dalcroze approaches to music education. The general music program aligns with the academic, physical education and visual arts curricula within a framework of multiculturalism and inclusion.
Outside the classroom
- wind ensemble
- student art shows
- grade-level assemblies
- after school resources for grades 1-4, including visual arts, performing arts and instrument instruction.
For young children, especially, the visceral component of arts education is so important. In our art room students touch art. They put their hands in clay. They put mosaics together. They get to feel materials and fabricate things.”
One of the reasons why theater is so important is that it teaches empathy and presentation skills, and I found myself applying both to my schoolwork outside of the shows.
Participating in middle school and high school productions taught me so much about empathy and creative expression, and as I got older, I realized how much those skills in particular prepared me for leadership in the Latin community and beyond.


Children’s Development and Learning
The provision for children’s development and learning is guided by The Early Years Foundation Stage (DCSF 2007). From September 2008 the Early Years Foundation Stage became law. This brings together Birth to Three Matters and the Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage. Our provision reflects the four key themes and 16 commitments of the Early Years Foundation Stage.
How we provide for development and learning
Children start to learn about the world around them from the moment they are born. The care and education offered by our setting helps children to continue to do this by providing all of the children with interesting activities that are appropriate for their age and stage of development.
The Areas of Development and Learning comprise:
- personal, social and emotional development;
- communication, language and literacy development;
- problem solving, reasoning and numeracy;
- knowledge and understanding of the world;
- physical development;
- creative development.
For each area, the practice guidance sets out the Early Learning Goals. These goals state what it is expected that children will know and be able to do by the end of the reception year of their education.
The practice guidance also sets out in ‘Development Matters’ the likely stages of progress a child makes along their learning journey towards the early learning goals. Our setting has regard to these matters when we assess children and plan for their learning.


5.99 In Stock
This book takes a very simple look at the Triceratops dinosaur, examining what it looked like, what it ate, how it behaved, and its special skills and features such as the horns on its head. The book also discusses how we know about Triceratops today, showing where fossils are found and how scientists put them together.
About the Author
Daniel Nunn has written numerous books for young readers on a variety of topics, specializing in early years and elementary education. Like Eddie the Elephant, he enjoys playing hide and seek with his two young children. His favorite hiding place is behind the curtains in the living room!
Table of Contents
Meet Triceratops What was Triceratops like? Where is Triceratops now? Where in the world?


Phonics Games for Kids
Reading Eggs includes interactive phonics games and activities that will teach your child how to read. Register now for your free trial!
Phonics is an essential part of learning to read, and Reading Eggs is the proven way to help children build early phonics skills and phonemic awareness.
Suitable for ages 2–13, Reading Eggs features online phonics activities and games to help your child learn to read in a fun, interactive and highly motivating way.
Register now for your free trial of Reading Eggs. It’s fast, easy and obligation-free!
Phonics games for kids - proven to work
- Uses a systematic phonics method to teach your child to read
- 91% of parents see an improvement in their child's reading ability within weeks
- Based on solid scientific research
- Used in over 12,000 primary schools worldwide (and counting!)
- Developed by expert educators with 30+ years' experience
- Money-back guarantee
- Detailed assessment reports show and recognise progress
Why children love learning phonics with Reading Eggs
- Hundreds of educational games, colourful animations, fun songs and exciting rewards
- Makes learning to read fun and highly motivating
- One-on-one lessons match your child’s ability
- Over 2500 e-books for children of all ages and reading levels
Reading Eggs features hundreds of structured lessons and thousands of phonics games and activities to support your child’s literacy development in phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension – the five keys to reading success.


We love nursery rhymes at Toddler Sense, but why are they so important for babies & young children?
Music is made up of rhythmic patterns which makes it easier for children to recognise. Children will automatically move to the rhythm or beat of the music, and by reinforcing this skill by using music to support our activities will develop a Childs cognitive abilities from an early age.
So why sing nursery rhymes?
Well nursery rhymes are probably going to be your babies first experience with words. They are so important as they help develop an ear for language and will encourage their vocabulary and numeracy skills. When you link words with actions such as those in nursery rhymes it will strengthen your childs movement, concentration, memory, rhythm and motor skills.
So when do I start singing nursery rhymes?
From birth! the sooner you can start singing to your baby the better. Babies are constantly looking at faces and will soon learn the differences in facial expressions and your tone of voice. When your baby is small, singing to them will create a lovely bond and help to regulate their emotions. As they grow, repetitive nursery rhymes with actions will help your baby to learn musically, verbally, visually, and physically. They also increase body awareness, coordination and control.
Here is a list of Nursery Rhymes with actions
Round and Round the Garden • Pat-a-cake • Head and Shoulders • Row your Boat • Humpty Dumpty • Tommy Thumb • Twinkle, Twinkle • Wheels on the Bus • Ring-a-roses • Here We go Round the Mulberry Bush • London Bridge is Falling Down • Old MacDonald had a Farm • Five Little Ducks went Swimming One Day • Wind the Bobbin Up • Five Little Speckled Frogs • Ten Fat Sausages • The Grand Old Duke of York
These songs are perfect for babies and toddlers of any age. The actions will strengthen and develop their
Build a sense of rhythm
Memorise speech patterns through repetition
Mirror actions such as clapping, patting, stamping
Learn new words
Recognise repeated sound patterns
Establish a sense of order (mathematical reasoning)
Develop a love of books and stories
Understand the culture in which they live.
Repetition is key in the development of young children and singing nursery rhymes to your child will provide them with a solid learning base which will grow and flourish as they start school and begin to read.
Check out some of the songs we use in class on Spotify. We have a Baby Sensory & Toddler Sense playlist!


Louise Bourgeois, The Birth, 2007, Gouache on paper, 23 1/2 × 18 inches
The word birth suggests a physical act, a material process, whereas creation engages the notion of manifesting something into the world without it necessarily connoting physicality. These distinctions harken back to age-old differences between the sexes, in which the disembodied mind was seen as male and the physical body as female, a viewpoint that has provided a cultural basis for an ongoing distinction between male virtue and female physicality.
The Birth by French-American artist Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010), which depicts the emergence of a fleshy creature from a woman’s body, is solidly on the physical side of this continuum. The tension between the bodies of mother and child builds up until the moment of physical separation with the delivery of a new entity in the world. Bourgeois depicts that moment using transparent skins of juicy crimson to describe her mother and child.
The elemental, exaggerated round forms in The Birth resemble goddess sculptures from the ancient world, most famously the Venus of Willendorf, created long before recorded history. Bourgeois’ painting is a celebration of birth as an essential act, but its composition and palette signify the pressure and pain present in the act of giving birth, identifying the subject as a flesh-and-blood woman and goddess simultaneously.
Venus of Willendorf, c. 24,000-22,000 B.C.E., Limestone, 11.1 cm high
Contrary to the physicality of birth, creation is generally seen as a clean, non-material phenomenon detached from the body and connected to the power of the mind. The contrast between the stereotypically feminine and masculine qualities in birth and creation, respectively, have been seen and expressed in a variety of ways over the course of art history. The question becomes: if birth looks like a Bourgeois painting and a birther looks like a fertility goddess figure, what does disembodied creation look like?
An example could be Michelangelo’s fresco, The Creation of Adam (c.1512) in the Sistine Chapel. Its composition and masterful technique center around the two masculine figures of God and Adam in the moment of creation. Absent from this painting is any evidence of female birth; the bodily fertility of the goddess has been replaced by an invisible divine spark.
Michelangelo, The Creation of Adam (from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, Rome), c. 1508-1512, Fresco
Inspired by the tension between these dual notions of birth and creation, I used an image of the near-touching hands of God breathing life into Adam in one of my own drawings. My work Becoming is aesthetically connected to art of the past. Through using these hands to point to the womb I present a reversal of Adam’s bloodless creation as an idealized representation of the birth of man. This drawing points out the power of women’s bodies to give birth to humankind while, in reality, a woman is limited in the control she has over her own body, from the way the very shape of it is culturally received to her ability to choose whether or not to have a child.
As a woman, consciously or unconsciously, part of my work will always be influenced by my gender and the feelings I experience within a gendered body. Through my drawings and body castings, I’m examining how social norms are imposed on women’s bodies and what it feels like to be insecure in your own skin.
Procreation fulfills one of the strongest human desires: to survive for eternity, in one form or another. Either through the physical act of giving birth to another being or the process of creating an idea conceptually, we all answer this call in different ways, and with varying degrees of success. From the ancient sculptor of the goddess, to Michelangelo creating Adam, and Bourgeois depicting physical birth, as humans we can’t help but be fascinated by the prospect of emerging from nothingness and potentially living beyond our physical lifetimes. And while this desire transcends gender lines, as Wangechi Mutu says: “females carry the marks, language and nuances of their culture more than the male. Anything that is desired or despised is always placed on the female body.”
Azita Moradkhani, Becoming, 2016, Colored pencils, 16 x 20 inches
Azita Moradkhani was born in Tehran, Iran. She received her BFA from Tehran University of Art (2009), and both her MA in Art Education (2013) and MFA (2015) from Boston’s School of the Museum of Fine Arts & Tufts University.


In scholarship pertaining to childhood education one could pick out all sorts of logical fallacies being applied. Some of it is oversight or poor understanding on the part of the author, while the others are deliberate constructed so as to mislead or misinform the reader. American educators have claimed that the steady improvement in SAT scores is an indication of improved literacy and numeracy skills of students. This is a ‘hasty generalization’, for upon critical review the real reason is revealed, namely the decrease in rigor of standardized tests. In childhood education literature we also witness ‘non sequitors’, which is an attempt to create a cause and effect relationship where none exists. For example, the claim that, since enrolments to schools have increased over time the overall standards must have also gotten better is a non-sequitor. Empirical studies show no correlation between these two parameters. ‘Faulty Analogy’ is comparing apples with oranges. To say that public schooling will fail in the USA because it has failed to impress in China or India is a faulty analogy. One has to also take into account the economic, social, cultural and political conditions that bear upon educational outcomes. ‘Equivocation’ is the deliberate attempt to confuse the reader by obscuring one’s position on the subject. A policy maker or legislator who says that public schooling should be encouraged while also supporting government austerity measures is guilty of equivocating. Equivocation is closely tied to logical contradiction. Finally, a commonly found fallacy in childhood education literature is that of ‘petitio principii’, also called ‘begging the question’. If proponents of the existing education system are correct in their praise of the system, it then begs the question why American children fare poorly in comparison to their counterparts in Western European nations?
Logical Fallacies, Literacy Education Online (LEO), retrieved from <http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/acadwrite/logic.html> on 17th February 2014.
Informal Fallacies, Introduction to Logic: Critical Thinking, retrieved from <http://www.olemiss.edu/courses/logic/fallacies.htm> on 17th February 2014.


Memphis Slim was an American blues pianist, singer and composer who led a series of bands across his career.
Born John Len Chapman in Memphis, Tenessee (which is where he got his stage name from), Memphis Slim took after his musical dad pretty quickly. By the 1930’s, he was playing piano right across town in dance halls, gambling joints and honky-tonks; the kind of places cowboys like to drink a beer!
After WWII Slim started to play in bands with saxophones, bass and drums, and by the end of the 1940’s released some big hits. His song “Every Day I Have the Blues” is now a blues ‘standard’, which means it’s still played by blues musicians all around the world today.
Memphis Slim spent his old-age living in Paris, France, and by the end of his life had made over 500 recordings!
Working in his bands, Memphis Slim primarily wrote in a style we now call ‘jump blues’. This up-tempo style was very popular in the 1940’s, and eventually became what today we call good old ‘rock and roll’.
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- Memphis Slim: Broke and Hungry
Black Musical Histories
“It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the times in which we live.” – Nina Simone, singer, musician and civil rights activist. Black…
Back to School: Music for Change
“If anybody wants to keep creating, they have to be about change.” – Miles Davis, jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer After many…
Discover a treasure trove of music education resources created by the experts at Minute of Listening.


The Nazi majority of Dessau suspended the seat of learning. Paul Schultze-Naumburg was the architect that they sent into the school to re-establish pure German art instead of the “cosmopolitan rubbish” the Bauhaus artists were doing. He described Bauhaus furniture as Kisten, or boxes. Bauhaus was even as private institution so much hated by the National Socialist government that the police closed it up on 11th April, 1933. By September 1932, the Nazis had won a majority in Dessau, and cut off all financial support to the Bauhaus. The school was forced to move to Berlin, where it survived without any public funding for a brief time. On April 11 1933, the Berlin police, acting on the orders of the new Nazi government finally closed it.
The Nazi’s “degenerate art” exhibition in 1937 featured works by several former Bauhaus teachers. The Nazis failed in their efforts to completely erase the Bauhaus. Its forced closure and the subsequent emigration of many of its former staff and students, ensured that it would become famous and influential throughout the world, especially in the United States, where a Bauhaus school was established in Chicago in 1937. The Bauhaus had a lasting impact on art education and in architecture.
The New Bauhaus, founded in 1937 in Chicago, was the immediate successor to the Bauhaus dissolved in 1933 under National Socialist pressure. Bauhaus ideology had a strong impact throughout America, but it was only at the New Bauhaus that the complete curriculum as developed under Walter Gropius in Weimar and Dessau was adopted and further developed. The former Bauhaus master Laszlo Moholy-Nagy was founding director of the New Bauhaus. The focus on natural and human sciences was increased, and photography grew to play a more prominent role at the school in Chicago than it had done in Germany. Training in mechanical techniques was more sophisticated than it had been in Germany.
The method and aim of the school were likewise adapted to American requirements. Moholy-Nagy’s successor at the head of the Institute of Design, Serge Chermayeff, however, remained still quite true to the original Bauhaus. In the 1950s the New Bauhaus merged with the Illinois Institute of Technology. The Institute of Design is even now still part of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, and rates as a respected and professionally oriented school of design.


November 1, 2019
Would you notice if your calculator lied to you? The research says probably not
These days, it's hard to know whom to trust online, and how to discern genuine content from fakery.
Some degree of trust in our devices is necessary, if we're to embrace the growing number of technologies that could potentially enhance our lives. How many of us, however, bother trying to confirm the truth, and how many blindly approach their online communications?
In a study published this week, Texas Tech University researchers tested how university students reacted when unknowingly given incorrect calculator outputs. Some students were presented with an onscreen calculator that was programmed to give the wrong answers, whereas a second group was given a properly functioning calculator.
Participants could also opt not to use the calculator, but most chose to use it—even if they had good numeracy skills. Researchers found most participants raised few or no suspicions when presented with wrong answers, until the answers were quite wrong. In addition, those with higher numeracy skills were, unsurprisingly, more suspicious of incorrect answers than others.
Do the math
To understand these results, we need to acknowledge calculators were created to make our lives easier, by reducing our mental burden. Also, there were no real consequences for participants who did not realize they were being duped.
Perhaps if they were completing their income tax forms, or applying for a loan, they may have been more thorough in checking their results. More importantly, there's no reason an individual ought to feel suspicious about a calculator, so the participants were acting in accord with what we might expect.
People can't spend their time deciding if they should trust every tool they use. This would consume too much time and energy. This study, however, was carried out with university students in a lab. What are the consequences of this in the real world, when much more is at stake?
The Internet and digital technologies have changed our lives for the better in so many ways. We can access information at super speeds, communicate regularly (and in fun ways) with our friends and family, and carry out mundane tasks such as banking and shopping with ease.
However, new technologies pose new challenges. Is the person you're talking to online a real person or a bot? Are you developing a real romantic relationship on your dating app, or being conned in a romance scam?
To what extent do people blindly accept their technologies are safe, and that everyone online is who they claim to be?
Hackers are often phishing for data
The Internet of Things is already changing our lives in and outside the home. At home, there's the constant threat that we're being listened to and watched through our devices. In August, Apple publicly apologized for allowing contractors to listen to voice recordings of Siri users.
Similarly, as autonomous vehicles become the norm, they too pose ethical concerns. Not only do we need to be worried about the programmed moral choices on whom to harm if an accident becomes inevitable, but also whether criminals can hack into these vehicles and alter programmed decisions.
Also, there have been reports of benign-looking USB cables being rigged with small WiFi-enabled implants which, when plugged into a computer, let a nearby hacker run commands. We even need to think about the safety of health devices, such as pacemakers, which can now be hacked.
A major problem organizations and governments are trying to solve is stopping individuals from falling victim to phishing. A phish is an email or text which is made to appear authentic and trustworthy, but isn't.
Cybercriminals use them to trick users into revealing secret information, such as bank account details, or clicking on a link that downloads malicious software onto their computer. This software can then steal passwords and other important personal data.
Clicking on a phishing message can have long-lasting detrimental effects on an individual or an organization, as was the case with an Australian National University data breach last year.
We're yet to effectively train people to recognize a phish. This is partly because because they're often realistic and difficult to identify. However, it's also because, as illustrated in the Texas Tech University study, people tend to place undue trust in technology and devices, without pausing to check the facts.
Knowledge is power, and safety
It's incredibly difficult to have the right balance between skepticism and trust in the digital age. Individuals need to function in the world, and the mental effort required to constantly check all information is perhaps more than what we can expect of people.
That said, one positive takeaway from the calculator study is that training is critical if we want to improve people's cybersecurity practices. This includes training individuals on what to do as online users, how to do it, and why it's important.
As with all learning, this needs to be repetitive and the individual needs to be motivated to learn. Without effective learning methods, end-users, organizations, and state nations will remain vulnerable to cybercriminals.


Digital citizenship has stepped into the forefront of a modern-day education. Experts indicate that as schools roll out tech, they also need to be rolling out digital citizenship education.
One part of this Google campaign is Interland, a game that has students travel an imaginary world where they need to fight hackers, phishers, oversharers and bullies with digital citizenship skills. While game-based learning can be effective, educators also need to be armed with skills to teach their students to be citizens of the web.
This month, Google extended its Be Internet Awesome program to include a free online training course to help educators establish foundational skills needed to teach their students to have a safe and positive experience online.


Comments on a postdigital art education and their bodies
In the context of the philosophy of education, the idea that humans don’t just learn with their heads but also with their bodies is a longstanding deliberation, which has often been used as an argument in various historical situations. In an almost reflexive manner, it is set in opposition to learning with and in the digital realm – also and especially when it has to do with art and its mediation.
That the body plays a role in education can be found in the still often cited and by no means unproblematic unity of “head, heart, and hand” in education (Pestalozzi), development and schooling in the spirit of Rousseau (Émile), and in the reformatory pedagogics on independent development and activity. Yet, the body is very much relevant, precisely in contemporary critical pedagogy. For example, the question of what the body learns in addition during the learning process (hidden curriculum): bell hooks writes on the negotiation of classrooms and teaching contents, where space is made for the person as a whole, including their experiences and background stories (hooks 1994). Or Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, who speaks of “corpoliteracy” and “corpoepistemology” in connection with knowledge that is inscribed into the body. How can bodies be read in the context of education? How can they interact with one another? Which potentials reside in the incorporation of the knowing body in the digital worlds of “distance learning”?
An update of this set of questions is necessary, and not only due to the current situation in which teaching and learning bodies now often manifest in the digital realm as “talking heads”. For there are concrete consequences for art education personnel – the corresponding departments of certain museums were dismissed just a few weeks after the decision was made to close these institutions to the public.
Martina Griesser-Stermscheg, Christine Haupt-Stummer, Renate Höllwart, Beatrice Jaschke, Monika Sommer, Nora Sternfeld, Luisa Ziaja
ecm openingup, Laufender Betrieb, Jens Hecker 2019
ecm_opening up, Jens Hecker, 2019


New Jersey State Standards
New Jersey State Learning Standards for English Language Arts: Reading
- NJSLSA.R6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
New Jersey State Learning Standards for English Language Arts: Speaking and Listening
- NJSLSA.SL2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
New York State Standards
New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards
Reading Anchor Standards
- Craft and Structure
- Standard 6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text, drawing on a wide range of global and diverse texts.
Speaking and Listening
- Comprehension and Collaboration
- Standard 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats (including visual, quantitative, and oral).
Texas State Standards
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for ELA & Reading
- Make inference about text and use textual evidence to support understanding.
- Summarize, paraphrase, and synthesize texts in ways that maintain meaning and logical order within a text and across texts.
- Make intertextual links among and across texts, including other media (e.g. film, play, music) and provide textual evidence.
- Make complex inference about text and use textual evidence to support understanding.
Texas Essential Knowledge Skills for Social Studies
- Culture: The student understands the relationship that exists between the arts and the societies in which they are produced. The student expects to:
- Explain the relationships that exist between societies and their architecture, art, music, and literature.
- Relate ways in which contemporary expressions of culture have been influenced by the past.
- Describe ways in which contemporary issues influence creative expression.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Fine and Performing Arts
- Historical and cultural relevance: The student relates music to history, culture, and the world. The student is expected to: Identify relationships of concepts to other academic disciplines such as the relations between music and mathematics, literature, history, and the sciences.
Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Music
- (5) Historical and cultural relevance. The student relates music to history, culture, and the world. The student is expected to:
- (A) compare and contrast music by genre, style, culture, and historical period;
- (B) define uses of music in societies and cultures;
- (C) identify and explore the relationships between music and other academic disciplines;
- (E) identify and explore the impact of technologies, ethical issues, and economic factors on music, musicians, and performances.
Common Core State Standards
College and Career Readiness Reading Anchor Standards for Grades 6-12 for Literature and Informational Text
- Reading 6: Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening for Grades 6-12
- Speaking and Listening 2: Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Social Studies – National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS)
- Theme 1: Culture
- Theme 2: Time, Continuity, and Change
- Theme 5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
National Standards for Music Education
Core Music Standard: Responding
- Select: Choose music appropriate for a specific purpose or context.
- Analyze: Analyze how the structure and context of varied musical works inform the response.
- Interpret: Support interpretations of musical works that reflect creators’ and/or performers’ expressive intent.
- Evaluate: Support evaluations of musical works and performances based on analysis, interpretation, and established criteria.
Core Music Standard: Connecting
- Connecting 11: Relate musical ideas and works to varied contexts and daily life to deepen understanding.
National Core Arts Standards
- Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
- Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
- Anchor Standards 11: Relate artistic ideas and work with societal, cultural and historical context to deepen understanding.


A converging literature has demonstrated that prosodic sensitivity (the rhythmic patterning of speech) is related to literacy development and theoretical models of this relation have begun to enter the literature (see Holliman et al., 2014). It has been theorized that the observed relation between prosodic sensitivity and word reading and spelling might be partially mediated by children’s vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness; however, no study to date has tested this model with children in the earliest stage of reading development. In this study, four- to five-year-old Englishspeaking children (N = 101) who were identified as pre-readers completed a new test of prosodic sensitivity and were also assessed for their vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness. One year later, participating children (N = 93) were assessed for their word reading and spelling. The new measure was found to be reliable, understood by children of this age, and sensitive to individual differences in prosodic sensitivity. It also correlated significantly with all other measures in this study. A path analysis indicated that the model proposed by Holliman et al. provided an adequate fit to our sample data; specifically, the results suggest that prosodic sensitivity in pre-literate children predicts word reading and spelling indirectly via its inter-relations with other emergent literacy skills. It is argued that prosodic sensitivity plays an important role in early literacy development.
|Publication status||Published - 2015|


Every school has grade level math curriculum available that will detail the skills to be taught each year. But sometimes parents and teachers want a condensed outline for which math skills once mastered, will provide a firm foundation for the next grade level.
The accomplishments listed in your 10 page copy of AN ADULT’S GUIDE TO MATHEMATICS FOR CHILDREN, The bare minimum in concepts and computation are meant to be completed by the end of each grade level (preschool to grade 8). This list has been compiled from standard texts as well as through my personal experience in teaching.
The tasks represent those that the average child should be learning in each grade whether in school or through homeschooling lesson. School curriculum will often vary from one school district, state or province to another.
Before working with children with previous math difficulties, ensure basic skills are intact from previous grades.
Children with a aptitude for math should be encouraged to work well beyond this level.
This guide was designed to help me drill down to the essential numeracy skills, math concepts and operations that my students need in order build a firm foundation going forward to higher grades.
It is not a recommendation for a new curriculum, and it is not a criticism of any curriculum. I am not a curriculum expert. I just know what the foundational skills that will help my students move forward in math with competency and confidence


- School: Grand Canyon University Online
- Degree: Masters
- Subject: K-12 Education
- Request more information »
The Master of Education in Elementary Education program from Grand Canyon University prepares students with the instructional and communication teaching skills necessary to appeal to and stimulate young learners. The elementary education course focuses on grade specific elementary education topics, strategies for teaching students that have trouble focusing or short attention spans, along with ways to incorporate games and fun activities into the program, which add more interest, and greater excitement into the classroom.
The specialized coursework in the master of education in elementary education program focuses on learning the appropriate communication skills needed to work with young students from kindergarten through grade six, that are new to focusing on one topic for any length of time. Teaching is a very rewarding and satisfying career and the job outlook for graduates with an elementary education degree remains very positive.


For the last 5 of years we have been lucky enough to be able to collaborate with Frenchenviro on a number of school nature play projects. In both private and public schools, these projects have ranged from small corners of playgrounds to large redevelopments. Working with the schools, teachers and students to create functional imaginative play spaces, has been very rewarding and has given us the opportunity to stretch our design skills in ways that residential sites don’t often provide.
These school play spaces provide opportunities for educational outcomes through imaginative play, which encourage a sense of identity, connection and a strong sense of wellbeing. The environments are designed to also encourage confidence and help the children become involved learners and effective communicators. Non-uniform construction helps with physical development and risk taking strategies. Nature materials help anchor the spaces into the environment and create enjoyable adventures for the children.
(Portfolio includes many amazing photos by Catherine Leo Photography)
• Nature Play & Water Play/Movement • Ecological Living Practices • Stormwater Management • Motor Skill Development • Fast & Slow Play Area • Creative Play • Productive Gardens • Sustainable Education


The traditional classroom experience includes indoor learning, but there are many Montessori schools that offer an outdoor classroom setting. An outdoor classroom expands beyond the typical outdoor time found during recess or gym. True classroom time is dedicated to the outdoors, and students can gain a lot of knowledge from the experience.
Learn about the advantages of an outdoor classroom and the skills your child will learn through an outdoor setting based at a Montessori school.
1. Learn Gardening Skills
An outdoor classroom gives students a chance to really expand on their motor skills. One of the main ways is through gardening. Montessori schools with community gardens give students a chance to use shovels, wheelbarrows, hoes, and other garden tools. The grips, strength, and specific tasks will help expand on the motor skills.
Gross motor skill development will include maintaining balance while pushing a wheelbarrow. Fine motor skill development could include pulling out weeds or trimming flowers. The foundation of gardening also includes a lot of independent skills a child will learn and use as they grow older.
Instead of being handed a carrot on a plate, a child will learn the time and effort it takes to grow a carrot and feel more pride when plants grow and are harvested. Children can find a lot of satisfaction through the work put into the garden.
2. Learn School Subjects Outdoors
A Montessori outdoor classroom keeps the learning out of books and focuses more on learning through activities and experiences. An outdoor classroom finds several suitable replacements for traditional learning subjects. A teacher may use history lessons to explain the age of trees, the land use, and the geography of the area.
Many forms of math are explored through counting, splitting up objects, and measuring the sizes of plants, rocks, and animals. Science becomes a huge part of outdoor learning as children learn to identify animals, like birds, or various species of trees. The annual cycle of trees can be visualized and explored with examples right in the outdoor classroom.
The more your child spends outdoors, the more their skills will grow in these areas. As a child uses outdoor learning, the skills will come naturally when they spend time outdoors at their own home.
3. Free Exploration
Instead of forcing children to learn through an overly structured environment, a Montessori classroom emphasizes free exploration, and an outdoor classroom offers even more free exploration than an indoor class. Children can choose their own activities and play in different areas.
For example, small play areas and themed clubhouses give a child a chance to create their own imaginative worlds. Children have a chance to expand their creative mind while adding layers of learning to the mix. The free exploration gives a child a chance to find their strengths and interests, which will allow them to branch out and build on various skills.
The free exploration also gives a child ways to expand on their social skills. Children will interact with other students and learn how to problem solve.
4. Outdoor Advantages
Extended time outdoors comes with many advantages over an indoor setting. Breathing in fresh air can give children more focus and energy to complete tasks. The natural light from the sun will put children in a better mood and also helps increase levels of vitamin D.
In our current times, fresh circulated air will also help reduce the transmission of diseases like the flu or COVID-19. Children are less likely to spread germs and can have more physical space in an outdoor setting that is larger and more open than a classroom.
For more information on our outdoor classrooms, contact us at Miniapple International Montessori School. We have multiple levels of learning and can provide a safe outdoor experience for the little student in your life.


From Nigel Latta. Interesting read.
Parents don't need to worry about their primary school aged children falling behind in their learning during this stay at home time. Luckily, this is not a new worry – and lots of research about loss of learning over the long American summer holiday (up to three months) has been done.
The first study using modern statistical methods was carried out by Parsley and Powell in 1962. They found some loss in skills requiring practice, such as computation and spelling, but gains in maths reasoning and comprehension. [Parsley K.M. and Powell M. 1962 [Achievement gains or losses during the academic year and over the summer vacation period, General Psychological Monographs 66k285-34]. Over the next decades, numerous studies have found much the same.
A study by Grenier in 1975 found that those same losses in skills requiring practice were recovered in four weeks once children were back in school. [Grenier M.A. (1975) “An investigation of summer mathematics achievement loss and the fall recovery time” Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia, 1975, Dissertation abstracts international, 36, 3069A]
In 1984 a major study called “The Sustaining Effects Study (SES)” followed 120,000 elementary (primary) students over three years. This data was used by Carter in 1985 to consider subject areas and concluded: “There are large reading gains over the summer. There are math gains and losses over the summer and particularly in the higher grades there may be math losses.” [Carter L.F. (1984) “The sustaining effects study of compensatory and elementary education”. Education Researcher, 1984, 13(7), 4-13
A meta-analysis of all studies in the area was published in 1996. It concluded that learning which required practice to retain, such as computation and spelling declined, but deeper cognitive abilities involved in mathematical concepts and reading comprehension improved over the summer.[Cooper H., Nye B., et al 1996 “The effects of summer vacations on achievement test scores: a narrative and meta-analytic review” 1996, Review of Educational Research Fall 1996, Vol 66. No. 3 pp227-268.]
So, relax about this time away from school, putting all this together the most important aspect of academic success is maturing cognitive abilities, and these develop even over school breaks. And also remember that the study of Grenier (above) shows even if there are a loss of specific skills requiring practice, this all comes back very, very quickly.
That said, if doing nothing academic with your child makes you anxious – maybe spend a little time each day with timestables or spelling as long as it doesn’t cause stress or arguments. Don’t try to make yourself an instant maths teacher though, other research shows parents are probably better off leaving that to the experts.
So... relax. You're good.


Marshall, Harriet (Hattie) A. Gibbs(born: 1868 - died: 1941)
The daughter of Mifflin Gibbs - the first African American judge - and Maria A. Alexander Gibbs, Hattie entered Oberlin Conservatory of Music at the age of 11. She graduated with honors in 1889, receiving a diploma in music, the first African American to do so. Hattie had been born in Victoria, British Columbia; the maternal side of her family lived in Kentucky. In 1891, she came to Kentucky to establish a music school at Eckstein Norton in Cane Springs; when the school closed she left Kentucky and was named director of music for the African American schools in Washington, D.C. While maintaining her position with the public schools, Gibbs opened the Washington Conservatory of Music (1903-1960), a successful institution that continued after her death. Hattie Gibbs' married name was Marshall. She was the granddaughter of Lucy Alexander and Henry Alexander. For more see Evidences of Progress Among Colored People, by G. F. Richings at the the Documenting the American South website; The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians, by A. A. Dunnigan; Harriet Gibbs Marshall, a Howard University website; "Career women of the capital," Baltimore Afro-American, 07/22/1939, p.17; and A History of Three African-American Women Who Made Important Contributions to Music Education Between 1903-1960 (thesis) by D. R. Patterson.


YES...AND Improv in the Classroom
Improvisation is an ideal pedagogical strategy. It promotes literacy skill development because it encourages creation, analysis, and interpretation of text.
The impact that improv has on classroom learning can be directly linked to the current thinking on Social Emotional Learning. When students feel connected and emotionally invested in their experiences, they reach higher levels of learning and understanding.
Active play links sensory-motor, cognitive, and social emotional experiences and provides the optimal setting for brain development. The act of play develops the complex and integrated brain, so essential for learning, during childhood, throughout adolescence, and into adulthood. Therefore, students should have a variety of active learning experiences in all content areas including mathematics, language, social studies, the humanities, and science.
Improv is a valuable classroom strategy because it has both inherent structure and flexibility. Its structure stems from the problem solving process the players must apply to complete each task. Flexibility stems from simplicity; the students create everything that is needed from their own imagination. This makes improvisation a useful tool for developing first-rate writers, readers, and thinkers – as well as building healthy social relationships.
Of all the teacher trainings I've had in 13 years of teaching, Dr. Katherine McKnight and her colleague Elaine provided one of the most hilariously useful presentations I've ever experienced. They didn't just talk at us or show us things; they had us up and moving, experiencing, thinking, doing the improv. We were actively learning – just like we want our students to learn!
– A.V.B., Middle School teacher in Dutton, MI
I had no idea how valuable improv strategies could be in order to teach social emotional skills, review content knowledge, and to build a community of learners in the classroom. I'll utilize these strategies to engage my students and to help me hear the voices of all of my students.
– C.S., STEAM teacher in MN.
I've been to countless professional development sessions that promise ‘student engagement,’ so I was more than hesitant to buy in. However, because I personally was so engaged in the activities from the get-go, I realized quickly this wasn't another throw-away PD class that I'd forget by tomorrow.
– A.W., 8th grade teacher in Choctaw, OK
Improv activities are usable in the classroom and will get students excited about learning. It is hard to find activities that not only fit middle school students but also math.
– K.C., Algebra teacher in Arlington Heights, IL
Katie McKnight literally wrote the book on Improv in the Classroom...
...and she's been advancing its use with K-12 students for over a decade! Most activities and learning strategies presented in the Engaging Learners YES...AND professional development are based on research that was done for the best selling book, The Second City Guide to Improv in the Classroom: Using Improvisation to Teach Skills and Boost Learning, by Katherine McKnight and Mary Scruggs. (Jossey-Bass, 2008). Each exercise has continued to be fine-tuned through years of experience with actual students in classrooms just like yours.
The skill set that students practice in traditional literacy development activities – prediction, sequencing, vocabulary building, inference, and reflection – are all used in improvisation. The difference is that, in improv, students practice these skills in an active and engaging manner.
Engaging Learners presenters are uniquely qualified to train K-12 teachers in the principles of improv for the classroom and help them identify effective applications in any content area. Teachers leave each session with tools they can use in their classrooms the very next day. Let us know if you’re interested in a 1-day, stand-alone workshop for your school district or conference. Or ask us how you can incorporate improvisation and active learning into your 3-step literacy development plan.


The book Quality Education is an effort to highlight many individuals and innovative organizations in the world who are making progress and improving millions of people’s lives through quality education. The book gives a strong message that Quality education is, the biggest gift we can give to the next generation. Each and every child deserves it.
Foreword by Marianne Nissilä, Ambassador of Finland to the UAE:
The past decades have, in terms of education, witnessed a historic change: boys and girls around the globe have been brought to school. After this huge success – giving access to education to nearly all—the world is ready for the next step: a joint effort to provide universal quality education.
This is a mission in which strongly I believe. I am very happy to see Dr. Alleem shares the same passion.
Today, we are facing a situation UNESCO is calling “a learning crisis.” Half of the world’s children and young people are not even learning the basic literacy and numeracy skills after spending years in school. We cannot afford this to continue and let the world be divided into two.
Firstly, there is a better half where young people can get a quality education that gives them multiple skills to cope in the world of artificial intelligence, robotics, and space science and continue learning throughout their lives. Secondly, there is another half where the education fails the young people completely and they leave school without retaining even the basic skills.
The United Nations’ sustainable development goal number four is about quality of education. This gives us hope. With joint efforts of multiple actors—the UN family, its 193 member states, educational institutions at all levels, and the private sector—the learning crisis can be defeated. A right formula needs to be found to make sure that every child leaves school equipped with skills fit for the 21st century and has the basis for life-long learning. Children attending school today will stay in working life until the 2080s, and giving them the right set of skills should be the priority of education. With commitment and political will, the necessary resources can mobilized and their use focused efficiently to produce learning, not just attendance, at school.
Finland stands ready to share its experience of developing an education system that, in the first four Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) rounds, stood as the best in the world and still is among the highest ranking. The Finnish recipe includes providing equal learning opportunities to all, having highly educated and well-respected teachers, and building the education system on trust. We hope to see such a success story taking place in every single country. Quality education is, after all, the biggest gift we can give to the next generation. Each and every child deserves it.


As this course is incredibly in-depth, you will cover a lot of material. The course will begin with the Level 2 Certificate material which is divided into five units.
Unit 1: Book Keeping and Transactions – explore financial transactions that are common within the book keeping system, process customer and supplier transactions, manage receipts and payments and use ledgers to process transactions to the trial balance
Unit 2: Book Keeping Controls – describe the various methods of payment, controls in the book keeping system, how to make use of control accounts and journals and reconcile a bank statement alongside a cash book.
Unit 3: Element of Costing – understand the cost recording system required for a business and make use of this system to record or extract information
Unit 4: Work Effectively in Finance – learn about the finance operations within an organisation, apply your communication, literacy and numeracy skills, work independently or as part of a team to manage responsibilities, discover how ethical values, principles and confidentiality are applicable in a finance environment and outline the benefits of sustainable values
Unit 5: Using Accounts Software – discover how you can use software to record and process transactions for both customers and suppliers, record and reconcile transactions, process and use journals for transactions, generate reports and prepare trial balance and general ledger reports.
Once these five units are complete, you have reached the end of the Certificate Course and can progress onto the AAT Advanced Diploma in Accounting at Level 3. This section of the course covers six units.
Unit 1: Advanced Book Keeping – learn the accepted principles of double entry book keeping and accounting, the procedures required for the recording of non-current assets, accounting for depreciation and adjustments, the purchase of non-current assets and the disposal of non-current assets as well as making preparations for the extension of trial balances.
Unit 2: Final Accounts Preparation – explain the process required to prepare final accounts, learn how to create accounting records with incomplete data, create final accounts for sole traders, understand legal and financial requirements for partnerships, prepare profit and loss statements for an appropriation account or prepare a position statement for a partnership.
Unit 3: Management Accounting Costing – describe the various costing systems that relate to an organisation, understand how to record and analyse cost information, apportion costs in line with business requirements, conduct analysis of budget deviations and issue management reports and use information from costing systems to facilitate decision making processes
Unit 4: Indirect Tax – learn about the regulations surrounding VAT, how to complete VAT returns in a timely and accurate manner, recognise VAT penalties and how to communicate VAT information.
Unit 5: Ethics for Accounting – outline the main principles that relate to ethical working, recognise ethical behaviour in relation to internal and external clients, understand when it is suitable to take further action in response to suspected breaches and recognise the responsibilities of professionals in terms of promoting sustainability
Unit 6: Spreadsheet For Accounting – develop the knowledge to use spreadsheets to collect, edit and organise statistical information, apply the relevant formulas and analysis tools and present, format and publish information using a spreadsheet


AbstractThe past decade has seen a drive to give all pupils the opportunity to study a Modern Foreign Language (MFL) in schools in England, making the teaching and learning of foreign languages part of the primary school curriculum. The Languages for All: Languages for Life (DfES, 2002) policy was introduced through the National Languages Strategy with an objective to increase the nation’s language capability. Raising the educational standard for all pupils is another government initiative with a strong emphasis on inclusion. As the Languages for All policy stresses the importance and benefits of language learning, and inclusion suggests equality and provision for all, this study examines the inclusion of all key stage 2 pupils in foreign language learning and describes perceptions and experiences of pupils, particularly those identified as having special educational needs (SEN) in their performances and negotiations in learning French.
As a small scale, qualitative and ethnographically informed, this research is based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews with pupils, teachers of French, teaching assistants and parents. This study draws upon Nussbaum’s capabilities approach and Bourdieu’s concepts as theoretical foundations to analyse the ‘inclusive’ French classroom. As the capabilities approach takes people as ends not means, and goes beyond a focus on resources, it lends itself to critical thinking on issues around inclusion in education. In this context, this researcher investigates the experiences of pupils who struggle with foreign language learning because of their abilities or disabilities, and frames the discussion around the capabilities approach. The study also focuses on motivation and identity in foreign language learning, and draws upon Bourdieu’s concepts of capital, habitus and field to analyse how the participants make sense of and respond to their own circumstances in relation to their performances in the language learning process. This research thus considers Bourdieu’s concepts for a deeper understanding of issues of inequality in learning French and takes up Nussbaum’s insight that pupils may differ in what learning French means to them, and it is not how they differ, but the difference between their capability to choose and achieve what they value that should matter.
The findings indicate that although, initially, the French classroom appears ‘inclusive’ due to the provision and practices of inclusion, a closer look shows it to be exclusionary. In addition, responses from the participants on the usefulness and benefits of foreign language learning are contradictory to the objectives of the Languages for All policy, illustrating the complexity of the ‘inclusive’ MFL classroom. This research concludes that structural and interpersonal practices of inclusion contribute to the disguising of exclusion in a classroom deemed ‘inclusive’. Implications are that an understanding and consideration of other aspect of life such as well-being, interests, needs and values should form a necessary part of the language policy.
|Date of Award||18 Nov 2015|
|Supervisor||Chrissie A Rogers (Supervisor) & Pam Lowe (Supervisor)|
- special educational needs


Art buyers and collectors have many ways to acquire contemporary works of art, especially by living artists. Through media work, art provides the opportunity for physical as well as mental activity. Studio work provides relief from academic pursuits in art and in other subject areas. Since the creation of art works depend upon the manipulation of materials, the importance of developing specific art skills cannot be overstressed. It is during the period of early adolescence that students must develop studio competence. If adolescent students cannot accomplish what they perceive to be good art, they usually become discouraged and abandon art making. Feen-Calligan, H., & Matthews, W.K. (2016). Pre-professional arts based service-learning in music education and art therapy. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 17(17). The Return of the Cadavre Exquis (exhibition catalogue). Text by Ann Philbin. New York: The Drawing Center, 1993: illustrated. Forrest, L. (2014). Your song, my song, our song: Developing music therapy programs for a culturally diverse community in home-based paediatric palliative care. Australian Journal of Music Therapy, 25, 15-27. Myers, John Bernard. Tracking the Marvelous: A Life in the New York Art World (includes artist’s statements). New York: Random House, 1983. Daykin, N., McClean, S., & Bunt, L. (2007). Creativity, identity and healing: Participants’ accounts of music therapy in cancer care. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 11(3), 349-370. Artists who are stuck in a rut., or failing to make any money. What I do in the Morning, an open call for artists attracted many responses from the local Albuquerque area community. The work ranges from a multimedia triptych made of beeswax on paper and ink to a wooden sculpture shaped as disposable razor. Other works include acrylic and oil paintings, photography, a tea bag tapestry, monoprint on a pillow case, pencil drawings among others. Painterly Abstraction: Eight New York Artists (exhibition catalogue). Text by Charles Kessler. Los Angeles: Simard Halm & Shee Gallery, 1986: illustrated. Arranged by Peggy Guggenheim, Hofmann’s first exhibition in New York opened in 1944. The same year he opened another exhibition in Chicago, ‘Hans Hofmann, Paintings 1941-1944’. In 1947 he had a succession of exhibitions in New York, Dallas, and Pittsburgh. In the same year The Kootz Gallery (New York) began organizing a solo show of Hofmann that continued almost every year until his death. June 9-15. High school students. Advanced high school students of woodwind, brass, percussion, jazz, voice, piano and strings can participate in this intensive one-week training period for both day and boarding students. $400-$475. For more information: email cleaman@ or call 803-576-5893.
Art buyers and collectors have many ways to acquire contemporary works of art, especially by living artists. Through media work, art provides the opportunity for physical as well as mental activity. Studio work provides relief from academic pursuits in art and in other subject areas. Since the creation of art works depend upon the manipulation … Continue reading “Effect And Ethos Of Music In Greek And Roman Authors”


Lifepac Lang Arts 1st Grade Box Set
Do you feel intimidated by the task of teaching your child to read? Teaching reading with LIFEPAC from Alpha Omega Publications can help! Building on a foundation of basic phonics readiness skills, LIFEPAC 1st grade Language Arts teaches reading through a systematic presentation and application of sequential phonics. Ten worktexts in this Alpha Omega curriculum present phonics instruction in a colorful, fun format, while the application of newly acquired phonics skills is encouraged through the use of vocabulary-controlled stories. As your child progresses through this appealing course, he will encounter skills such as rhyming words, consonant digraphs and blends, vowel digraphs, R-controlled vowels, and diphthongs as well as some basic grammar skills. Imagine how excited you'll be to see your homeschooling child progress from "learning to read" to "reading to learn"!
But that's not all! Because we know just how challenging reading instruction can be, we've included a complete, easy-to-follow teacher's guide, designed to walk you through the teaching process step-by-step. This must-have teacher's guide will help take all the guesswork out of teaching your child to read! And it provides in-depth instruction for each lesson, a complete answer key, and information about supplemental materials and activities. Don't leave this important academic stepping stone to chance! Increase your peace of mind and your child's love of learning with LIFEPAC 1st Grade Language Arts! Order today.


Voles – The Expert Tunnel Makers
You probably won’t find voles in your house, but these mouse-like creatures might be as near as your backyard. Voles look like mice, but they are stouter and have shorter tails. They are sometimes called field mice. Voles are expert tunnel makers. They burrow under the ground, looking for plant roots or bulbs to eat. Gardeners don’t like them, because they eat plants. They even eat the bark from trees and shrubs.
Voles don’t live very long. In fact, many voles don’t live more than one month. But these rodents aren’t in danger of extinction. One vole can have as many as one hundred babies in a year!
Fun Facts about Voles for Kids
- Most voles live between two and six months.
- Voles build runways under lawns.
- Voles do not hibernate. They are active both day and night.
- Hawks, owls, snakes, badgers, coyotes, cats and fox hunt voles.
- Voles can become pregnant when they are only three weeks old.
- Stouter: Fat, wide
- Tunnel: Underground road or path
- Burrow: Dig
- Extinction: A group of animals is gone from the earth
- Hibernate: Deep sleep during the winter
Learn More All About Voles
Check out this amazing video about voles and why they only have one partner in their whole life:
A scientific video about voles explaining why they have only one mate.
Question: Where do voles live?
Question: Are voles kept as pets?
Answer: Voles are not generally kept as pets.
Cite This Page
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Declan, Tobin. " Fun Vole Facts for Kids ." Easy Science for Kids, Dec 2020. Web. 03 Dec 2020. < https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-voles/ >.
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Tobin, Declan. (2020). Fun Vole Facts for Kids. Easy Science for Kids. Retrieved from https://easyscienceforkids.com/all-about-voles/
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