|After months of planning I eventually succeeded in creating an allotment in the grounds of St Joseph’s primary school. As Yr 6 teacher & Numeracy Coordinator I wanted to make concrete links for children between numeracy skills & the outdoor environment.
Previous to starting the project the children
- Investigated the dimensions of the allotment boxes by measuring the depth, width & length.
- Calculated the perimeter and area of one box.
- Estimated how many of a particular vegetable they would be able to grow in one allotment box.
- Made calculations for 2 boxes, 4 boxes, 6 boxes etc by multiplying original calculation.
1st November 2007 – Lesson 1
- Pupils investigating the size & type of various vegetables suitable for growing in our allotment
- Using strategies to calculate the amount of space each type of vegetable would take in the allotment
View the video ‘Allotment Project – Part 1’
It was very interesting observing the various types of strategies pupils used to measure amount of space vegetable would take up. For most it was the first time they had ever used 3D objects in this context & some made the error of measuring the length of the vegetable as opposed to the largest slice of area.
View the video ‘Reflections after the lesson’
We were also surprised at how many pupils were unable to name the various vegetables. This made us think of possible future lesson developments:
- To investigate diets of the children in the class, looking particularly at their vegetable intake. Linking this to maths through recording and analysis of the data collected from home surveys. This project would also have many other cross-curricula links.
15th November 2007 – Lesson 2
- Using plans which they had produced previous to lesson showing patterns of vegetables which would produce the greatest yield pupils worked in groups setting out life-size templates onto the allotment
- Recorded patterns
- Predicted & calculated total cost of crop
View the video ‘Allotment Project – Part 2’Evaluation
Children demonstrated their team work skills as they verbalised their ideas for a pattern & negotiated the final pattern with their peers. It was an effective activity in which children were able to use their skills of estimating and then checking their estimate using calculators in a ‘real life’ context. Profit and loss calculations around maximum crop yield fascinated the children, creating some fantastic mathematical patterns.
Does maximum crop yield have links to symmetrical planting? What do you think?
After the activity pupils were able to state what the found easy/difficult & what they would do differently if they repeated the activity.
View the video ‘Back in the Classroom’
In conclusion, I feel the project met my objectives for the children as definite but also meaningful links between maths & the outdoors were made for the children. They applied various mathematical skills in a ‘real life’ exercise.
View the video ‘Summing Up’
The experience of this project has made me think about the way I teach other maths topics, as I have seen such a positive affect on the children’s maths achievement. As a school we have built upon these experiences and intend to extend the idea of ‘doing maths outdoors’.
St Joseph’s Primary School


The vision of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development is:
A community that fosters quality care and learning in safe and inclusive environments enabling individuals to reach their full potential.
The Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development is responsible for early childhood development, the K-12 school system, and public libraries with the objective of building an educational community in Newfoundland and Labrador that fosters safe, caring and inclusive learning environments for all children and youth in early childhood settings, regulated child care and family resource centres, and pre-school to grade 12.
The mandate for the department is primarily established under the:
The Departmental Notice under the Executive Council Act;
Child Care Act;
Public Libraries Act;
Schools Act, 1997;
Teacher Training Act; and
Teachers Association Act.
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Lines of Business
The lines of business, which are based on the mandate of the department, identify the programs, services and/or products that represent what the department delivers to its primary clients. Lines of business do not necessarily describe everything an entity does. Currently, there are nine lines of business for the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development:
Educational Policy and Direction
The department sets the strategy and vision for the K-12 education system and provincial early learning and child care. Decision-making is informed through reviewing and amending legislation and regulations; conducting relevant research, consultations and analysis; and providing statistical indicators and background information. The department is responsible for the certification of teachers and the administration of various articles of the teachers’ collective agreement. The department also approves the certification of early childhood educators (ECEs), which is carried out by the Association of Early Childhood Educators Newfoundland and Labrador (AECENL).
Curriculum and Programs
In the K-12 system, responsibilities include: developing and monitoring the French and English curricula and programs; creating or selecting learning resources; distributing resources and equipment to schools; developing programs for improved teaching and learning; developing and supporting inclusive education initiatives; supporting safe, caring and inclusive environments; providing teacher professional learning opportunities; and collaborating with Indigenous groups.
Support for Children and Youth with Diverse Needs and Exceptionalities
The department provides a broad range of support services to enhance inclusive practices in child care and learning environments for children and youth with diverse needs and exceptionalities. In regulated child care settings, the Inclusion Support Program is a voluntary program that provides support to child care providers (centre-based or family child care) to support children with diverse needs (up to 13 years) to participate meaningfully in those programs. In the K-12 system, support for students with exceptionalities is provided within the inclusive education framework. The service delivery model is supported by policies and guidelines and professional learning and is enhanced through collaboration with community partners
Early Childhood Learning
The department fosters early childhood learning opportunities through cooperation with other departments and agencies. Responsibilities include: developing and implementing early childhood learning resources; developing and monitoring the KinderStart/Bon Départ program; developing the provincial early childhood learning framework; the provincial early childhood learning strategy, Learning from the Start; early literacy partnerships with public libraries; Parent Resource Kit partnership with regional health authorities; and the Power of Play promotional campaign.
Child Care Services and Family Resource Centres
Responsibilities include: monitoring and licensing of regulated child care services (centre-based or family child care home) throughout the province; conducting investigations of complaints for regulated and unregulated child care; providing financial support to regulated child care services on behalf of eligible families; providing financial support for the development and operation of child care centres and family child care homes; providing financial assistance to help recruit and retain ECEs; supporting the operation and development of family resource centres across the province; and supporting children’s transition from child care to the K-12 system.
Student Assessment and Research
The department collects data and manages databases for core areas such as child care services, enrolment, student support services, student achievement and graduate outcomes. Responsibilities include: the evaluation, monitoring, test development and certification processes for the K-12 system; administration of the General Educational Development (GED) test; and all major functions related to education system performance, such as education statistics, planning, accountability, policy development and research.
Support to Entities
The department provides support in many areas to the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District, the Conseil scolaire francophone provincial, and the Provincial Information and Library Resources Board. Some areas of support include school transportation; teacher allocation; teachers’ payroll; operating grants for both school districts and libraries; and support for compliance with government legislation and policy.
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The Department of Education and Early Childhood Development’s primary clients are educators, children, youth and their families.
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Early Childhood Programs and Services, Department of Education, Newfoundland and Labrador


Teacher assessment using new technologies
Educational reform will require changing the way we assess for student success. Personalized learning will only become a reality as we transform the way we make meaning of teaching and learning through assessment. This industry partner FreshGrade.com is an educational assessment application for elementary education (Kindergarten - Grade 6) addressing the need for a simple, cloud-based solution to help teachers, students, and parents make sense of learning. Tailored for classrooms of young learners, FreshGrade.com facilitates the meaningful and varied collection of rich evidence of learning, creating a digital platform where teachers, students and parents can define and assess success. The overarching question guiding this research is how might new technologies help teachers, students, and parents with the visualization of student data and how this visualization can inform assessment practices.


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History of Schooling
We are grateful to Derek Gillard for the carefully researched information which he has provided and which is available on his website for those wishing for a more in-depth article than our own. Here is Derek's site.
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Is there anything important that you think we have missed? Do you have useful photographs or other material? Have you a worksheet you could share? Please write to us on the contact page.
The King's School, Canterbury dating back to 600
In 1833 Parliament authorised that sums of money should be provided for the construction of schools for poor children of England and Wales. A succession of acts followed which helped to expand the scope of education a little, but most education was still in the hands of churches and philanthropists, and there was really no unified education system. Wealthy parents sent their children to fee-paying schools or employed governesses. It should be noted that even for the wealthy it was considered more important for boys to be educated than for girls, and they often were taught sewing, needlework, drawing and music, while the boys were taught more academic subjects.
Although schools now operated on days other than Sundays, for the poor education was sporadic. Generally most teachers of the lower classes were schoolmistresses, some of whom had been taught by a system of apprenticeship. Teaching was mainly by rote, with children learning things parrot fashion, and there was very little scope for discovery or to develop talent. Emphasis was particularly placed on learning to read and to write. In some areas there was a constant battle between the aim of the school to teach, and the needs of parents who relied on the help of their children, so many pupils did not turn up for lessons, especially at Harvest. London children went off hop-picking in Kent, for example. Parents were often required to pay for their children to attend school, or at least to supply paper, ink and other requirements, and this could be a real barrier in poor families.
The Forster Act
In 1870 the Forster Elementary Education Act established partially state-funded Board Schools to be set up to provide primary education in areas where existing provision was inadequate. Board schools were managed by elected school boards. These schools still charged a fee. Find out here what lessons schools were required to teach.
By 1880 additional legislation meant that compulsory attendance at school ceased to be a matter for local optionand children now had to attend school between the ages of 5 and 10 though with some local discretion was allowed including early leaving in agricultural areas. Parents of children who did not attend school could be fined. There were exemptions for illness, living more than a certain distance (typically one mile) from a school, or certification of having reached the required standard.
The Free Education Act 1891 provided for the state payment of school fees up to ten shillings per week. This was to help poor parents afford schooling fees.
By 1893 the school leaving age was raised to 11 and education was extended to blind and deaf children. The leaving age was later raised to 13.
The Voluntary Schools Act 1897 provided grants to public elementary schools not funded by school boards (typically Church schools). From April 1900 higher elementary schools were recognised, providing education from the age of 10 to 15.


CurriculumSkip to content Skip to main navigation
Our curriculum is play-based and emergent, capitalizing on children's experiences in the world, their growing skills and competencies, and our constant belief in their ability to construct higher level meaning through engaging hands-on activities. Our approach to teaching and learning draws from several sources of knowledge, including widespread research literature that supports the essential value of young children learning through play. Within each of our classrooms, we employ a curricular style that begins with observing the children and learning from them about their interests and passions. We work to provide a space which supports their participation in curricular decisions.
The preschool children are also able, for a small fee, to take ballet and soccer. Field trips and special events are planned regularly based on children's evolving interests.
Our teachers, all prepared as early childhood specialists, are well-versed at scaffolding learning for very young children "in the moment". Although well aware that there are times when direct instruction methods are needed, our teachers more commonly engage the children in exploration and discovery. Thus, teachers are prepared to respond to the ways that children construct their own knowledge, drawing on their deep understandings of young children's ways of being and learning. For example, as a child finds her name on her bin she is exploring print; on a community walk to the bakery, children learn about sizes and shapes of the various loaves of bread; and as children eat their snacks, they explore colors, tastes, and smells, expanding on emergent language skills and sensory awareness.
Graduate students in early childhood music and art education provide special opportunities for our Center children to engage in musical and artistic experiences on a regular basis.


Summary of results across three data sets for item response theory (IRT), temporal IRT (TIRT), hierarchical IRT (HIRT), and Deep Knowledge Tracing (DKT) models.
These days, when people talk about artificial intelligence, there’s a lot of excitement around deep learning. AlphaGo, the algorithmic player that defeated 9-dan Go master Lee Sedol, incorporates deep learning, which meant that its programmers didn’t need to teach AlphaGo the rules of Go. They gave AlphaGo a lot of Go matches, and it figured out the rules on its own.
Deep learning has also shown impressive results in areas from computer vision to bioinformatics to linguistics. Deep learning helps Facebook understand the words people post there in more than 20 languages, and Amazon uses it to have conversations through Echo.
So deep learning is proving to be a popular way to understand how people write, speak, see, and play, but how good is it at modeling how people learn?
Last year, a team led by Chris Piech of Stanford University trained a recurrent neural network to do deep learning — or what they call Deep Knowledge Tracing. The idea is that, just as you don’t need to teach AlphaGo how to play the game on its own, Deep Knowledge Tracing can make sense of what’s being learned without human help. Using a public data set from ASSISTments, which guides students through math problem-solving, Deep Knowledge Tracing showed promising initial results.
There are other ways of modeling what students know. Item Response Theory, for example, has been around since the 1950s. It has been extended over the last decade to incorporate how people learn over time as well as expert human knowledge about the hierarchy of concepts being learned.
What’s the best way to predict what students know and don’t know, based on their previous answers and interactions?
Four Knewton data scientists — Kevin Wilson, Yan Karklin, Bojian Han, and Chaitanya Ekanadham — took a closer look at Deep Knowledge Tracing, comparing it with three models of how people learn built upon Item Response Theory. In addition to a classic Item Response Theory (IRT) model, the Knewton data science team used a temporal IRT model (called TIRT in the accompanying charts) and a hierarchical one (shown as HIRT).
The Knewton team used three collections of anonymous student interaction data, including ASSISTments, the Bridge to Algebra 2006–2007 data set from the KDD Cup, and millions of anonymized student interactions collected by Knewton.
With all three data sets, the Knewton team found that the Item Response Theory methods “consistently matched or outperformed” Deep Knowledge Tracing. Not only were the Item Response Theory approaches better at predicting what people know, they were easier to build and tune, “making them suitable candidates for real-world applications” such as adaptive learning platforms.
With Deep Knowledge Tracing, meanwhile, the Knewton team “found that computation time and memory load were prohibitive when training on tens of thousands of items. These issues could not be mitigated by reducing dimensionality without significantly impairing performance.”
In other words, deep learning still has a way to go to match established ways of modeling student learning.
For more details, read Back to the Basics: Bayesian extensions of IRT outperform neural networks for proficiency estimation or visit the International Educational Data Mining Society conference in Raleigh on July 1.
And if you want to reproduce our results, you can find code, links to the data sets, and instructions on GitHub.


Engaging students in learning and experiencing a variety of music opportunities versed in culture are some of the most important factors in developing active and informed members of our community.
Over the last four years Lech Usinowicz has been teaching/directing general music, Choir, Beginning Orchestra, Advanced Orchestra, Select Orchestra and D.R.U.M. ensembles at Bayfield Elementary School. He would like to continue to provide more opportunities to the students of Bayfield, CO by introducing concert band to all 5th grade students as part of thier general music studies. This is where you come in. We need your help in purchasing a library of concert band instruments to be used by the over 600 students here at BES. Our goal for concert band instruments for 5th grade is $10,000. This money will afford each 5th grade student the opportunity to learn and play the flute, clarinet, saxophone, and trumpet as part of general music instruction. The benefits of this opportunity are countless, and with your help, can become a reality. For more information about the benefits of music on child development, please see below.
Purple $50 will sponsor one student
Gold $100 will afford instruments, accessories, and instructional book for one student
Platinum $200 will sponsor all concert band materials/instruments for two students
Diamond $500 will sponsor all concert band materials/instruments for two students
All sponsors will be listed in our programs as contributors to this wonderful opportunity.
Checks can be made out to BES.
Thank you for your support,
Bayfield Elementary School Music Director
Why make a donation to the BES concert band instrument drive?
Music forces people to think in an unconventional manner by providing elements of knowledge that cannot be found in any other one area of study. Researchers have long suspected that music affects the brain and now have extensive evidence to back up their theory. Intelligence, emotion, academic standing, and social skills are just some of the areas that music has been proven to stimulate and develop.
Music has proven to support all of the core curricular areas of study (i.e. math, science, and reading). Tony Mickela author of Does Music have an Impact on the Development of Students? wrote, “Learning to read music enhances the student’s ability to perform the skills necessary for reading, listening, anticipating, forecasting, memory training, recall skills, concentration techniques and speed reading.” In Laurence O’Donnell’s article, Music and the Brain, he tells us about Albert Einstein who credited his intelligence–that led to miraculous discoveries/theories–to the violin. Listening and playing music (more specifically, classical and baroque music) activates both the left and right sides of the brain intern allowing the brain to be more receptive to information (Laurence O’Donnell).
Rhythm, arguably the most essential part of music, teaches a child to count and to be able to learn basic elements of math (addition, division, factions, and multiplication). The National Association for Music Education released an article entitled Music Education Facts and Figures, “Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation” (College-Bound Seniors National Report). Implementing music into a young child's learning has great effects on their future in education.
The process of learning music teaches students to exercise abstract reasoning skills that they use for doing math and other critical thinking activities that require them to visualize, analyze and interpret music, thus, revealing our creative, spiritual and emotional nature.
Preparing our students for the future.
Physician and biologist Lewis Thomas found that 66% of music majors who applied to medical school were admitted, the highest percentage of any group. Compared to the 44% of biochemistry majors that were accepted. As reported in "The Case for Music in the Schools," Phi Delta Kappan, February 1994
“Music has great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it’s important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity.” – Ted Turner


Researchers Find Link Between Music and Academic Performance in Nashville
Independent study shows higher performance on all levels for musicians in class of 2012
Bringing decades of anecdotal evidence and national research home to Music City, Metro Nashville Public Schools and Mayor Karl Dean are proud to reveal the direct connection between music education and student achievement and engagement. The results of an independent research study on the benefits of music education in Nashville clearly show that Metro students engaged in music programs outperform their peers on every indicator – grade point average, graduation rate, ACT scores, attendance and discipline.
“This benchmark study confirms what every music teacher knows,” said Laurie Schell, director of Music Makes Us. “Music engages students in school and can motivate them toward greater achievement. Our job now is to take this knowledge and let it guide us in expanding a high-quality music program that reaches all students.”
“Music and other co-curricular activities are going to play a key role in our journey to becoming to highest performing urban school district in the country,” said Director of Schools Jesse B. Register. “We will offer every student in Metro Schools the opportunity to learn a music instrument or otherwise participate in music programs. This new research reinforces our resolve. Music will help students grow, achieve and be empowered in education.”
Commissioned by Music Makes Us, a joint effort between Metro Schools, Mayor Karl Dean and the Nashville music industry, researchers from the University of Kansas looked at four year’s worth of student data, as well as student surveys and focus groups, to determine what influence music can have on students.
In addition to the above findings, students who participated in music programs reported more positive attitudes and behaviors in their personal lives and in school. They had a strong sense of identity, developed positive academic habits, applied musical skills to other academic courses, saw themselves as more motivated in school and reported positive effects on their mood – essentially feeling “happier” because of music.
“When we started Music Makes Us, we knew we would not just be giving students a creative outlet; we also knew music education could have a positive impact on academic performance and attitudes about school,” said Mayor Karl Dean. “This study validates the importance of music education and our investment in this one-of-a-kind program as we continue to focus on providing every child in Metro Schools with a high quality education.”
This baseline research is a positive early step, but it is not the end result. The report clearly shows that the more music classes a student takes, the better his chances of achieving. That means Music Makes Us must continue to grow and develop until it touches every student in every school. That can only happen with community support, which helped give birth to Music Makes Us in the first place.
“It’s thanks to the partnership between the district, Mayor Dean and Nashville’s music industry leaders that we are even in this position,” said Dr. Register.
Mayor Dean added, “Without the strong community partners backing this effort, including incredible support from the Country Music Association, we wouldn’t be here. Nashville owes them a debt of gratitude.”
The next step is examining and implementing the recommendations made in the report, which include expansion, student retention and continuity of existing programs.
“Our teachers are ready to step up and engage with the broader music community,” said Schell. “We are excited to build our capacity to have an impact on student learning through music. The benefits for the students and the city will be far-reaching.”
Posted on November 22, 2013, in Community Partners, District, News and tagged academic achievement, arts education, community partners, country music association, district, mayor karl dean, music education, music makes us, news, school improvement. Bookmark the permalink. 5 Comments.


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Once or twice a year every music educator needs to go recharge their batteries a bit by attending a conference or convention in their field. I have always been blessed with administrators that understand the importance of these events, and I just returned from my yearly visit to the Iowa Music Educator's Association Convention at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. I want to tell you a bit about what I saw and learned along the way. In one session by Dr. S. Daniel Galyen of the University of Northern Iowa , I learned that the concept of mental practice and imagery is becoming much more accepted and useful in the field of music education.
I had the chance to take in several very good sessions at the IMEA conference including a very interesting one having to do with mental practice and imagery. Basically it has to do with concepts used for many years by professional athletes but that has only in the last ten years or so been applied as a tool for helping musicians and other performance artists. Musicians can use these techniques in a variety of ways and for many different purposes.
I have used the basic concept of mental repetition with my beginners (and even with high school students) for many years. My favorite among them is what I call "Say It, Think It, Fake It, Play It." I first read about this concept in one of the music education magazines a few years ago and have adapted it to my own needs. I apologize that I do not have a specific reference for the original article.
Using Mental Imagery To Help Students Learn Note Names:
For me, "Say It, Fake It, Think It, Play It," has always made my students show immediate and obvious improvement during lessons when I have students that are unable to learn the notes of the staff on their own. Many of these students insist that the only way they can play is if they write in the letter names of all of their notes. Whenever I have a student like this I pull out an easy finger exercise (without anything written on it) and have the student say the names of the notes. Even if it takes them thirty seconds to go one measure, we still say the note names and do not write them down. Next, we say the note names again while combining this with fingering the notes. Third, we move the fingers while thinking the note names in our head. Finally we play the notes while actively thinking the notes in our head at the same time. In each of these cases if a student is having difficulty you repeat that segment until they are able to do it cleanly and quickly. As an assignment the student is asked to practice the fingering exercises, one or two measures at a time but they are not allowed to write in any notes.
In most cases using this strategy will be painfully slow at first, but the more they do it the better they get at it. In many cases the results are immediately obvious, although one often wonders if the initial improvement is due to rote repetition or to true learning. Over time it does work, especially if you can convince the student that doing the same thing at home will help him progress that much faster. If you are looking for something to use with a student that is having difficulties with learning notes or with playing a difficult passage in an etude, try it out and see if you get similar results.


Barrier-Free Library, Lifelong Learning
Celebrating Art Beyond Sight: The Value of Creating and Appreciating Art for Those with Low Vision
In October, museums and other cultural organizations throughout the U.S. and the world celebrate the 10th annual Art Beyond Sight Awareness Month. The goal: "making pictorial literacy and access to the world of art a reality for all blind people."
The organization Art Education for the Blind was founded by museum educator Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel 25 years ago when her grandmother, an artist and art lover, began losing her sight. Those efforts have expanded greatly and grown into the organization, Art Beyond Sight (ABS), a collaborative of museums, and cultural and educational institutions, which support one another in their efforts to provide myriad ways into the art world for those with low vision or blindness. Accessibility tools include general tools for those with low vision such as universal design, braille/large print, and tactile graphics and maps, and learning tools to provide access to artwork such as touch tours, verbal description and tactile diagrams of the space. ABS' rich website also explores art-making as a way to both express oneself and learn about art.
Every couple of years, Art Beyond Sight and New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art sponsor an international conference of educators, museum personnel and researchers to explore new advances in different ways of learning, particularly centered around museums and art. This year's conference, Multimodal Approaches to Learning, takes place October 26-28 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
I had not thought much about art education for those with vision loss until our library presented a Low Vision and Blindness Resource Day in June 2011, which included a panel of three artists with low vision discussing why and how they create art. One of the participating artists, Fotis Flevotomos, was recently awarded a Fulbright grant which enabled him to come to New York City where he is being hosted by the New York Public Library as a Visiting Artist.
We welcome Fotis Flevotomos, and know he will be a great asset to the library and the wider cultural community in spreading the important word about the value of art for all — especially those with low vision.


Handwriting skills are an important developmental task and activity for kids. Through handwriting they are able to express themselves and communicate with the world around them. Improving their penmanship, legibility, pencil grasp, and working on problem areas are all important things that need addressed, whether you are a homeschool parent, teacher, therapist, or just supplementing your child's classroom activities.
I wanted to share some ways on how to improve handwriting skills with kids and have rounded up all the posts I have written on this topic here on GHOK.
How to Improve Handwriting Skills with Kids
The first step in learning about handwriting skills is to understand the importance of fine motor development and how pencil grasp develops. Here are some posts I have written on that topic:
- Typical Fine Motor Developmental Milestones for Ages 0-6 – Also comes with a free printable of each age level.
- You can also find more information on fine motor skill development.
- Which Fine Motor Skills Are Important for Handwriting?
Pencil Grasp Development
There are two types of pencil grasps that are considered efficient for handwriting; the tripod and the quadruped grasp. You can learn more about those two types of grasp below.
- Proper Pencil Grasp for Writing – Comes with a step by step developmental sequence and explanation as well as pictures of each type of grasp.
- 5 Tips for Pencil Grasp Development with Preschoolers – This is a guest post I wrote over on Learning 2 Walk about pencil grasp as well.
- 5 Fine Motor Activities to Improve Pencil Grasp – Guest post on Learning 2 Walk
- 2 Pincer Grasp Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers
- 5 Activities for Pincer Grasp Development
Pre-Writing Skills for Toddlers and Preschoolers
Pre-writing skills are the pre-cursor to handwriting. They consist of an age appropriate sequence of lines and shapes that toddlers and preschoolers learn in order to later on form letters and numbers.
- 6 Pre-writing Activities for Preschoolers – This was a 6 week series I did on my blog with activities to encourage pre-writing lines and shapes.
- 12 Fun Ways to Practice Handwriting with Preschoolers – Hands-on ideas for practice handwriting and pre-writing skills
- 10 Hands-On Ways to Practice Pre-Writing Lines
- On The Farm Prewriting Packet
Basic Shapes for Beginners – A Hands-on Approach to Pre-writing Strokes for Kids is an ebook I wrote to get you started with pre-writing skills at home for ages 2-5. There is also a Paperback and Kindle version.
Teaching Handwriting Skills at Home
If your child is in Occupational Therapy it is important to practice the skills they are working on at home. This post discusses some ways to do that.
For homeschoolers I have a special series on my site with how to teach handwriting to your preschooler through elementary age student.
- Teaching Handwriting in Your Homeschool – Preschool
- Teaching Handwriting in Your Homeschool – Kindergarten
- Teaching Handwriting in Your Homeschool – Elementary
- How to Include Handwriting in your Tot-School & Preschool
- 10 Ways to Combine Bible and Handwriting Practice
- Ways to Teach Bible and Handwriting Practice for Preschoolers
Teaching Cursive Handwriting
Cursive can be a great alternative for children who are struggling with print. Plus it's important to at least teach your child how to sign their name in cursive. Here are some cursive resources for you.
- Should I Teach Cursive or Print Handwriting First?
- Cursive Pre-Writing Lines & Strokes – Free Printable
- Is Cursive Handwriting Still Important to Learn?
Handwriting Difficulty Tips & Tricks
You've most likely come to this page because your child is struggling with handwriting in some way. Here are some tips for some common handwriting problems.
More Handwriting Resources
- 5 Benefits of a Slant Writing Board
- Handwriting Warm Up Activities
- DIY Handwriting Toolkit
- The Handwriting Book
For more tips and ideas, you can sign up to receive my 5 days of handwriting and pre-writing skills e-mail series. It's completely free and you'll receive all 5 days worth of e-mails in your inbox.
Just enter your e-mail address below and click the green “click here” button. You'll need to head over to your inbox and confirm you want to receive the e-mail series. Then look for a welcome e-mail in your inbox (double check your spam folder or promotions tab for gmail users if you don't see anything in your inbox).
I also have a Pinterest board dedicated to Handwriting Skills and Activities that you can follow for more ideas.


Build solid creative writing skills with our extensive collection of printables, graphic organizers, and lessons plans you'll find poetry activities, short-story. This practical creative writing module identifies your strengths and interests, and helps you develop as a writer of fiction, poetry, biography, autobiography or. Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by. Also known as 'the art of making things up,' creative writing is a vital part of modern society this lesson will explore what makes writing. The next official spacebattles contest is here and it's a little different than most rather than designing something that blows shit up or goes really fast, the.
Creative writing creative writing is a self-explanatory term that has a lot of intricacies so, it would be better if you actually read the creative writing ideas in. How to teach creative writing creative writing is one of the most enjoyable types of writing for students not only does it allow students to explore. Creative writing: the craft of style from wesleyan university your style is as unique and distinctive as your face, your voice, except that you can choose it, you. Creative writing plays an important role in a child's literacy development this article makes suggestions for the instruction and evaluation of children's stories. Can creativity be taught how far can you be creative when translating other people's work listen to translators, authors and creative writing teachers.
The creative writing program offers a two-year studio course of resident study for third- and fourth-year undergraduate students pursuing a major in creative writing. A teaching pack for key stage 4 including a teacher's route through, ideas for activities, suggestions for improving 'problem' areas of writing, targeted resources.
Stuck for inspiration it happens to all writers here are ten of the best creative writing exercises to inspire you to start (and finish) that book. Here are hundreds of writing ideas, along with free tips and worksheets for writers you can also sign up for our free online creative writing courses. Creative writing worksheets for teaching esl or efl.
Letters: ben mccarthy of plantlife, ruth borthwick of the creative writing charity arvon, minette batters of the nfu, graeme willis of the cpre. Writing creative texts, including newspaper articles, online articles and scripts. Welcome to writing forward creative writing tips and ideas explore fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction writing home about.
What is creative writing creative writing is anything where the purpose is to express thoughts, feelings and emotions rather than to simply convey information. This creative writing course is ideal if you want to write fiction, short stories and novels learn about plotting, dialogue, characters, structure and more. The activity should work at most levels above elementary, as long as your students have some knowledge of past tenses, but it works best when they also know past.
This programme builds on a rich literary tradition at cambridge and is designed for those wishing to develop their existing writing skills, either for professional. Buy creative writing of high quality from custom creative writing service all creative writing papers are written from scratch by professional academic writers. Free creative writing papers, essays, and research papers. Writingcom is the online community for writers of all interests established in 2000, our community breeds writing, writers and poetry through creative writing help. Books shelved as creative-writing: on writing: a memoir of the craft by stephen king, bird by bird: some instructions on writing and life by anne lamott.


The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) are a set of procedures and measures for assessing the acquisition of early literacy skills from kindergarten through sixth grade. They are designed to be short (one minute) indicators used to regularly monitor the development of early literacy and early reading skills.
DIBELS were developed as indicators for several basic early literacy skills. Each measure has been thoroughly researched over the last few decades and demonstrated to be reliable and valid indicators for hundreds of thousands of students. Teachers use the measures to monitor early literacy development and predict later reading proficiency. This aids in the early identification of students who are not progressing as expected, so teachers can provide extra supports for those students. When used as recommended, results help set literacy objectives for students and then monitor progress toward those objectives.
DIBELS Next is used to assess the following skills:
- Phonemic Awareness. The earliest literacy skill. FSF and PSF are measures that indicate students' abilities to hear, segment, and isolate the phonemes in words. This is a critical precursor to developing letter-sound relationships in print.
- Alphabetic Principle and Basic Phonics. NWF is the measure that best indicates a student's knowledge and skills with phonics. Students' progress in figuring out unfamiliar words spans several years, from kindergarten to second grade.
- Fluency. For each skill and measure, fluency is a goal. Students should develop reasonable automaticity with identifying letters and sounds, and putting words together. Enough fluency is needed so that a student's reading pace does not prohibit reading comprehension.
- Advanced Phonics and Word Attack. NWF and DORF both help measure students' abilities to read texts that stretch beyond their sight-word vocabulary.
- Accurate and Fluent Reading of Connected Text. DORF is the measure used to assess students' abilities to recognize and read words accurately and automatically. Students' progress in this area spans several years, from first to third grade.
- Reading Comprehension. DAZE is the measure used to assess the students' abilities to construct meaning from text using word recognition skills, background information, prior knowledge, familiarity with linguistic properties such as syntax and morphology, and cause and effect reasoning skills. Students' progress in this area is monitored beginning in third grade.
|Talk to your Literacy Assistant if you have a concern about a student prior to testing||Wait until after testing to express a concern|
If a student is having a bad day, please request that he/she be tested on make-up day
|Use Benchmark Passages for a re-test|
|If a student has forgotten his/her glasses, please request that he/she be tested on make-up day.||Change the standardized administration of a test|
|Use progress monitoring materials to instruct students so they understand what is expected of them on test day||Practice or review Benchmark passages prior to testing|
|If there is a discrepancy in the student’s performance relative to other information available about the student, or if there is a question about the accuracy of a score, validate the score by retesting the student using alternate forms of the DIBELS measures or additional diagnostic assessments|
See an overview of what DIBELS can do for a young learner's literacy
- mClass home from Amplify (login page for educators)
- DIBELS Next home page from dibels.org
- USOE testing ethics policy
- USOE 2015-2016 accommodations policy
- "What doesn’t belong here? On Teaching Nonsense Words" by Timothy Shanahan
If you have any questions, please contact Becky Gerber at 801-567-8087.


Date of Award
Doctor of Education (Ded)
Professional Studies in Education
George Bieger, Ph.D.
Monte Tidwell, Ph.D.
Anne Creany, Ph.D.
This study examines the effect of gender specific instructional strategies on boys reading achievement in single-sex schools. Research indicates that there is a growing gender gap, especially in the area of literacy development and reading achievement. Each year, statistics indicate that boys are falling further behind girls in reading achievement. Although researchers agree that there are developmental gender differences, opinions differ as to the impact of those differences on learning. Boys and girls do learn differently, but to what extent should that impact how educators teach reading? Does gender influence how children learn? Do boys learn one way and girls learn another? With the current climate of high-stakes testing, standardized tests continue to indicate achievement gaps by gender. The interest in single-sex schooling is not new; however, the emphasis on gender differences is the key to the current rationale for implementation of single-sex education. Elementary schools that are transitioning from co-educational to single-sex schools are doing so to improve student achievement, address the needs of students who are at risk of academic failure, meet diverse educational needs, and acknowledge gender-based learning differences. Understanding and addressing these gender-based differences can help to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to learn. For educators, the goal should be to meet the diverse learning needs of each student in the classroom and that creates an educational system that has the courage and the wisdom to value, encourage, and celebrate the innate gender differences while creating an equal educational opportunity for every child. It is vital that brain-based gender differences be considered when planning and implementing curriculum within schools. If the daunting statistic concerning boys reading achievement in schools is to be addressed, single-sex classrooms and schools must become an integral part of the debate in the educational system in America. This study provides additional evidence that attending a single-sex school improves the reading achievement of boys.
Bonomo, Virginia, "The Effects of Gender Specific Instructional Strategies: Examining the Reading Achievement of Boys in Single-Sex Schools" (2012). Theses and Dissertations (All). 661.


By Luisa Gerasimo; Sally M Walke
From the editors of The Teacher's Calendar and Chase's Calendar of occasions comes an necessary school room source for educators of grades K-8. listed below are a hundred and eighty lesson plan supplements--one for every day of the college year--that will supply lecturers prepared entry to an abundance of useful, do-able actions and listings of very valuable assets to complement classes and inspire scholar participation. rules are provided chronologically by way of month, yet also are keyed through topic sector (math, technology, language arts, etc.) for optimum ease of use.
Read or Download 180 Creative Ideas for Getting Students Involved, Engaged, and Excited PDF
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Additional resources for 180 Creative Ideas for Getting Students Involved, Engaged, and Excited
Frederick was well known in the German music community as a teacher and the owner 30 Ideas for September of a piano store. Quiet, shy Clara Wieck seldom spoke when she was a very young child. In fact, she did not speak at all until she was four years old. As a result, some people believed she was deaf or possibly mentally handicapped. Clara always loved to watch her father play the piano. She often imitated the movement of his hands as he played. Her father decided she could begin lessons when she was five years old.
In the southern hemisphere, it’s the arrival of spring. In science class, focus on prediction. Scientists make predictions based on their observations and experiences. Ask students to think about what occurrences they have observed in the past as autumn approached. Now zero in on the area in your community. If there are trees on the school grounds, let students predict what colors the leaves on each tree will turn and the dates they think certain trees will lose their leaves. Predict when the first frost will occur.
28 Ideas for September 19 Jesse Owens Birth, September 12, 1913 Jesse Owens was born on a farm in Alabama, on September 12, 1913. C. He had seven brothers and sisters, and his parents were sharecroppers. C. became known as Jesse after the family moved to Cleveland, Ohio. C. ” Jesse grew up with little material wealth, but his life was rich with love and the many activities his family enjoyed doing together. One activity Owens’s father enjoyed was the foot races often held after church on Sunday.


ERIC Number: EJ789567
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008
Reference Count: N/A
Including Voices from the World through Global Citizenship Education
Heilman, Elizabeth E.
Social Studies and the Young Learner, v20 n4 p30-32 Mar-Apr 2008
Linking to voices from the world is exciting for both students and teachers, but everyone needs to understand that global education is a form of citizenship education. The activities of the nation have a great effect on people in the rest of the world, whether in the realm of economics, diplomacy, the media, or the environment. Some states, like Wisconsin, have made global education a strong part of the elementary curriculum. More commonly though, elementary social studies presents a seemingly non-global curriculum featuring history, economics, and geography based on American communities, states, and regions. American literature, poetry and folklore are featured in language arts. Voices from the world seem hard to fit into such a curriculum. The challenge this presents can meet through two broad approaches: looking for global dimensions across the curriculum, and using global examples and making global comparisons to enrich an otherwise "single-nation curriculum." In this article, the author offers some suggestions on how to do this.
Descriptors: Global Education, Citizenship, Citizenship Education, International Relations, Social Studies, Elementary Education, Curriculum, Comparative Analysis, History, Economics, Interdisciplinary Approach, Teaching Methods
National Council for the Social Studies. 8555 Sixteenth Street 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910. Tel: 800-683-0812; Tel: 301-588-1800: Fax: 301-588-2049; e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.org; Web site: http://www.socialstudies.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Wisconsin


The importance of sports in the life of a young student is invaluable and goes much further than the basic answer that "it keeps kids off the streets." It does in fact keep kids off the streets, but it also instills lessons that are essential in the life of a student athlete. Sports play a pivotal role in the makeup of a young athlete, especially in the middle school to high school years where student-athletes are much more mature and mentally developed. Where else can a young, impressionable youth learn values like discipline, responsibility, self-confidence, sacrifice, and accountability?
Television, which may be the most influential tool in the lives of young adults, does not show enough of these qualities,nor is it on the Internet, or radio. Rather it is up to the parents, teachers, sports teams, clubs, and after school programs to help mold, develop, and instill these qualities into the lives of student athletes. I believe in order for this to happen, school sports programs must have a few components in place. The first thing they need is a good core of coaches that understand the great responsibility that is placed upon their shoulders to help shape and prepare these student-athletes not only in sports, but in their everyday lives. Yes, I did say coaches, because it is a responsibility that lies on the shoulders of more than one person and it is going to take more than one person to help lead these student-athletes to success. The second component also involves the coach
By Lisa Dunning, MA, MFT
High school is a time to make friends, get good grades, participate in activities and prepare for the future. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, some schools have opted out of high school sports, believing that money would be better spent on academics. I understand that academics come first, but sacrificing high school sports lessens every child's high school experience, their ability to perform at optimum academic levels and develop into a well-rounded adult.
The Importance of High School Sports Can Be Found in Elementary School During a child's elementary school years, children typically lose their recess privileges as a consequence to poor behavior. This consequence can have the opposite of the desired effect. Recess is the place where kids let out their aggression and release frustration and anger, allowing the children to better cope with the aspects of school they do not enjoy.
High School Sports Promote Bonding and Encouragement
What many administrators, teachers and parents fail to realize is that high school sports offer teenagers the same outlet. Participating in high school sports is important for motor skill development, maintaining a healthy exercise program and provides for a release of anger when the academic stressors become overwhelming. When youth participate in high school sports they release endorphins which helps decrease depression and increases energy. Most high schools, if not all, require at least a C average to participate in these sports, which provides the child with accountability. High school sports increase bonding between children and their parents when parents help with skills and come to games to cheer their child on.
High School Sports Boost Overall Morale And Support
High school sports offer a release that is needed for every student. High School Sports enables the entire school to come together, whether playing, or observing, to cheer for their school. If your child is having difficulty making friends encourage them to join a high school activity or to go to a game and cheer for their school. It boosts school morale when students meet to cheer for their team. While offering an enjoyable distraction from the stressors of school, teenager's negative perception of school as a place akin to a prison is replaced with increased school pride. This increased interest in school generally results in increased enjoyment in academics, resulting in better overall test scores and grades.
Adults Look Back on High School Sports Fondly
When adults look back on their time in school many do not remember their teachers, classes or grades but they do remember the high school sports they participated in or observed. They often look back on these memories fondly and look forward to their children having similar experiences. Encourage your teenager's high school to keep high school sports around so every teenager can have a better overall high school experience.
Lisa Dunning is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Specializing in Parent/Child Relationship issues, the author of "Good Parents Bad Parenting: How To Parent Together When Your Parenting Styles Are Worlds Apart" and the host of her own radio show, "Life Support". She provides marriage, divorce and parenting phone sessions to clientele across the United States and Canada and provides expert parenting advice to newspaper & magazine columnists. To learn more about Lisa Dunning visit her website at http://www.lisadunningmft.com/.


ERIC Number: ED531707
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2012
Reference Count: N/A
Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction and Assessment, Pre-K-6
Hougen, Martha C., Ed.; Smartt, Susan M., Ed.
Brookes Publishing Company
For future literacy teachers just beginning their professional education, nothing's more important than the first core text that builds their foundation for classroom success. That's why every preservice teacher should start with this introductory reading textbook, ideal for teaching fundamental literacy skills to students in pre-K-Grade 6. Based on cutting-edge research, best practices, and the newest professional standards, this core literacy textbook is a must for tomorrow's teachers because it: (1) Focuses on pre-K-Grade 6; (2) Covers every key element of reading; (3) Fully explains the new Common Core State Standards; (4) Highlights best assessment practices; (5) Weaves RTI guidance throughout; (6) Includes contributions from highly respected experts; (7) Advances differentiated instruction and inclusion; (8) Prepares educators for the real world of teaching; and (9) Examines current legislation. Contents include: (1) Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher: Introduction (Martha C. Hougen); (2) The Critical Components of Effective Reading Instruction (Martha C. Hougen); (3) Oral Language and Listening Skill Development in Early Childhood (Christie L. Cavanaugh); (4) Phonological Awareness: A Critical Foundation for Beginning Reading (Stephanie Al Otaiba & Martha C. Hougen); (5) Effective Phonics Instruction (Martha C. Hougen); (6) Beginning Handwriting, Spelling, and Composition Instruction (Suzanne Carreker; (7) The Common Core State Standards and Text Complexity (Elfrieda H. Hiebert); (8) Fluency Instruction (Jan Hasbrouck & Martha C. Hougen); (9) What Is Important to Know About Words of Written Language (Elfrieda H. Hiebert); (10) A Comprehensive, Interactive Approach to Vocabulary Development (Martha C. Hougen & Susan M. Ebbers); (11) Comprehension, Grades K-3 (Darcy Dycha); (12) Comprehension, Grades 4-6 (Stephen Ciullo & Colleen Klein Reutebuch); (13) Strategic, Meaningful, and Effective Writing Instruction for Elementary Students (Natalie G. Olinghouse & Joshua Wilson); (14) Disciplinary Literacy (Kristie Hotchkiss & Susan M. Smartt); (15) Current Laws, Policies, Initiatives, Common Core State Standards, and Response to Intervention (Susan M. Smartt); (16) Putting It All Together: Becoming an Effective Literacy Teacher (Martha C. Hougen & Heather Haynes); and (17) Ten Tips to Becoming an Effective Teacher (Martha C. Hougen & Susan M. Smartt). Appended are: (1) "Recipe" for a Sticky Board; (2) Say It and Move It Card; (3) Helpful Web Sites; (4) Lesson Plan Template; and (5) Glossary.
Descriptors: Literacy Education, Reading Instruction, Beginning Reading, Academic Standards, State Standards, Student Evaluation, Response to Intervention, Individualized Instruction, Inclusion, Educational Legislation, Federal Legislation, Teacher Effectiveness, Instructional Effectiveness, Oral Language, Listening Skills, Skill Development, Phonological Awareness, Phonics, Handwriting, Spelling Instruction, Writing Instruction, Written Language, Vocabulary Development, Reading Comprehension, Elementary School Students
Brookes Publishing Company. P.O. Box 10624, Baltimore, MD 21285. Tel: 800-638-3775; Fax: 410-337-8539; e-mail: email@example.com; Web site: http://www.brookespublishing.com
Publication Type: Books; Collected Works - General; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Education
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Laws, Policies, & Programs: Elementary and Secondary Education Act


The Pre-Preparatory Phase (Grades 000-0)
The Pre-Preparatory Phase introduces children to fundamental concepts that are central to successful learning in a secure and relaxed environment.
Class sizes vary according to grade, and range from approximately 16 to 20 children per class. In our play rich environment, children use their senses to discover new things and learn the many lessons they will need before formal education begins in Grade 1.
Our programme allows children to develop their creativity, enhance their communication skills and acquire social interaction abilities through play. It is at this developmental stage that children learn about themselves. The perceptual skills that form the foundation for further learning are developed in our carefully structured programme, which includes baking, climbing, running, construction, creating, singing, dancing and communicating. Literacy and numeracy skills are developed gradually using carefully structured programmes that progressively nurture self-confidence.
Our colourful classrooms are alive with the chatter of happy, busy children. We believe that we develop children who are physically, emotionally, spiritually and cognitively ready to face the challenges that lie ahead.
A visit to the Pre-Preparatory facility will allow prospective parents to see the qualitative difference between child-care and child minding, and provide a clear understanding of the importance of formal education in this age group.


I am not kidding when I say these are the best science experiments for kids, and I have great reasons why! We do science and STEM year round here. Science for holidays, science for seasons, and science for anytime. Here you will find some awesome science activities, ideas, and experiments, but you will also find a resource guide for even more learning all year long.
BEST SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS AND ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience.
I thought it would be helpful to put our most popular science experiments in one place for you. Make sure to bookmark them to use all year round. The one thing I really like about how we do science and STEM here is that we do it simply.
We don’t use complicated or expensive materials. Plus, we don’t do complicated set ups, just tons of fun and hands on learning. Because we want everyone to be able to access science. Most importantly, we want it to be easy!
My son and I really like playful science activities since he is still a young scientist who likes to play! Right now we keep science simple to encourage a real love for the subject.
Before I share with you my 12 best science experiments, I want to give you a list of a few more awesome resources you will want to check out. Plan a year of science using all our ideas, and you will have an awesome year of learning.
BEST SCIENCE RESOURCES
BEST SCIENCE SUPPLIES
There are a few basic materials that are nice to have on hand. A well stocked pantry will get you through a ton of simple science experiments.
First make sure to check out STEM ON A BUDGET has some great lists for keeping your science experiments low cost. Secondly, we have been trying out inexpensive science kits you can easily add to your collection. Even better, you can put together a homemade science kit!
12 BEST SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS FOR YEAR ROUND LEARNING
One of the neat things about our fun science activities is that they can be given holiday or seasonal themes so easily. Plus, we have so many of those ideas for you! Just check out our YEAR OF SLIME THEMES to see how easy it is.
Over the last couple years I have really noticed how much fun my son has with all our holiday themed science and STEM experiments, so we do a lot! Most importantly, he enjoys learning.
I consider our best science experiments perfect for preschool, kindergarten, and early elementary. However, there are tons of ways to modify experiments to meet your kids abilities. Some may need more adult help and some less. Older kids can help younger kids.
Click on the links in blue to get started.
Our classic homemade slime recipe is perfect. You will also find alternative recipes for making slimes. We think making slime is one of our best science experiments.
Grow beautiful and easy crystals with a simple solution to learn more about chemistry. This year we also tested out a more kid friendly salt crystal version.
We love making catapults and have a variety to check out, but we always go back to our popsicle stick catapult.
This is a fun fall themed take on the classic dancing raisins experiment.
Check out the physics involved in creating a zip line. It’s great hands on science for kids that is definitely playful!
How many ways can you blow up a balloon? We think there might be one or two.
I absolutely love this science activity because of the close up view you get to watch seeds grow. It’s not a playful science activity but it sure is cool to check out the new sights each day.
Ice melting is a classic science experiment, and there are so many things you can add to ice. Think about your kids favorite themes and see what you come up with. We like our frozen dino eggs!
What happens when oil and water mix? What happens when you add a secret but common household supply?
Can you create a rainbow with just sugar, water, and food coloring?
How about an egg drop challenge the younger kids will love. I love the classic engineering egg drop challenge, but this one includes the younger kids too!
Chemical reactions are awesome for kids because they have a WOW factor that is cool every time. We have a whole collect of fizzing and popping science experiments. This one is always a favorite though. Fun for fall too.
I hope you have found some new ideas to incorporate into your lessons or free time this year. Science is perfect all year round and our best science experiments make it easy to share science with your kids.


Teachers must help children grasp the basics of English before true success with Scotland's ambitious foreign language targets can be achieved, a major event on language teaching has heard.
The message came from one of Europe's leading figures in language learning, who underlined that all teachers must take responsibility for English.
His comments were timely, as Scotland presses ahead with the 1+2 policy - the idea that young Scots should routinely learn two languages in addition to English, and at least one from P1.
Waldemar Martyniuk, executive director at the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe, responded after a University of St Andrews student explained that she struggled with aspects of Spanish because her schooldays had given her "very little understanding of English grammar".
Claire Rampen, representing the National Union of Students Scotland at the event, organised by the Scottish Parliament's European and external relations committee, was applauded when she asked: "Is there a place for a real understanding of English grammar and language in the primary school curriculum?"
Mr Martyniuk said: "This is an important point ... building up the linguistic repertoire or linguistic power starts with the first language, not with the foreign languages that get added to the repertoire."
He stressed that a subject specialist was "a language teacher as much as they are a teacher of history, geography or physics", adding: "A teacher cannot think that it is not their problem. That will not work."
Alasdair Allan, minister for learning, science and Scotland's languages, insisted that Scotland had already improved: "Children, particularly those in primary school, are much more able to say what they have learned and why they have learned it and, as far as I can see, more grammar is probably being taught now than was being taught 10 or 15 years ago."


SEATTLE — Consisting of volcanic islands and plagued by a diverse group of recurring natural disasters, the success of humanitarian aid to Samoa relies almost entirely upon the country’s ability to adapt to the unending threat of hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters.
Although Samoa is one of the more economically successful countries in Polynesia, nearly 20 percent of its 195,000 civilians live below the poverty line, according to the Rural Poverty Portal.
Samoa’s biggest threat to its economy and infrastructure are natural disasters, and unfortunately, disasters can often create a domino effect, crippling the success of humanitarian aid to Samoa. For example, in 2009 an 8.0 magnitude earthquake created a tsunami that killed 143 people and destroyed many villages, ultimately affecting 2.5 percent of the country’s population. In 2012, Tropical Cyclone Evan hit Samoa, displacing more than 7,700 people. To combat these devastating storms, organizations have worked on providing aid in the form of early warning systems and other technologies to help mitigate the disaster’s effects.
In response to Tropical Cyclone Evan, U.S. Foreign Disaster Resistance provided Samoa with $150,000 in relief, providing water, sanitation and hygiene commodities. According to Radio New Zealand, the Asian Development Bank provided Samoa and neighboring islands with $15 million in grants and loans in 2017 to help strengthen their disaster resilience.
The World Bank has contributed more than $88 million to a Natural Disaster Risk Reduction Program to assist Samoa in preparing for and reacting to natural disasters. Directly affecting the agriculture industry, which employs two-thirds of the population, natural disasters can be blamed for Samoa’s economic struggles, according to the World Bank.
Because agriculture is such a huge industry in Samoa, the success of humanitarian aid to Samoa can be measured in rural areas, where farmers see the effects of natural disasters firsthand. Soil erosion from deforestation and harsh disasters make farming a difficult process for Samoans. According to the World Bank, about 70 percent of beef in Samoa is imported, which leaves local farmers a large window to commercialize their cattle and profit off their livestock.
In response to this, the World Bank worked with the Samoan Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to create the Samoa Agriculture Competitiveness Enhancement Project (SACEP). SACEP’s goal is to improve local farmers’ techniques and opportunities for raising livestock. To introduce new genetics to Samoan livestock, cattle were flown from Australia to Samoa in 2015. The program also provided funds for farmers to enhance their pasture and increase their herd. After three years, the project showed results, increasing the calving rate (rate of cows that give birth) from 48 percent to 64 percent and financing farmers about $316,500 for 172 farmers to increase their herd.
The success of humanitarian aid to Samoa can also be measured in access to clean water, sanitation, education and even employment. According to the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and trade, Australia implemented its Aid Investment Plan (AIP) with multiple areas of focus, including education and employment in Samoa, which is active until 2019. AIP’s goals include improving elementary education to include girls as well as a focus on literacy. It also provides scholarships for Samoans to pursue secondary education in Australia. AIP also focuses on promoting employment through its Seasonal Worker Program as well as opening up new job opportunities for women.
Costing more than $20 million, the Water for Life project in Samoa focused on providing clean, sustainable water sources as well as basic sanitation in an attempt to eliminate poverty. The project was funded by the European Development Fund and ended in 2016.
While not the poorest country in the world, the success of humanitarian aid to Samoa is heavily influenced by a wide range of natural disasters that continue to keep its economy from reaching its full potential. However, with funding and helpful programs from neighbors like Australia, New Zealand and many others, Samoa is continuously developing into a stronger and more independent nation.
– Austin Stoltzfus


Blogs About Reading
Shanahan on Literacy
Literacy expert Timothy Shanahan shares best practices for teaching reading and writing. Dr. Shanahan is an internationally recognized professor of urban education and reading researcher who has extensive experience with children in inner-city schools and children with special needs. All posts are reprinted with permission from Shanahan on Literacy.
The Role of Early Oral Language in Reading Comprehension
When I was 18 years old, I was a volunteer tutor in an inner-city school. I wasn’t an education major — that came later — but I was intent on saving the world. I was excited about the idea of going into the city and working with elementary school kids who were growing up in poverty.
But I was also nervous about it. I didn’t know a damn thing about working with kids, the inner city, or reading. A trifecta of ignorance.
I decided to school myself the evening before my first day of tutoring, so I went to the university library and looked for some books on the teaching of reading. I found two that seemed pertinent and I checked them out.
One was Rudolph Flesch’s Why Johnny Can’t Read and the other was Roach Van and Claryce Allen’s Language Experiences in Early Childhood. At the time I couldn’t have found two more separate takes on early reading: Flesch’s convincing polemic on the need for explicit phonics instruction and the Allen’s romantic homage to the role of early language development.
It turns out I was also ignorant about philosophical differences. I was scrambling to figure out what to do and these books — as far apart as they may have been — were pointing me in practical, if seemingly incommensurate, directions.
Now, 47 years later, with lots of knowledge and experience, I’m back to where I started. I no longer see them as incommensurate (again). Decoding and language, language and decoding … it’s like those television commercials: “tastes great, less filling” or “peanut butter, chocolate.” Sometimes the complementary just makes good sense.
Recently, Chris Lonigan and I wrote a short article for Language Magazine. It’s focus is on “The Role of Early Oral Language in Literacy Development.” I think both Chris and I have bona fides in the “phonics/decoding/foundational skills” community and have the scars to show it. But we are both also advocates of the so-called “simple view” of reading — students need to know how to decode from print to language and they need to know how to understand language. This is a both, not an either/or.
Here is a link to the article. Hope you enjoy it.


From birth to age eight, children take the first steps in a lifelong learning journey. EDC speeds them on their way by designing, studying, supporting, and scaling up programs that enhance school readiness and success. We have a special focus on meeting the needs of children from disadvantaged communities and dual language learners, engaging and supporting families, and building the capacity of educators and communities to sustain improvements.
In the United States, we work to create strong, coherent preK-Grade 3 systems and advance knowledge of how to improve early science, mathematics, and literacy learning. Around the world, we implement innovative early childhood programs that build literacy and numeracy skills, excite interest in learning, and help educators, volunteers, and parents enrich early learning.
Learn more: Read "Early Childhood @EDC."
Drawing on a decade of research, EDC analyzed the impact of partnerships among early childhood education programs on the accessibility and quality of services for young children—particularly childr
This paper describes the work of the Home Visiting Collaborative for Improvement and Innovation Network (HV CoIIN).
This report presents the results of a first-of-its-kind national survey of parents, who were asked about the types of early science educational activities they do with their young children.
This report summarizes the results of the Time to Learn project in Zambia, which was funded by the U.S.
This toolkit provides program designers with information on how to develop and implement effective early childhood interactive audio instruction (IAI) programs in a range of settings.
This report, jointly developed by the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) and the BUILD Initiative, shares findings from a think tank and working group in which early childhood lead
This factsheet provides an overview of some of EDC’s work to strengthen systems and services to help families, home visitors, community members, educators, and healthcare professionals ensure that
This resource library from the Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) contains policy reports, briefs, annotated bibliographies, and other tools targeted to help early childhood educat
The Bullying Prevention Resource Guide provides links to organizations, programs, publications, and resources focused on bullying prevention. It is divided into seven sections:
Based on an EDC-led workshop funded by the National Science Foundation, this white paper explores the impact of language documentation on language revitalization, shares the benefits of language documentation and revitalization for young children, and presents recommendations and implications for future research.


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New for 2018! FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS AND VOCABULARY for FICTIONAL TEXTS
NWEA Daily Practice for ALL RIT bands in this collection of sheets.
18 sheets that have generic questions that apply to ALL books/texts
You can use this packet every single day for an entire school year and never need another product to practice Foundational Skills and Vocabulary for the NWEA test.
Here is how it works:
Know your students' RIT bands. Each band level has a logo that appears in the corner of the sheet. There are two sheets per level. Students can answer the questions on their sheet as they read any text! Use over and over all year. Student moves up a level? Awesome! They can use the next set of sheets for their new RIT band. The questions are generic and can be used with any text. Questions use appropriate vocabulary and concepts, tapping into the "enhance" "practice" and "introduce" levels in DesCartes.
Can be used all year with any text to help students practice skills at their level - Any reading completed in class can be done along with this sheet.
Every sheet has 1-2 questions aimed at the “enhance” level, several questions aimed at the “develop” level, and 1 question aimed at the “introduce” level.
Students in one RIT band may still benefit from doing sheets at the level above or below their band.


A programme for primary, secondary and special school music coordinators and support teachers, designed to facilitate the development of leadership of music within schools and to strengthen the delivery of music from EYFS to Key Stage 3.
The programme will provide the opportunity to focus on:
- A shared understanding of the latest national developments and best practice exemplified in the Ofsted report "Music in schools: wider still, and wider";
- A shared understanding of core purpose and generic skills of music subject leaders;
- Effective strategies to strengthen the delivery of music in primary schools;
- Opportunities to consider how a school might organise opportunities to play musical instruments, sing, listen and appraise, compose, read and perform music in order to provide high quality music education as part of a broad and balanced curriculum;
- Effective strategies to secure planning for progression and assessment in music;
- An exploration and support in the delivery of the new National Curriculum for Music;
- Led and delivered by a National College for School Leadership accredited facilitator and award-winning classroom practitioners.


PDF pending restoration
ERIC Number: ED349123
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1991
Reference Count: N/A
Children as Problem Solvers. Guidebook 2. Schools That Work: The Research Advantage.
North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.; Public Broadcasting Service, Washington, DC. PBS Elementary/Secondary Service.; National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education, Madison, WI.; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc., Reston, VA.
A series of eight videoconferences was designed to help educational professionals improve schools by applying knowledge gained from research. During the videoconference programs, which are transmitted by satellite to facilities with receiving capacity, viewers can interact by telephone with the program presenters. Each program covers a specific topic, and each has a "content partner" (learning center, institute, teachers' association, or other specialized group) that supplies expertise in the program area. The format of the program involves the presentation of two stories depicting classrooms or communities that have successfully integrated research with practice, and a question-and-answer session with the studio audience and remote viewers. In this document, a review of research on mathematics instruction is followed by an overview of the second program in the series, which covers the topic of mathematics instruction and learning. In this program, the first story illustrates a "cognitively guided instruction" approach that has resulted in high levels of mathematics achievement for students in a first grade class. The second story examines the work of the Algebra Project in Boston and Chicago. In this project, a middle school mathematics curriculum has been designed to address the crisis in mathematics education among inner-city students. A series of follow-up activities relevant to the topic of mathematics instruction is described. Additional materials include biographical information on videoconference participants, a list of resources on mathematics instruction, a glossary of terms, and a reference list of 16 items. (BC)
Descriptors: Check Lists, Educational Change, Educational Practices, Educational Research, Elementary Education, Mathematics Instruction, Problem Solving, Research and Development, Teacher Student Relationship, Teaching Methods, Theory Practice Relationship
Publications Department, North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1900 Spring Road, Suite 300, Oak Brook, IL 60521-1480 (Videotape and guidebook, $25.00).
Publication Type: Guides - Non-Classroom; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Sponsor: Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.
Authoring Institution: North Central Regional Educational Lab., Oak Brook, IL.; Public Broadcasting Service, Washington, DC. PBS Elementary/Secondary Service.; National Center for Research in Mathematical Sciences Education, Madison, WI.; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Inc., Reston, VA.


ERIC Number: ED085316
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1973
Reference Count: 0
Energy Crisis. Teaching Resources. A Special Publication Suggesting School Activities Which Stress Individual Responsibility Towards Energy Crisis Problems.
Curry, Wendell; And Others
This handbook provides public school teachers and administrators of Oregon with teaching ideas and information about the energy crisis. Suggested activities are intended to inform students (kindergarten through community college) about their responsibility toward the energy crisis and to motivate energy conservation. The handbook is divided into four sections. Section I gives background information on the energy crisis, with emphasis on energy in the Pacific Northwest. Sample lesson plans in energy conservation are outlined in Section II. Most plans are interdisciplinary with emphasis on math, science, and social studies. Sections III and IV suggest all-school activities and home activities for energy conservation. A resource list of energy crisis speakers in Oregon is provided, as well as checklists for energy conservation in homes and school buildings. A glossary of terms and a reference reading list are included in the appendices. (Author/RM)
Descriptors: Class Activities, Conservation Education, Consumer Education, Elementary Education, Energy, Higher Education, Instructional Materials, Interdisciplinary Approach, Kindergarten, Learning Activities, Lesson Plans, Mathematics, Natural Resources, Resource Materials, Sciences, Secondary Education, Social Studies, Teaching Guides
Publication Type: N/A
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: Oregon State Board of Education, Salem.


Shafer, K. (2010). Prisms and Pyramids with Google SketchUp: A Classroom Activity. In D. Gibson & B. Dodge (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010 (pp. 3505-3507)
Google SketchUp is a free program that was developed for the purpose of creating 3D models. SketchUp can be used to support student sense making through an inquiry approach. The authors first describe how elementary education majors were able to use specific tools in SketchUp to reconcile issues of perception when creating a prism and investigate the various dimensions within a given pyramid (height, slant heights(s) and edges).
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All bundled together! This is the combination of the Math & ELA Standards. When purchased you save a $1.
Editable template included!
They print 2 to a page landscape. After using in my classroom a year, they are big enough for students to see and refer to. Classroom tested & approved!
Included is 70 Statements for 2nd grade ELA Common Core Standards written in Kid-Friendly language!
All domains included & are COLOR CODED (Please see the preview!) Literature, Informational Text, Foundational Skills, Writing, Speaking & Listening, Language.
To preview the ELA standards - click here!
Included is 47 statements for 2nd Grade Math Common Core
written in KID-FRIENDLY language.
All domains included & are COLOR CODED!
Operations & Algebraic Thinking, Numbers & Operations in Base Ten, Measurement & Data & Geometry.
To preview the Math standards - click here!
Use on your focus/learning target board. Just print, laminate, & go! All of the work is done for you!