Curriculum and Equipment
Number of unique resources found: 18
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– General Information –
Description: This website includes information on how to connect children with nature with sections for parents, teachers, and the community. The site includes tools, research, resources, and publications.
Description: This section of the Audubon website focuses on families and nature and includes activity ideas, and suggestions for nature outings. It focuses on ways to bring nature into the family’s daily life.
Description: Growing Up WILD is an early childhood education program that builds on a children's sense of wonder about nature and invites them to explore the wildlife and the world around them. It is designed for educators of children ages 3-7 and includes a range of activities and experiences for young children.
Health Benefits to Children from Contact with the Outdoors & Nature
Author: Charles, Cheryl
Description: This annotated bibliography includes information from articles on how the outdoors and nature impacts children. Included are articles on children's health and well-being, mental and physical health benefits.
Description: This website is supported by a collaboration of the Arbor Day Foundation and Dimensions Educational Research Foundation. It provides information, research, activities, materials, and resources to encourage and support children's interaction and learning with nature.
Nature Explore Families Club Kit (free online download)
Description: The Families’ Club kit is packed full of easy to use, developmentally appropriate activities shown to engage families in exploring the natural world together. The kit includes general information and customizable forms to get your club started, a facilitator’s guide with helpful hints on organization, and nine visual, child-friendly activity sheets with facilitator notes specific to each one.
PBS TeacherSource- From the Start 
Description: The Public Broadcasting Services TeacherSource website features preschool through second grade lesson plans and activities. The site also has links to parent connections, professional development, PBS happenings, and recommended books and links. Browse by subject to learn more about arts, literature, health, math, science, social studies, pre k-2, or library media.
Preschool Curriculum: What's In It for Children and Teachers
Description: A recent report from the Albert Shanker Institute discusses the benefits of aligning preschool curriculum with new research about how children learn in the academic areas of oral language, pre-literacy, mathematics, and science. It provides guidance on developmentally appropriate accomplishments for pre-k children, effective instructional practices, components of a strong curriculum, and working with English language learners.
Description: This website Project wild is a wildlife focused conservation education program for K-12 educators and their students. The site includes conservation and environmental education programs for educators of students in kindergarten through high school.
The Loss of Children’s Play: A Public Health Issue
Description: This policy brief describes the loss of children's play as a public health issue. It outlines the health issues at stake and provides facts about what the impact is in providing opportunities for children to "play".
– Professional Development –
Author: Copley, Juanita
Description: This Webcast series is intended for personnel who support Head Start teaching teams: supervisors, directors, curriculum specialists, mentor-coaches, and T/TA staff. It is also appropriate for all teachers of young children including child care home providers, child care center staff, and preschool teachers. The age frame covered in these webcasts is birth to five so it is also appropriate for infant and toddler teachers.
This series includes 6 webcast sessions and recommended readings available to download.
Webcast One - Where's the Math?
Webcast Two - Number and Operations Math
Webcast Three - Geometry and Spatial Sense
Webcast Four - Measurement Math
Webcast Five - Patterns Math
Webcast Six - Putting It All Together Math
Description: This new position statement from NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College provides important guidance to early childhood programs on the effective use of media and technology.
A variety of resources about the new position statement are available on NAEYC's website, including the position statement, key messages, examples of effective practice, a webcast, and related resources. It is available as an interactive or standard PDF.
Unplanned Explorations and Lively Minds
Description: This fact sheet from NAEYC's Teaching Young Children magazine highlights the value of rich and meaningful learning that happens in authentic, everyday experiences. Early educators often spend much time and effort planning such
experiences. However, sometimes we support children’s learning best by stepping out of the way. This lets us learn alongside the children. These experiences emphasize the importance of following the children’s lead to see what they can teach us and each other.
– Programming Resource –
Description: Family Night Out! is a family enrichment program with an educational component that attracts an audience who otherwise would not participate in traditional programs. It is a strength-based, not deficit-based, program. Its non-threatening "hands-on" experiential activities attract and encourage the participation of all family members. The Family Night Out! model utilizes 4-H Portable Challenge or experiential/adventure based learning with families. Family Night Out! has helped to build more resilient families and communities by bringing area families together to meet and play, often for the first time.
Head Start Study Finds Long-Term Impact
Author: Oden, Sherri; Weikart, D.; Schweinhart, L.; Marcus, S., Xie, Y.
Description: This is a review of a follow-up Head Start study of children who were born in poverty and did or did not attend Head Start. The study found evidence of important effects on school success and crime. The study also examined the effects of a Head Start program that used a proven curriculum, the High/Scope educational approach. Principal investigator Sherri Oden said, "These findings confirm that Head Start programs can have important long-term effects on the lives of the children they serve."
Launching into Literacy and Math: What is Early Math?
Author: Ballweg, Judy
Description: This website provides information on early math learning with more specific information on infants and toddlers, preschoolers, child assessments, and professional resources for teachers. Handouts are available including book lists, fingerplays and chants, Spanish resources, developmental milestones, and more.
Preschool Curriculum: What's In It for Children and Teachers
Description: A recent report from the Albert Shanker Institute discusses the benefits of aligning preschool curriculum with new research about how children learn in the academic areas of oral language, pre-literacy, mathematics, and science. It provides guidance on developmentally appropriate accomplishments for pre-k children, effective instructional practices, components of a strong curriculum, and working with English language learners.
Description: This new position statement from NAEYC and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College provides important guidance to early childhood programs on the effective use of media and technology.
A variety of resources about the new position statement are available on NAEYC's website, including the position statement, key messages, examples of effective practice, a webcast, and related resources. It is available as an interactive or standard PDF.
Description: This Web site contains lots of information about preschoolers, and lots of ideas for activities for fun and learning. It also offers training for staff for a fee. The training is self study.
Using Technology in the Early Childhood Classroom
Author: Perry, Bruce (14 more by this author); Kimberly Moore Kneas
Description: This article discusses the use of technology (computers, cameras, video cameras and tape recorders) with children ages 3-6 by an internationally recognized authority on brain development and children in crisis, Dr. Perry.