During the first year of life, children begin to develop preferences for their own racial group over others. To interrupt the development of these and other biases during infancy and toddlerhood, educators can use books to promote anti-racist and anti-bias thinking and behaviors in children, while also supporting children's emergent literacy. This…

Matter is an essential science topic that is often challenging to teach at the early elementary levels. Learning about matter helps students develop a solid foundation for more complex concepts that are taught in later years. Make this abstract concept developmentally appropriate for children by engaging them in investigations that focus on…

While there are differences between coaches and physical educators, there are best practices in each profession that have universal applications. Using a coaching/teaching scenario to provide background for this article, the authors identify useful strategies employed by both successful coaches and physical educators that can be adopted by each.…

Icons are frequently used in the music classroom to depict concepts in a developmentally appropriate way for students. SmartBoards provide music educators yet another way to share these manipulatives with students. This article provides a step-by-step tutorial to create Smart Icon Cards using the folk song "Lucy Locket."

This paper describes an environmental education initiative called Starting out Wild (SoW) designed for toddlers and their caretakers. The program, developed by staff and volunteers of a city parks department, engages children ages 1-3 and their parents and caretakers through outdoor learning experiences. We suggest that environmental education…

Fitness development in physical education is most often attained via implementation of fitness training principles into school based settings. It is seldom attained via adherence to developmentally appropriate principles. The program presented in this article provides the physical educator with a method and the tools to attain both. This program…

Provides several tips for scientists who work with children. Points out the differences between audiences of adults and children and includes a chart of some general characteristics of children by grade levels. (DDR)

Notes that puzzles, the cornerstone of table-top or manipulative learning areas in early childhood programs, are structured materials, self-correcting toys that help children in a variety of developmental areas. Suggests that handmade puzzles are less expensive and can be tailored for specific concepts, themes, or skill levels. Provides…

Suggests procedures for modifying and expanding activities to make them individually appropriate for children with disabilities, focusing on ways to customize curriculum activities. Provides a checklist for modifying activities and discusses points to be considered: desired outcomes, arrangements to be made, and assessment. Recommends a team…

Presents the Four E's curriculum model--Experience, Extension, Expression, Evaluation--which offers a framework for selecting and organizing appropriate curriculum for preschool and primary students. The model focuses on integrating curriculum but is also useful for planning a single unit, or whenever teachers want to evaluate the appropriateness…

Presents three activities for teaching spelling to students in grades 2-6 using individualized weekly spelling lists made up of developmentally appropriate words. (SM)

Reviews the benefits and discusses the limitations of the traditional approach to show and tell, such as teacher-dictated schedules, limited interactive communication, problems with children's listening skills and item selection, and its teacher-directed nature. Presents an alternative approach based on appropriate practice--sharing centers--and…

Suggests that the growing interest in project work in early childhood education is in response to the call for developmentally appropriate practices. Defines projects and discusses the beginning of a project. Discusses the three phases of the "construction site/house project" by four- and five-year olds and provides responses to…

Differences between developmentally appropriate and traditional classroom practice include the following: integrated vs. separate curriculum, meaning-driven vs. skill-driven, incidental vs. explicit learning, heterogeneous vs. homogeneous grouping, ready now vs. getting ready, child-centered vs. teacher-directed, autonomy vs. heteronomy, previous…

Presents an easy-to-follow chart that enables teachers to select the most appropriate reading strategy for each student, depending upon the student's ability. Moving from the bottom to the top of the chart, each strategy requires increasingly more reading independence of the student and less modeling by the teacher. (ET)