Describes the "Learn Not to Burn Preschool Program," a low-cost fire safety awareness and burn prevention curriculum for young children. The program promotes eight burn prevention methods--including practicing an escape plan--using developmentally appropriate learning objectives to increase children's fire safety knowledge, skill, and…

Details an investigation of language development and subsequent readiness to learn of preschoolers in a disadvantaged Griqua community in South Africa. Notes that preschoolers revealed a relative lack of verbal fluency, associative reasoning, and relational thinking skills, and had a restricted vocabulary. Argues that inadequate language…

Describes how raising monarch, black swallowtail, and mourning cloak butterflies in a kindergarten class garden can provide opportunities for observation experiences. Includes detailed steps for instruction and describes stages of growth. Excerpts children's journal dictations to illustrate ways to support the discovery process. Describes related…

Traces the origins of Friedrich Froebel's views on children, curriculum, pedagogics, and didactics; the underpinnings of his beliefs concerning the nature of knowledge; and the kinds of knowledge and dispositions he believed were appropriate for children to acquire. (MDM)

Focuses upon the way visions for early childhood are expressed through curricula in England, New Zealand, and Reggio Emilia in Italy. Includes curricular examples illustrating how growing pressure from vocational and instrumental influences affect progressive and socioculturally inspired early childhood curricula. Reveals how curricula and…

Describes the use of handmade cloth dolls without facial features with 2- and 3-year-olds as a framework for an arts-based emergent curriculum related to body awareness. Shows how children's interests guided the project activities. Discusses the teachers' role in maintaining the content level and interest, and the importance of out-of-classroom…

Surveyed attitudes and knowledge of parents with children in a university-based preschool regarding developmentally appropriate preschool practices (DAP). Found that many parents understood developmentally appropriate practice. Most parents believed that children learned through play with other children and exploration of the environment. Mothers…

Shows how mathematics is integrated into everyday hands-on activities and problem-solving situations in one preschool. Provides examples of how themes emerge from children's interests and are incorporated in classroom learning centers. Asserts that meaningful teaching methods and pictorial demonstrations and manipulatives engage preschoolers in…

Analyzes preschool class circle time from an ethnographic perspective. Findings suggest that rules, guidelines, expectations, and roles in the event change over time. (RJC)

Examined academic preschools and relationships between classroom practices and teachers' beliefs about early education. Discussed observational instruments for identifying formal academic programs. Programs whose staff espoused beliefs in teacher-directed, formal academic learning were rated as significantly more academically focused than were…

Describes the development and implementation of a health promotion curriculum for four- and five-year-old children in a preschool class. The curriculum emphasized the use of the visual arts, drama, and music as learning strategies for health promotion. (BB)

Describes several successful management strategies related to teacher salaries, parent participation, preschool curriculum, and separation anxiety in the day-care center environment. (PAM)

In China, formal preschool education for children from one to six years old is accessible to only 20-25% of Chinese children, though deemed very important by parents. Discusses the teacher training curriculum, the preschool curriculum, and recent initiatives to improve the quality and availability of preschool education through research, parent…

Examines issues related to a national system of public prekindergarten, including challenges confronting educators. Recommends broadening eligibility, encouraging collaboration among early childhood programs, strengthening family support and participation, implementing appropriate curricula and evaluation, and identifying teacher qualifications.…

Asserts that every early childcare teacher can provide a program wherein children can experience art and the multiple learning advantages such a program provides. Specifically addresses issues of: (1) value of art experiences; (2) creativity development; (3) teachers' role; (4) goals of a program; (5) program development; and (6) evaluation. (SD)