CYBER online EDUCATION

Education World ® Early Childhood Community

This community has been created to celebrate and support the creativity and dedication of all those who participate in the education of young children. Teachers, parents, aides, and administrators are encouraged to explore these resources and share your ideas for working with young children. We will be updating these pages regularly in the months ahead.

Have you seen our regular Early Childhood features? Early Childhood Activity Bank New for the 2009-2010 school year, find 400+ activities perfect for the early childhood setting. These activities have been culled from previous issues of our Early Childhood Newsletter. Search by month for timely activities, or search the Activity Bank by subject. Poems for Early Childhood Sue LaBella, Education World's early childhood editor, has written fun rhymes to fit many themes. Scan her list of poems by month. Don't miss her "Poems for Anytime" too. Early Childhood Teaching Themes Our early childhood editor, Sue LaBella, offers hundreds of activities on dozens of classroom teaching themes. Check out our archive today. Since the archive is updated infrequently, we suggest you signup to receive our Early Childhood Newsletter [see sidebar]. That way, you will receive Sue's fresh ideas as they are published. Castaldo's Corner: Early Childhood Activities Educator Nancy Castaldo shares timely activities throughout the school year for engaging young children in discovery and learning. Each link will take you to a hands-on activity and ideas for extending that activity. Early Childhood Newsletter Visit our archive of past issues of the Education World Early Childhood Newsletter. This is a partial archive. Access to current issues is free. Simply follow this link to sign up. FROM OUR ARTICLE ARCHIVE Three Big Ideas for Addressing Preschool Language and Literacy Learning Focusing on oral language, reading aloud, and language play, instead of on structured sit-down lessons, flashcard drills, and worksheets, keeps young children on the right track to literacy. Rounding Up Pre-K Kids, Parents Inviting parents and pre-kindergartners to meet teachers and see their schools six months before school opens can noticeably reduce first-day jitters -- for everyone. Called kindergarten round-ups, these events also let teachers meet their incoming charges. Jumpstart Charges Kids Up for Learning! After Aaron Lieberman spent a summer break as a camp counselor, he returned to his studies at Yale University with a desire to provide individual attention for at-risk preschool students. With the help of others, he founded Jumpstart, an organization that matches college students and youngsters in one-to-one sessions that help the kids charge up for learning. The Jumpstart mission is "to engage young people in service to work toward the day every child in America enters school prepared to succeed." Since its inception, Jumpstart has served more than 8,000 children.