Creative Materials and Activities for the Early Childhood Curriculum

Description

For courses Early Childhood Education

Easy-to-use, practical, and innovative, this is the ideal research based guide for helping all children from infancy through grade five learn in, through, and with the arts, while meeting national and state standards. 

With a focus on teaching the creative arts and other subjects in ways that engage children’s minds and bodies, students learn about the teacher’s role from multiple perspectives from learning the importance of creativity and how to plan, implement and assess young children’s creativity and play-based activities. Included are over 400 standards-based activities, an abundance of children’s literature suggestions, arts-infused content-area chapters, differentiated strategies across age and grade levels, technology suggestions, inspiring photos, practical examples, lesson segments, case studies, guidelines, and practical tips that can be put to immediate use in the classroom. Also included are a number of user-friendly approaches for using arts-based learning to meet the needs of diverse learners.

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Note: This is the bound book only and does not include access to the Enhanced Pearson eText. To order the Enhanced Pearson eText packaged with a bound book, use ISBN 013383154X.

Innovative, practical, and easy to use, Creative Materials and Activities for the Early Childhood Curriculum is the ideal research-based resource for helping all children from infancy through grade five learn in, through, and with the arts, while meeting national and state standards. With a focus on teaching the creative arts and other subjects in ways that engage children’s minds and bodies, it looks at the teacher’s role from multiple perspectives by addressing the concepts and importance of creativity, classroom environment, planning, and assessment. Included are over 400 standards-based activities, an abundance of children’s literature suggestions, arts-infused content-area chapters, differentiated strategies across age and grade levels, technology suggestions, inspiring photos, practical examples, lesson segments, case studies, guidelines, and practical tips that can be put to immediate use in the classroom. Also included are a number of user-friendly approaches for using arts-based learning to meet the needs of diverse learners. The Enhanced Pearson eText features embedded video to illustrate key concepts and pop-up assessments.

Improve mastery and retention with the Enhanced Pearson eText*
The Enhanced Pearson eText provides a rich, interactive learning environment designed to improve student mastery of content. The Enhanced Pearson eText is:

• Engaging. The new interactive, multimedia learning features were developed by the authors and other subject-matter experts to deepen and enrich the learning experience.
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Joan Packer Isenberg is Professor Emerita of Education at George Mason University, where she also served as associate dean in the College of Education and Human Development from 2003-2011 and as the founding director of the Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (ASTL) program from 1999-2003. She is past president of the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators and was the 2006 recipient of the Early Childhood Teacher Educator of the Year Award from NAECTE/Allyn & Bacon. Isenberg also served as the first visiting scholar for the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) from 2002-2003. For most of her academic career she has studied and written about early childhood curriculum, play, and arts integration, particularly as they affect children’s learning and development. She has taught children from preschool through grade four in both public and private settings. Among her numerous authored or co-authored publications are Creative Thinking and Arts-Based Learning (6^th edition 2014), Exploring Your Role in Early Childhood Education (4th edition, 2012), The Master’s Degree in Education as Teacher Professional Development (2012, Rowman & Littlefield), and Major Trends and Issues in Early Childhood Education, (2nd edition, 2003). She currently is doctoral affiliate faculty with the Union Institute and University.

Jennifer L. Durham is a certified K-12 special education teacher. She is currently the Curriculum and Technology Coordinator at the Lab School of Washington. Dr. Durham is also a professor at American University in the School of Education, Teaching, and Health and a supervisor of student teachers. Her work at American University focuses both on formal and informal assessment and the preparation of special education teachers to be able to use multi-sensory, project-based, arts-integrated learning in their teaching practices.  She received her bachelor’s degree from Austin College in Sherman, TX; her master’s degree from American University in Washington, DC, and her Ph. D. in special education and arts integration from George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.       Dr. Durham has been a public school teacher, an owner of her own private educational consulting company, and has completed over 120 hours of professional development in arts integration through the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  With Professor Isenberg, Dr. Durham completed a four-year study of the effects of an arts integration program on school culture in selected schools in the Washington D.C. area. She has presented at several conferences on the Power of the Arts in everyday learning.

• Over 400 practical, standards-based creative art activities help students see how to use grade level standards to plan concrete and purposeful lessons that align with the Common Core State Standards, other national standards, and early learning standards.
• 12 fully developed, arts-based, standards-based lesson plans and seven arts-integrated unit webs aligned with early learning or common core standards and including essential understandings, arts, and other subject areas and assessment provide students with visually appealing and fully developed art-integrated webs that are:
  • Suitable for different age groups.
  • Include creative suggestions for language and literacy, science, math, social studies, art, music and movement, and drama, as well as supporting children’s literature.
• Children’s work samples and authentic photos connect teaching and learning through the arts, and help students learn to recognised grade appropriate development and performance.
• Booklists of children’s literature to support creative arts areas and other content areas appear throughout the chapters to:
  • Serve as suggestions for lessons, activities, and integrated units.
  • Point students to literature that supports children’s development and learning in the arts.
  • Refer to annotated bibliographies of award winning children’s literature aligned to the content of each chapter, with recommended age and grade levels and whether it promotes diversity and multi-cultural ideas. (In the end of chapter “Tools You Can Use” resource or within the text to support certain concepts)
• The family-school connection is addressed in the book’s numerous suggestions on how to reach out to families through sample letters, appropriate web sites, virtual field trips, and easy, no-cost, practical activities to do in the home. (Every chapter includes this Family-School Connection as a boxed or unnumbered figure.)
• How to use the creative arts to meet the range of diverse learners in today’s classrooms is addressed in every chapter, including:
  • Ideas for differentiating instruction so that diverse students can learn.
  • Discussion on making learning accessible to all learners.
  • Practical ideas for making modifications and adaptations for different kinds of learners.
• What digital tools are appropriate and useful for supporting children’s creative expression is presented through:
  • Numerous practical ideas and guidance on using specific programs, products, tools, and techniques that promote the development of media skills and use technology as another art form.
  • Suggestions for incorporating digital media into the creative arts curriculum, including carefully selected free or widely available technology tools and apps.

• Part I:         Exploring Creativity and the Arts
• Chapter 1:       Creativity and the Arts
• Chapter 2:       Facilitating Creativity and the Arts
• Chapter 3:       Designing Environments for Creativity and the Arts
•  
• Part II:       Teaching the Creative Arts:  What Does It Look Like? 
• Chapter 4:       Visual Arts and Children’s Development
• Chapter 5:       Creative Materials and Activities for the Visual Arts
• Chapter 6:       Creative Materials and Activities for Drama
• Chapter 7:       Creative Materials and Activities for Music, Movement, and Dance
•  
• Part III:      Creative Materials and Activities in the Content Areas
• Chapter 8:       Language, Literacy and the Creative Arts
• Chapter 9:      Mathematics and the Creative Arts
• Chapter 10:    Science and the Creative Arts
• Chapter 11:   Social Studies and the Creative Arts
•  
• Part IV: Planning and Assessing Creative Experiences
• Chapter 12:    Assessing Creative Learning
• Chapter 13:    Planning Effective Arts-Based Lessons
• Chapter 14:    Integrating the Curriculum through Arts-Based Units

Creative Materials and Resources for the Early Childhood Curriculum, available both in print and as a Pearson eText, is an exciting new addition to the field, providing an abundance of arts-based teaching and learning strategies that keep children’s bodies and minds fully engaged in learning by using the arts to help children solve problems, work together as a community, meet national and state standards, and maintain active interest in their own learning.

With arts-infused content-area chapters, differentiated strategies across age and grade levels, technology suggestions, inspiring photos and over 400 activities, this book is designed to be of practical and immediate use. By providing user-friendly ways teachers can meet the needs of children with exceptionalities, English language learners, and the wide range of student ability and readiness for learning, it embraces all the different needs that face today’s teachers. Furthermore, it shows how you can create equitable access to opportunities to quality arts education in your classroom, and how you can ensure quality in your curriculum.

The Pearson eText version of this book delivers the same content as the print version along with relevant videos that pop up when clicked on, and formative assessments, Check Your Understanding, to keep students engaged and assessing their own learning throughout the chapter.

From the case studies to hands-on children’s materials and activities, from children’s literature lists  to lesson plans and planning integrated units, this is one theory-based, developmentally appropriate and highly practical resource that you will want to make a part of your professional library as you plan for, teach, and assess the whole child for years to come.

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