Littlest Learners connects the most recent research on emergent literacy, the skills necessary to become a reader and concrete activities that parents and caregivers can do to maximize their child’s reading readiness. The book is divided into 5 activities: 1) talking with young children 2) reading with young children 3) playing with young children 4) exploring the world with young children 5) technology tips for young children All while keeping the development of emergent literacy skills in mind. Parent, teachers, librarians and caregivers of young children, ages 0 to 5 will find something useful for engaging with their child. The book contains detailed lists of board books, nursery rhymes, finger plays, play activities, field trips, web-links and much more!

Presents an illustrated version of this traditional nursery rhyme. On board pages.

If an autism spectrum disorder is diagnosed or suspected in your child aged 5 or younger, you need immediate information and support to begin helping him. This guide outlines the pivotal steps that parents can take now to optimize learning and functioning in their child, and help them prepare the best foundation on which to build their child's future development.

Engaged families make a difference in the lives of their children! The children in today's early childhood classroom are more culturally, linguistically, and ability diverse than ever. As a teacher, your challenge is to partner with each family through recognizing their individual strengths, concerns, priorities, and resources. In The Welcoming Classroom: Building Strong Home-to-School Connections for Early Learning, Dr. Johnna Darragh Ernst offers practical ideas for creating a welcoming atmosphere for families that will encourage them to participate in their children's learning community. Learn practical ways to connect with families from varied cultural and language backgrounds and abilities. Gain new strategies for creating a home-school link to support learning. Create a richer learning environment by integrating unique family cultural perspectives. Learn ways to encourage family participation in decision making. Learn strategies to develop families as resources. Communicate the message that all families are valued members of the learning community. From improving children's school readiness to encouraging positive engagement with peers, promoting student academic achievement, increasing graduation rates, and helping reduce the negative impact of poverty, the benefits of engaging families early will impact the young children in your care long after they leave your classroom! Johnna Darragh Ernst, PhD, is a professor of early childhood education at Heartland Community College in Normal, Illinois. She specializes in helping early childhood professionals connect with families to create inclusive early childhood classroom communities.

A sweet holiday story from a New York Times bestselling duo!From the New York Times bestselling team that brought us The Littlest Pilgrim comes a sweet new holiday follow-up filled with Christmas cheer and adorable stickers!Oliver may be the littlest elf in the North Pole, but he has a big desire to discover his very special job in Santa's workshop! But after getting lost in the toy shop, making a mess at the book shop, and falling in the mixing machine at the bakery, is the littlest elf just too little? Perhaps he just needs the littlest reindeer to remind him what Christmas is all about!

Packed with 26 fun and colorful exercises geared toward 3- to 6-year-olds, this book offers parents and teachers an outstanding source of creative art activities to inspire and enrich this wide-eyed and open-hearted age group. Activities are organized by medium and designed to encourage self-expression. Each Lab also features the work of a prominent artist for inspiration. Gorgeous photography shows different results from different people using the same lesson, exemplifying the way the lesson brings out each artist’s personal style. Have fun: drawing with food coloring–tinted ice cubes. painting using a spray bottle and tempera paints. printmaking using balloons, lace, and potatoes to place ink. sculpting with tinfoil, cups, and papier-mâché. creating mixed media art with magazines, oil pastels, and wallpaper samples. Targeting one of the most critical developmental periods for children, Little Learning Labs: Art for Little Kids is the perfect book for both parents and teachers who are seeking enriching and unique experiences to offer this age group. This inspirational book stands out as a unique reference for creating fine art with children through finding the student’s own voice, marks, and style and with playful lessons that result in significant skill building. The popular Little Learning Labs series (based on the larger format Lab for Kids series) features a growing list of books that share hands-on activities and projects on a wide host of topics, including art, astronomy, geology, math, and even bugs—all authored by established experts in their fields. Each lab contains a complete materials list, clear step-by-step photographs of the process, as well as finished samples. The activities are open-ended, designed to be explored over and over, often with different results. Geared toward being taught or guided by adults, they are enriching for a range of ages and skill levels. Gain firsthand knowledge on your favorite topic with Little Learning Labs. Explore a fun and inspiring collection of wonderful art activities for the preschool set!

“Christakis . . . expertly weaves academic research, personal experience and anecdotal evidence into her book . . . a bracing and convincing case that early education has reached a point of crisis . . . her book is a rare thing: a serious work of research that also happens to be well-written and personal . . . engaging and important.” --Washington Post "What kids need from grown-ups (but aren't getting)...an impassioned plea for educators and parents to put down the worksheets and flash cards, ditch the tired craft projects (yes, you, Thanksgiving Handprint Turkey) and exotic vocabulary lessons, and double-down on one, simple word: play." --NPR The New York Times bestseller that provides a bold challenge to the conventional wisdom about early childhood, with a pragmatic program to encourage parents and teachers to rethink how and where young children learn best by taking the child’s eye view of the learning environment To a four-year-old watching bulldozers at a construction site or chasing butterflies in flight, the world is awash with promise. Little children come into the world hardwired to learn in virtually any setting and about any matter. Yet in today’s preschool and kindergarten classrooms, learning has been reduced to scripted lessons and suspect metrics that too often undervalue a child’s intelligence while overtaxing the child’s growing brain. These mismatched expectations wreak havoc on the family: parents fear that if they choose the “wrong” program, their child won’t get into the “right” college. But Yale early childhood expert Erika Christakis says our fears are wildly misplaced. Our anxiety about preparing and safeguarding our children’s future seems to have reached a fever pitch at a time when, ironically, science gives us more certainty than ever before that young children are exceptionally strong thinkers. In her pathbreaking book, Christakis explains what it’s like to be a young child in America today, in a world designed by and for adults, where we have confused schooling with learning. She offers real-life solutions to real-life issues, with nuance and direction that takes us far beyond the usual prescriptions for fewer tests, more play. She looks at children’s use of language, their artistic expressions, the way their imaginations grow, and how they build deep emotional bonds to stretch the boundaries of their small worlds. Rather than clutter their worlds with more and more stuff, sometimes the wisest course for us is to learn how to get out of their way. Christakis’s message is energizing and reassuring: young children are inherently powerful, and they (and their parents) will flourish when we learn new ways of restoring the vital early learning environment to one that is best suited to the littlest learners. This bold and pragmatic challenge to the conventional wisdom peels back the mystery of childhood, revealing a place that’s rich with possibility.