Makerspaces is a first-to-market resource for early childhood professionals that focuses on how to cultivate the maker mind-set in the youngest learners, how to engage young children in maker-centered learning, design and introduce makerspaces, and how to select/use open-ended tools and materials. Field tested in real classrooms, home settings, libraries, and museums, the authors have practical suggestions, student samples, implementers’ suggestions, photographs, anchor charts, and many other forms of documentation. Each chapter focuses on a different type of makerspace, details ways to successfully set up that makerspaces, offers provocation ideas for how to extend learning, and shows how educators can document evidence of how a child can develop a stronger growth mind-set by interacting with the makerspace. Full-color demonstrative photos give readers additional visual guidance.

Young children learn best through play. Planning for Play helps educators understand the different types of play and the rich opportunities offered through carefully planned time and environments designed for valuable pre-K play experiences.

Creativity is like an iceberg - the resulting new idea, or novel solution is only 10% of the effort. The other 90% is the complex interplay of thinking skills and strategies, personal and motivational properties that activate these skills and strategies, and the social and organizational factors of the environment that influence the creative process. Creativity in Engineering focuses on the Process, Person, Product, and Place to understand when and why creativity happens in the engineering environment and how it can be further encouraged. Special Features: - Applies findings in creativity research to the engineering arena - Defines engineering creativity and differentiates it from innovation - Discusses personality and motivational factors that impact creativity - Clarifies the role of creativity in the design process - Details the impact of thinking skills and strategies in creativity - Identifies the role the organization and environment plays in encouraging creativity - Discusses the 4P's of Creativity: Person, Product, Process, and Place - Provides tactics and tools that will help users foster creativity in engineering environments - Identifies how creativity results in innovative new solutions to problems - Applies creativity research and knowledge to the engineering space

Use loose parts to spark children's creativity and innovation Loose parts are natural or synthetic found, bought, or upcycled materials that children can move, manipulate, control, and change within their play. Alluring and captivating, they capture children's curiosity, give free reign to their imagination, and motivate learning. The hundreds of inspiring photographs showcase an array of loose parts in real early childhood settings. And the overviews of concepts children can learn when using loose parts provide the foundation for incorporating loose parts into your teaching to enhance play and empower children. The possibilities are truly endless.

"When teachers implement the project approach to learning, young children can follow their own real-world interests to gain deeper understanding. Children wonder about a topic, formulate their questions, and then figure out the answers for themselves in their own way. The project approach helps children dig deeply into intellectual and social experiences that can help them see meaningful benefits of the skills they are acquiring.Picturing the Project Approachwill lead teachers every step of the way toward incorporating this teaching method in any toddler, preschool or elementary classroom. Teachers will learn how to: Identify a topic Decide on a project Develop the project Share the learning Bring the project to a close"--

An innovation in learning improves upon the implementation of the standard practice or introduces a new practice, thus achieving greater learning outcomes. The Handbook on Innovations in Learning, developed by the Center on Innovations in Learning, presents commissioned chapters describing current best practices of instruction before embarking on descriptions of selected innovative practices which promise better methods of engaging and teaching students. Written by a diverse and talented field of experts, chapters in the Handbook seek to facilitate the adoption of the innovative practices they describe by suggesting implementation policies and procedures to leaders of state and local education agencies.