Creative Resources for the Early Childhood Classroom

Herr (U. of Wisconsin-Stout) offers a curriculum planner for early childhood educators that contains 76 different themes on various topics such as animals, art, holidays, health, food, families, feelings, nature, safety, nursery rhymes, music, numbers, and communication. Each theme includes goals, concepts, vocabulary, music, fingerplays, science, social studies, dramatic play, creative art, sensory activities, math, cooking experiences, technology and multimedia, books, songs, field trips, and resource people. Included are ideas for designing child-involvement bulletin boards and family letters. The introduction explains how to develop the curriculum using this approach, a list of possible themes, criteria for selecting children's books, and the importance of documentation boards. This edition has many new activities, books, and songs; five new multicultural themes; a new "green" theme; a new insert on using the digital camera in the classroom; an expanded appendix on multicultural materials; new and expanded reference and resource materials; additional recordings and songs; and new technology and multimedia resources. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)