Authors Kevin McCaughey and Rick Rosenberg demonstrate techniques for using board games to stimulate student-centered language practice that is flexible, productive, engaging, and fun. The article includes tips for efficient game play and for using games with a variety of levels and class sizes. The authors show that playing board games for…

Play provides an opportunity for students to learn information and concepts in an active format while facilitating different ways of learning. This puzzle activity is designed to increase student engagement, leverage different learning styles, help students make connections in communication theories, and enhance memory of important communication…

Play areas contain objects that fascinate young children. This column discusses resources and science topics related to students in grades preK to 2. This month's issue uses children's interest in collecting outdoor objects to develop their number sense and to build their understanding of math concepts.

Research shows that teaching sign language to all young children has a wide range of benefits, from enhancing social-emotional and preliteracy skills to supporting positive parent-child relationships. With "Sing & Sign for Young Children," early childhood professionals will have a fun, easy, and highly effective way to teach and…

Introducing drama to the learning experience is guaranteed to enrich a child's development, and is an especially effective approach for children with special educational needs, including those with autism spectrum disorders. This practical handbook offers teachers an array of simple and easy-to-implement theatrical techniques that will enhance…

Discusses young children's emotional responses during medical examinations and procedures, developmental changes in how they conceptualize illness causation, and the role of play to reduce stress. Describes how teachers can best facilitate structured dramatic medical play therapeutically. (KB)

Discusses how prop boxes enhance learning and are resources in multicultural and nonsexist primary education, focusing on play, experimentation, and cooperation. Examines integration of prop boxes into the curricula and activities, and presents examples of generic and specific multicultural prop boxes that incorporate art, music, foods,…

Suggests that drama provides an excellent opportunity for children to learn about history, especially children who have not yet reached the formal operational level of development. Describes a program coordinated with a historical museum in which children reenact a school day in 1888. (ARH)

Although many teachers acknowledge that language and culture are critical components of children's development, actually incorporating materials representative of children's cultures remains a problem. This article explains how the dramatic play center is a natural place to promote multicultural awareness in the classroom and offers suggestions…

Asserts that puppets help children in storytelling and role playing, encouraging creativity and language development. Details types of puppets and how to construct them, including: (1) figure stick puppets; (2) paper plate puppets; and (3) garden glove puppets. Describes how to construct different puppet stages for performance. (BGC)

Presents theory and research to help preschool teachers understand literacy-enriched play centers, in terms of their purposes and outcomes. Describe a pilot project using play centers in a preschool classroom and provides guidelines for planning and using such a center. (ET)

Summarizes the autonomous literacy paradigm often used in schools. Describes an alternative model, ideological literacy, which situates literacy practices within cultural values and practices. Shows how this functioned in a class of 4.5 to 5.5 year-olds, in which children's world of play was linked to the wider world and in which literacy had an…

Pretend play and language growth are related through representational thought. Fundamental to representational thought are five connectives, at the theoretical level, which link pretend play and language growth: motor actions, roles and role changes, creative expression, concentration, and decentration. At the research level, results of selected…

Describes a set of techniques designed to provide teacher support for children engaged in story re-enactment. The techniques were developed at the Early Childhood Development Center at the University of Vermont, and found to be useful with preschool children. (BB)

Ten elements comprising the basic level of play therapy with children are presented, and the "resort" model, upon which successful play therapy is based, is discussed. (MJB)