ABSTRACT
This best-selling text book provides a broad-ranging and up-to-date review of thinking and best practice within nursery and infant education. Written around the basic truth that an effective early years curriculum must start with the children, their needs and their potential, the contributors to this classic text acknowledge that learning must have a strong element of fun, wonder and excitement.
Fully revised and updated in light of recent changes to the Early Years curriculum, with brand new chapters on assessment, communication, writing, creativity and diversity, the contributors address a range of fundamental issues and principles, including:
- an analysis of research into how children learn;
- discussions of issues such as classroom organisation, curriculum management, and assessment;
- a detailed section on play and language;
- chapters covering individual curriculum areas, including new chapters on music and PSHE.
Each chapter combines a review of important principles with practical and inspiring classroom examples throughout. It is essential reading for all Foundations Stage and KS1 trainee teachers, their tutors and mentors, and serving teachers working in the 3-7 age range who wish to reflect upon and develop their practice.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part A|94 pages
Basic principles and approaches
chapter 2|32 pages
‘Our classroom is like a little cosy house!'
chapter 3|20 pages
‘My mum would pay anything for chocolate cake!'
chapter 4|16 pages
‘When the chicks hatch, a man will come and bring them yolk to eat'
chapter 5|24 pages
‘This is the best day of my life! And I'm not leaving here until it's time to go home!’
part B|65 pages
Play and language
chapter 7|18 pages
‘It is only a story, isn't it?’
part C|158 pages
The wider curriculum
chapter 10|24 pages
‘We are passing the smile around'
chapter 12|17 pages
‘I've got a song to sing’
chapter 16|17 pages
‘But what does it do?'
chapter 18|15 pages
‘Why is she all yellowy, Miss?' ‘Why have you got two mums?’ ‘You can't use the pink – you're a boy!’
part D|14 pages
The way forward