Developing and Sustaining a Community of Practice in Early Childhood

Communities of practice are an age-old phenomenon representing teamwork. Whether it's researchers developing treatments for a disease or educators sharing best practices to enhance early childhood learning, communities of practice are about connection and shared purpose.

Growing Togetherwill help you define, create, and promote a community of practice to foster collaborative problem solving and enhance professional learning experiences.

You will learn key strategies and techniques to help you:

• Develop a shared vision and structure
• Leverage tools to invite members and build a community
• Build member engagement and investment
• Master facilitation and evaluation strategies for ongoing professional learning
• 136 pages

The Power of Play for School Readiness

Children are expected to read, write, count, and sit still at younger and younger ages. As these unrealistic expectations mount, family members and teachers alike continue to believe that these activities will prepare young children for school. But there is a better way—one that helps children build school readiness through developmentally appropriate activities. Best of all? The children can have fun!

Building on Emergent Curriculum guides preschool teachers to tap into young children's natural inclination for play to build their skills, promote their development, and, ultimately, prepare them for elementary school. Learn:

• why traditional theme-based units don't work,
• what school readiness really looks like,
• how to recognize and capitalize on the many teachable moments that arise during play, and
• ways to train teachers and involve families in emergent curriculum.

Play and learning aren't mutually exclusive. Building on Emergent Curriculum will help readers give preschoolers a solid foundation for elementary school while they do what children do best: play!

168 pages

• STACKING: HEXACUS pieces are easy to hold and the unique hexagonal cross section and size progression from large to small allows for a variety of ways to stack the pieces.
• NESTING: When a smaller HEXACUS piece, or pieces, can fit inside a larger HEXACUS piece, it's called nesting. Discover all the ways HEXACUS pieces can nest.
• PATTERN MAKING: It's fun to place HEXACUS pieces side by side on a flat surface and create colorful patterns.

• Build totems with pieces featuring different colors, sounds and textures.
• SmartMax enables safe and fun stem-focused magnetic discovery for ages 1-5.
• Includes 24 challenges, or kids can simply create their own totem structures.
• Designed to inspire hours of stem focused creative play for preschool and even toddlers,
• Pieces are compatible with all other SmartMax sets.