Working with and reading about the work of other educators is inspiring. While observing or mentoring in different programs I am given an education and opportunity to reflect on my own practice.

The teachers in the Clarendon Child Care Center had been closely observing children’s block play and discussing it. The director introduced the Thinking Lens tool from Margie Carter and Deb Curtis’s The Visionary Director: A Handbook for Dreaming, Organizing, and Improvising in Your Center (Redleaf, 2009), and shared resources on fostering reflection and analysis. (See additional resources in TYC, and a single page resource from the ChildCareExchange.) The staff had also been reading about the use of blocks in The Block Book edited by Elisabeth S. Hirsch (NAEYC 1996) and about the early invention of wooden unit blocks and work on children’s play by Caroline Pratt. 

(You can learn more about Pratt’s work in the article, “Learning From Caroline Pratt” by Petra Munro of Hendry Louisiana State University, discussing Caroline Pratt’s life and work through a review of Mary Hauser’s Learning from Children: The Life and Legacy of Caroline Pratt in the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum, Volume 4 February 2008.)

The staff synthesized their discussion and created a poster, based on the example by Charlotte Brody in The Block Book, to share with families: filling in their goals for using blocks and what children get out of block play, guided by the understanding they gained from reading Hirsch’s and Pratt’s work. Their work displayed in the poster was a powerful reminder to me to take children’s block play seriously while maintaining the joyful experience.

Some of my “visits” to other programs are through the shared internet. Mr. Peter of Mr. Noah’s Nursery School writes about his class’ experience of block play in “The Bliss of Blocks” on the blog, Gopher Ark – the art of early education.

What are your “ah ha!” moments of observing and fostering block play in your early childhood program?

Do your middle school or high school students have trouble comprehending scientific reading? If you answered yes, we’ve got just the book for you! Here’s another question: Are you ready to have some fun in your classroom? Yes, again? Well, Once Upon an Earth Science Book is hot off the press. This new book by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen includes 12 interdisciplinary activities designed to create confident readers.

Once Upon an Earth Science Book is designed for middle and high school Earth science teachers and supports the Next Generation Science Standards and the reading and writing portions of the Common Core State Standards.

Each lesson includes a specific reading comprehension strategy that teachers can introduce. Then, working in groups, students can read a passage, fill in gaps in prior knowledge, and model reading strategies for one another. Next, students engage with sense-making activities like writing prompts, journal entries and other assignments. The book includes ideas for assessments as well.

Reading topics include glaciers, ocean garbage patches, hurricanes, the solar system, seasons, energy, geological dating, mountains, plate tectonics, and more.

One exercise has students reading an article called “On the Tracks of a Dinosaur” and pairing it with a hands-on activity. Students will be told that they have been called in to interpret a new dinosaur trackway that has been found along a local river. Using reading exercises, observations, measurements, and discussions, students will formulate a hypothesis about what could make the stride length increase along the trackway. This lesson includes several activities designed to get students reading, thinking, and using their imagination.

The book has everything needed to build a well-thought out lesson that will interest, entertain, and teach students.

Check out the sample chapter “Continents on the Move.” In this chapter, students will learn about Alfred Wegener’s supporting evidence for the concept of continental drift.

This book is also available as an e-book.

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