The content of January’s “Curriculum, Assessment, and Teaching: Putting It All Together” cluster was culled from presentations at NAEYC’s 20^th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development. It includes a look at how creative and collaborative projects can address early learning standards, successful adult learning communities, and a report on how children’s fully developed play can enhance social development. Also included are ideas for incorporating arts into the STEM curriculum using Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood as a template, and a comprehensive approach to connecting young children with nature.

To subscribe, visit the Young Children website.

Encourage preschoolers to make their plates great! This poster (18”x24”, laminated) promotes an easy-to-remember USDA MyPlate equation to help elementary children visualize how to fill their dinner plates. A good-for-you and tasty meal is pictured showing the divisions of the new food pyramid, MyPlate. From Learning ZoneXpress. 

Help preschoolers learn about the importance of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein with this tablet of handouts (50 tear-off handouts per tablet, 8½"x11", 2 sided). This product promotes an easy-to-remember healthy equation to help parents and caregivers visualize how to fill the dinner plates of their preschool children. Following the USDA MyPlate model, this tablet demonstrates proper portion division. 

The backside of this tablet features top tips for feeding preschoolers and photographs of appropriate preschool-sized servings. From Learning ZoneXpress.

Help preschoolers learn about the importance of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein with this tablet of handouts (50 tear-off handouts per tablet, 8½"x11", 2 sided). This product promotes an easy-to-remember healthy equation to help parents and caregivers visualize how to fill the dinner plates of their preschool children. Following the USDA MyPlate model, this tablet demonstrates proper portion division. 

The backside of this tablet features top tips for feeding preschoolers and photographs of appropriate preschool-sized servings. From Learning ZoneXpress.

This USDA MyPlate poster (24"x18", laminated) incorporates fun and friendly food characters delivering the message of balancing good foods with physical activity. Based on USDA’s MyPlate model, this poster is perfect for preschool and primary grades. Kid sized portions of healthy food choices are shown on each food group section of MyPlate. Appropriate for ages 2-8.

Enhance child outcomes by weaving best practices in mental health into early childhood services. This accessible text from more than a dozen top experts gives early childhood professionals a primer on key issues in infant mental health and research-based guidelines for practice. From Brookes Publishing.

Teaching Young Children is NAEYC's magazine for anyone who works with preschoolers. Colorful, informative, and easy-to-read, TYC is packed full of teaching ideas, strategies, and tips. The December 2011/January 2012 issue features articles on bringing nature into the classroom, starting an online blog, and shadow exploration with preschoolers.

To subscribe, please visit the TYC website or call 800-424-2460. 

Quality child development programs for infants and toddlers tailor their care to meet the particular characteristics and developmental needs of this age group. This collection of engaging articles from NAEYC’s journal Young Children provides relevant and current information for anyone who works with or in support of infants and toddlers and their families. Authors offer practical, research-based strategies and observations of these very young children in action. The book includes study guides with many of the articles, as well as a comprehensive resource list.

This book is part of NAEYC’s best-selling Spotlight series—great resources for the college classroom and for professional development.

A research-based early childhood curriculum, this “seed-to-table” approach gets children interested in and enjoying nutritious fruits and vegetables. The activities used in this 24-week program can be tailored to fit any early childhood program, climate, or geographical region; have been tested in a variety of early learning environments; and have received accolades from children, their parents, and teachers alike. From Redleaf Press.

From the beginning of life, young children’s learning and activities depend on their cognitive capabilities and development. To cope with the environment they live in, children need to learn about their physical and social worlds; acquire language; regulate their bodies, emotions, and thoughts; and gain competence in literacy, mathematics, science, and other knowledge domains. This collection of readings from books and Young Children articles outlines important dimensions of their early cognitive development and describes approaches for promoting it. Recent Comprehensive Member Benefit. 

To view the table of contents and introduction, click on Preview Content.