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Early Childhood Education Commons

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Occasional Paper Series

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Early childhood education

Articles 1 - 4 of 4

Full-Text Articles in Early Childhood Education

"Building Up": Block Play After September 11, Lisa Edstrom Nov 2017

"Building Up": Block Play After September 11, Lisa Edstrom

Occasional Paper Series

Like most people in New York City, the children in Edstrom's class were affected by the events of September 11. However, not until five weeks later did these particular five- and six year-olds begin to make sense of what happened. Through the use of block play, they were able to explore the difficult emotions and questions we all had about the World Trade Center attack


Safe, Patricia Lent Nov 2017

Safe, Patricia Lent

Occasional Paper Series

The first four sections of this essay chronicle her attempts to make sense of September 11 in the succeeding weeks and months. The final section—”Corn, Beans, and Squash”—was written to and for her students at the end of the school year.


Conversations With Children About Death, Molly Sexton-Reade Oct 2017

Conversations With Children About Death, Molly Sexton-Reade

Occasional Paper Series

This paper emphasizes the need for conversations around death in the classroom. Today's children are exposed to information about death through a wide variety of media. Teachers have a responsibility to provide opportunities for children to process this information in ways that are developmentally appropriate - acknowledging children's "magical thinking" as well as experiences children may have surrounding death.


A Circle With Edges: How Story Time Privileges The Abled Learner, Melissa Tsuei Feb 2017

A Circle With Edges: How Story Time Privileges The Abled Learner, Melissa Tsuei

Occasional Paper Series

Takes a critical look at one of the commonplace features of early childhood classrooms—story time. In her essay, Melissa considers the ways in which story time reinforces unequal power dynamics for diverse learners by privileging the able-bodied learner. In response, Melissa creates and presents the SPHERE model, which promotes active engagement and shared dialogue through collaborative storytelling and nurtures an inclusive literacy-learning environment.