| This is a large soft cover book with 471 activities and projects for teachers to initiate with children who are four years old and are in their preschool class, or daycare facilities. The book is very well organized by activity and provides planning details for each activity. Chapters are: Activities for listening and talking, for physical development, creative activities, and for learning from the world around them. Within each chapter, the activities are inside of a box approximately 5" x 7" in size. The information contains the activities goal and objective, whether it is indoors or outdoors (or both), how long the activity lasts in length of time, and how many children can do it at the same time. The activity is explained very clearly and even includes the suggested wording the authors feel the teacher should use to explain how to do the activity. Each material necessary to do the activity is underlined so you can quickly scan the activity to see what you need to have ready (i.e. cardboard box, string, etc.). In addition to the 471 activities, the book contains useful information about basics such as setting up learning centers, using the block center, and recipes for different clays to use for modeling. There are also over 50 pages of basic information about setting up a preschool, how to make schedules, how to plan activities, and other information such as helping the child say goodbye to their parents and safety issues. All in all this is a well-written and clear guidebook for preschool administrators and preschool teachers. Given the large amount of information, the price seems quite low. I think this book encompasses lots of information that other books duplicate-in other words, this book contains a lot and if you start off with this book, there will be little need for buying supplemental books that contain crafts and activities. Buy this one first and then supplement, as you feel necessary. Throughout the book, the authors have included information as to what is developmentally appropriate for the four-year-old child. Every activity has information about why and what the activity serves to accomplish (learning objectives). This book has simplified things and the writing is so clear that I can't think of a way to improve on the writing style of this book! If you are a parent and are wondering if this is a good book for activities with your child, I would recommend against this book. This book is so very detailed for a school environment and much of it doesn't apply to the home. Many of the activities are for multiple children of the same developmental stage. There are many other activity books on the market, which more directly apply to use in the home. |
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