Essential Question 1: Based on links from the sites below, develop a mission statement for a preschool or kindergarten program.

1. The Needs of Young Children -- "Whatever their backgrounds, all children have similar needs."
2. Characteristics of Kindergarten Children -- "Kindergarten children, no matter what their cultural and experiential background, have characteristics in common with other children of their age and characteristics that are particularly their own."
3. Kindergarten Aims, Goals, and Philosophy
4. Suggestions for Evaluating and Improving the Kindergarten Program -- Great goals to use in planning, too.
5. Children First: A Curriculum Guide for Kindergarten
6. What Does Research Say About Early Childhood Education?
7. Developmentally Appropriate Practices in Early Childhood Education -- "...practices which are both age appropriate and individually appropriate for each child."
8. Developmentally Appropriate and Culturally Responsive Education: Theory in Practice -- Extensive information and resources in chapter format
9. Answers to Commonly Asked Questions Concerning Developmentally Appropriate Practice
10. Integrating Community Services for Young Children and Their Families -- A comprehensive policy review

Essential Question 2: Based on links from the sites below, what is the role of play in a balanced preschool program, and what resources would you recommend to parents and colleagues?

1. Academic Studies and Play on a Collision Course ... and Play is Losing -- Study Shows Pressure on Children Leaves Less Time for Play
2. Play Is the Business of Kids -- "Young children do not learn in the same manner as older children do. Young children learn by actual contact with real objects, events, and people. (That's why field trips, outdoor play, and other exciting activities are so important.)"
3. The Importance of Play in Your Pre-Schooler's Life -- Research suggests that free play may actually be healthier for young children than more structured activities.
4. Making the Case for Play as Learning
5. Games Kids Play -- 100's of games
6. 101 Activities to Do With Your Toddler -- "...activities, songs, fingerplays, and more for children aged 1-3 years. These constructive activities help encourage motor development and eye-hand coordination, and they will promote mental and social growth. As if that weren't enough, they are also a lot of fun!! Most of these activities can be done at home with little or no expense." A great site to share with parents.
7. Play and Learning
8. Make Cookies, Not War -- Activities to encourage creative play and thwart the "I want that" syndrome

Essential Question 3: Based on links from the sites below, try to develop a realistic perspective on the difficulties and opportunities in child care. Suummarize this in a "letter to a young colleague" about the perils and possibilities of work in this field.

1. All In A Day's Work -- "... it is critical to be aware that your daily experiences on the job do have an effect on you and your family."
2. Stress -- Six sites with useful advice
3. Dealing with Stress on the Job and Elsewhere -- "According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the workplace is the greatest single source of stress, no matter what you do or how much you earn."
4. Study of 50 States and the District of Columbia Finds Growing Investments in Early-Childhood Education, But Large Gaps in Quality -- "As a nation, the United States pays about as much to parking-lot attendants and dry-cleaning workers as it does to early-childhood educators, according to the most recent data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The average annual salary of child-care workers in 1999 was $15,430. Preschool teachers, who typically work with 3- to 5-year-olds, had annual salaries of $19,610, less than half what the average elementary school teacher earned." Ouch!
5. Should I Be a Family Day Care Provider? -- "This fact sheet will help you decide if family day care provider is the job for you."
6. Support for Those Starting a Career in Early Childhood -- Particularly important as we look to enlist many new people into work with children
7. A Profile of the Child Care Work Force -- "Approximately three million child care teachers, assistants, and family child care providers in the U.S. care for 10 million children each day."
8. Creating Family-Friendly Schools -- Are you ready to participate in collaborative arrangements?
9. Infant Day Care: The Critical Issues -- "In March 1970, 24% of mothers with children under 2 years old were in the labor force. By March 1984, the figure was 46.8%...The crisis in day care is such that the choice of care is often determined by cost and availability, rather than quality.
10. Day Care Issues -- Guidelines for quality day care
11. What's New in Title I? -- "Major changes in a massive federal program provide fresh opportunities for school improvement."

Essential Question 4: Based on links from the sites below, where in the balance of an early childhood program would you put literacy learning, and what approaches and activities do you want to use with the children you are working with?.

1. Issues in Literacy Development -- "...the best available research and professional expertise to help teachers provide high-quality literacy instruction for students from kindergarten through Grade 8."
2. Reading: The First Chapter In Education -- Builds the case for a balanced, research-based approach to both learning to read and reading to learn.
3. Learning To Read, Reading To Learn -- Extremely enlightened site from the ERIC Clearinghouse.
4. Early Literacy Development -- A wise and resouceful site from the Bank Street College
5. Balanced Reading Instruction: Review of Literature -- Simple, but not easy: balance phonics and meaning-making approaches and give plent of time for actual reading and writing.
6. What Is Balanced Literacy? -- A graphic chart showing the elements of a balance approach
7. The Four Blocks Literacy Center -- A widely acclaimed and extremely adaptable reading program with resources for all levels
8. Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children -- On-line portions a book, extremely valuable in themselves; reinforces a balanced approach.
   From the Report:
   "Reading is essential to success in our society. The ability to read is highly valued and important for social and economic advancement. Of course, most children learn to read fairly well. In this report, we are most concerned with the large numbers of children in America whose educational careers are imperiled because they do not read well enough to ensure understanding and to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive economy. Current difficulties in reading largely originate from rising demands for literacy, not from declining absolute levels of literacy. In a technological society, the demands for higher literacy are ever increasing, creating more grievous consequences for those who fall short."
   " All members agreed that reading should be defined as a process of getting meaning from print, using knowledge about the written alphabet and about the sound structure of oral language for purposes of achieving understanding. All thus also agreed that early reading instruction should include direct teaching of information about sound-symbol relationships to children who do not know about them and that it must also maintain a focus on the communicative purposes and personal value of reading."
9. Kindergarten Classroom -- Thematic reading and math readiness activities for kindergarten science and social studies units. Technology connected lessons for each unit plus links to age appropriate sites.
10. Fact Sheet on the Importance of Reading to Infants and Young Children -- "Most parents know that it is nice to read to children every day, but are unaware of the newest discoveries in neuroscience showing that reading aloud actually stimulates the growth of a baby's brain. The AAP has put together a short list of citations to help adults understand that reading aloud to children is as important as fastening their seat belts and providing good nutrition."
11. Developing Reading Skills in Young Children --
12. Handbook for Storytellers

Essential Question 5: Based on links from the sites below, where in the balance of an early childhood program would you put project approaches, and what projects do you find you want to try with the children you are working with?.

1. The Project Approach to Learning
2. Where Is the Learning? -- How project-based learning works
3. The Project Approach in Early Childhood -- Versatile site. "Both research and developments in education have recently led to instructional innovations designed to make the classroom into a learning environment which is more responsive to the varying learning needs and interests of individual children. For example, there is increasing curriculum integration: continuity between the children's learning in the different subjects. There is more opportunity to relate home and school learning. There is concern for memorable learning as well as memorized learning. Children are expected to work cooperatively on complex and open-ended tasks as well as follow instructions in step by step learning. The project approach provides one way to introduce a wider range of learning opportunities into the classroom."
4. Project Approach -- Varied examples
5. Reggio Emilia: Its Visions and its Challenges For Educators in the United States -- "How can we ask teachers to collaborate with parents who are too busy to come to school meetings, to implement long-term projects in the face of growing curriculum demands, to acknowledge and respond to children's many symbolic languages in the face of pressures to emphasize formal academic skills, and to participate in ongoing professional development through the documentation and constant reexamination of their work with children when their contract says the workday ends at 3:15?"
6. Keypals
7. Preschool Education.com -- Interesting site with lots of materials plus an "Ask A Preschool Teacher" advice feature.
8. Welcome To Everything Preschool -- Projects and resources galore