For Your Binder

The findings consistently show that the foundation is what supports the house!  Want a huge academic mansion? Then make the foundation rock solid!  This is the handout that goes with the workshop that goes with the book of the same title! #play #DAP #pushdown #teaching #handouts

Missed the workshop? Want to watch it again? Got a DVD player? Lisa has DVDs of all her workshops! #oldschool  

Despite evidence that play and social interactions are crucial to cognitive development, schools continue to take recess away. #recess #teaching #learning #outside #movement #DAP #pushdown

This handout will teach YOU how to do The Apple Demo with a group! Why is it important? It is a very very strong visual exercise that reinforces the importance of the real in early childhood environments - NOT dittos NOT worksh*ts NOT flashcards! Memorize the steps and then take your audience through the different ways children might experience an apple. This is a great activity to do with parents at back to school night!  #handouts #DAP #teaching #learning #play #pushdown #parenting

Missed seeing Lisa demo this one? Maybe want to watch it again? Got a DVD player? Lisa has DVDs of all her workshops! #oldschool  

Kindergarten now serves as a gatekeeper, not a welcome mat, to elementary school. #play #pushdown #teaching

Busy busy busy kids don't get the opportunity to wander outside the parental orbit to explore! Will we pay a price? #play #outside #pushdown #dirt #nature

The American Academy of Pediatrics reminds us that the critical factor as to how a student will learn to read “is not how aggressively,” the child is given instruction, but rather their “own enthusiasm for learning” yet still, we push.  #DAP #reading #teaching #learning #pushdown #play #parenting

In the United States, we’ve decided that increasing academic demands on young children is a good thing. What we haven’t considered, are the potential negative effects. #DAP #movement #teaching #learning #pushdown

It's only October, but already Nicky is exhibiting symptoms of student ennui. The other day, when his mother asked him the best thing about school, he said lunch. Most boring? Art history.  Sound typical?  Perhaps.  Except Nicky isn't a moody adolescent - Nicky is only 5.  #pushdown #DAP #play #teaching #learning

This 2015 report provides preliminary findings from the longitudinal Vanderbilt Study, which started in 2009.  This study set out to identify whether or not children who participate in Tennessee PreK programs make greater gains than children who don't. #teaching #learning #DAP #pushdown 

We need to re-affirm our commitment to children's play.  Failing to act on these recommendations will allow this generation to become the most sedentary in our nation's history, consequently possibly having a shorter life expectancy than that of their parents. #play #pushdown #movement #recess #risk #outside 

This article was written by the lead researcher in what is simply referred to now as "The #Vanderbilt Study" - in it she reminds us that greater focus on academics for three and four year olds is not the solution. Her metaphor of an iceberg is a powerful visual; the tip of the iceberg are things we can see (read: measure) like ABCs and 123s, but what is below the surface?  What has actually made these other things visible? Curiosity, persistence, self-control... and when are those skills developed? When children #play !!!!!  #Tennessee #DAP #teaching #learning #environment #pushdown

Sooner is NOT better and who decided that "early birds" like worms anyway???

#play #pushdown #learning #teaching