NCCRESt

part of the Education Reform Networks

You are in: Subject —>

Kindergarten

• Beautiful Me! Celebrating Diversity through Literature and Art
  Describes the "Beautiful Me!" kindergarten unit, which uses children's literature to help children develop a rich vocabulary to describe themselves, their friends, and family, and to avoid words placing people into categories and stereotypes. Activities include providing various skin-tone crayons for drawing and using craft materials to depict hair with different textures, colors, and thickness.
• Children's Understanding and Attitudes about People from Other Countries
  This study compared the impact of an international educational program with that of a multicultural educational kindergarten program. A convenience sample of 13 children participated in a university-based full day international education kindergarten program.
• Creating World Peace, One Classroom at a Time
  Recounts activities from a kindergarten classroom to illustrate how a multicultural approach cultivates a school environment embracing diversity and educating students about responsibilities associated with freedom. Stories include those related to students viewing each other in terms of individual characteristics rather than their ethnic group, creating a mind map for Earth Day, and cooperating with older students to write class letters against child labor.
• Focus on Pre-K and K (Ages 4-6): A Quarterly Newsletter for the Education Community, 1997-1998
  These four quarterly newsletter issues address various topics of interest to teachers of young children. Each issue focuses on a theme and includes an article on that theme, along with regular columns.
• Holidays in the Public School Kindergarten: An Avenue for Emerging Religious and Spiritual Literacy
  Addresses holidays in the curriculum and concerns raised for educators about how to be inclusive and recognize students' different cultures. Presents a sample approach to exploring holidays in the classroom, including techniques for brainstorming, celebration activities, children's individual experiences, expanding experiences, engaging families, choosing resources, and parties.
• Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea
  This book is a study of the diffusion and transformation of the kindergarten around the turn of the twentieth century, concentrating most centrally on the power of local cultures to respond to and reformulate borrowed ideas. Eleven case studies represent western and nonwestern national histories, various religious traditions, and a range of political systems, all of which embraced the kindergarten as a desirable educational form.
• Learning about Culture through Dance in Kindergarten Classrooms
  Describes how dance was incorporated into African and Native American cultural study units. Notes that when dance was used, children's participation level was high and they showed evidence of integrating new knowledge into current information.
• Restructuring Kindergarten in an Urban School District: The Case of Newark, New Jersey
  A collaborative project of Bank Street College and the Newark Public Schools, the New Beginnings initiative was designed to bring about progressive restructuring of kindergarten classrooms. This study used a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to examine the impact of the initiative on curriculum, professional development, and student outcomes in its first year.
• Say Hola: Crossing Borders, Enriching Lives
  Describes a thematic unit of study, carried out in a kindergarten class, on traditional aspects of Mexican life. Describes class activities, unit objectives, and student responses in the unit involving geography, art, literacy, and Mexican culture.