For Your Binder

Worth the cost of the ink to print out all 140 pages!  From page 11:

This playbook aims to give readers:

• insight into gaps and issues inherent in thinking about inclusive playground design and practice

• insight into how inclusive playgrounds and their surroundings are experienced together

• potential strategies that will contribute to project discussions, designs, budgets, and more

• a depth and breadth of ‘how to’ guidance for designing inclusive playgrounds

• ways to ensure that any inclusively designed playground and its surrounding environment are accessible and welcoming to children with disabilities and their families

#play #inclusion #accessibility #equity #environment #recess #playgrounds #DAP #movement #outside #teaching #learning

The nursery (pre)school should be an extension of the family outward rather than of the elementary school downward. #mixedages #DAP #learning #teaching

The first days of preschool can be stressful for everyone. In this short but helpful article, Lillian Katz offers a few ideas that might assist both parents and teachers.  #environment #learning #teaching #relationships #care 

This document came on my radar while I was taking the Pop Up Adventure Play Playworker Development Course 

I quickly realized that it serves as a functional "how-to" manual for anyone who not only says they want to be play based, but is really ready to put their money where their mouth is and make it happen.  The document is from 2019 so I am not sure if the workshops and consulting piece they mention is still available, but it's a worthy read all the same.  I read it three times and am still gleaning insight.  #play #teaching #learning #environment 

What is the relationship between an invitation and provocation?  Do we use the words interchangeably? Is there really a difference? Might invitations lead to provocations? In this article the author offers some food for thought as to how she uses these terms. #teaching #learning #environment

A classroom environment is a public statement about the educational values of the program AND the teacher.  What does your say? #environment #art #create #teaching #learning

When it feels like common sense and everyone should just "know it" (but they don't) it can be affirming to read about why it feels that way.  Bottom-up behaviors are instinctual and unintentional. Top-down ones are deliberate and intentional. There is a difference. And how we approach them needs to be differentiated as well! #teaching #learning #relationships #specialed #expulsion #environment

A little shameless plug here! In the summer of 2020 the Texas Child Care Quarterly published four book reviews and I was honored to see that my book, Lisa Murphy on... Being Child Centered was one of the ones they included!  This link will take you to all four - mine is the last one.  #teaching #learning #environment #press #play 

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

It's only the abstract to the study, but the message is still clear: fewer toys leads to increased focus and more creative play. #play #toys #teaching #learning #environment

Are the walls influencing learning? #environment #teaching #learning #art #creativity

Play and exploration requires enormous amounts of unscheduled time - time to do whatever one wants to do, without pressure, judgment, or intrusion from authority figures.  #play #teaching #learning #mixedages