Redleaf Press

Give children the social and emotional tools they need to grow and thrive on their own

All children—not just those with challenging behaviors—require guidance as they develop the social and emotional skills they will use the rest of their lives. This resource provides everything you need to help children build and use six essential life skills: attachment, belonging, self-regulation, collaboration, contribution, and adaptability. Developed and tested in the classroom, this strength-based approach includes strategies, examples of supportive interactions, and special activities to help you manage challenging behaviors and strengthen social and emotional development in all children. Reflecting significant changes in early childhood education, this second edition of Beyond Behavior Management aligns each life skill with early learning standards and addresses cultural awareness and its impact on child development. With these essential life skills, children will exhibit more prosocial behaviors, work better as a classroom community, and become excited and active learners.

Jenna Bilmes is an early childhood consultant and an instructional designer for WestEd Child and Family Services. She is a frequent presenter to teachers, administrators, and counselors nationally and internationally.

Use this step-by-step guide to becoming an effective and successful child care director or administrator in today’s early childhood education environment. With interviews gathered from program thirty-two directors across the country, this book is a comprehensive guide to becoming the best director you can be. Combined with current research and best practices you will find realistic real-time solutions to address the most common struggles faced by program administrators today.

Christine A. Schmidt is the owner of 2 CR Solutions, Ltd., a consulting, training, and technical assistance company for organizations that serve children birth through age 18.

Offering an alternative approach to standardization and data-driven mandates, this book puts children at the center of planning your curriculum. Rather than a prescriptive curriculum, by using The Thinking Lens® protocol, teachers can translate educational theories into concrete ideas for working with children and families. Learn to create a welcoming classroom culture, develop routines for self-regulation, and use Learning Stories to enhance experiences for the children in your care.

This book has been updated to examine how to work with mandated curriculum, rating scales, and assessment tools, while practicing reflective teaching.

Margie Carter holds a MA from Pacific Oaks College and has worked as a preschool, kindergarten, and primary school teacher, curriculum developer, High/Scope trainer, child care director, and college instructor.

Deb Curtis holds a MA in human development from Pacific Oaks College and has worked as an infant/toddler caregiver, preschool and school age child care teacher, CDA trainer, Head Start education coordinator, college instructor, and assistant director of a child care program.

Carter and Curtis have published six books together, including Designs for Living and Learning and The Art of Awareness.

There are many ways parents and caregivers can help children thrive in their earliest years of life. Babies in the Rain explains the theories behind the best practices for infant and toddler care as well as preferred methods for doing so. In a personable, humorous voice, Jeff A. Johnson shares his own stories about the amazing ways infants and toddlers learn. He offers valuable information on how to spend quality time with young children by building strong emotional environments, nurturing meaningful relationships, and promoting child-centered, age-appropriate learning.

As infants become toddlers, their expanding sense of self, growing motor, language, and cognitive skills provide opportunities for learning more about the physical and social world around them. This book is a valuable resource for advancing a child's sense of self, cultural identity, social relationships, and connectedness to community through developmentally appropriate activities.

Carla B. Goble has a MS and PhD in child development from Oklahoma State University and a BS in education from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is an award-winning early childhood educator, founding member of the Oklahoma Early Childhood Education Organization.

Learn to use inquiry-based practice to inspire young minds through science. This book provides educators a concrete guide for using research-based principles of inquiry to help children explore their world. Using real-life examples and discussions on facilitating and guiding children, you will be able to engage and maximize STEM learning.

This book uses case studies to focus on the teacher’s interaction with children and includes how to use inquiry-based practice, in addition to why you should use this method. Web content and reproducible lesson plans make it easy to begin using proven inquiry-based instruction. Detailed accounts of conversations with children about science will help you understand different methods and tools. Enrich and inspire young minds with inquiry-based instruction.

Julie Smart holds a PhD in curriculum and instruction and is currently a professor of math and science education at Clemson University. She is also a consultant in research methodology and program accreditation with a focus on inquiry-based instruction, teacher effectiveness, and classroom management. Smart resides in Greenville, SC, with her husband and two children.

Prepare children for kindergarten with this easy-to-implement preschool curriculum. Each chapter includes ideas for dramatic play, activities/songs/poems, books to read aloud, plans for Circle Time, Table Work, and Free Choice Play. Weekly topics are linked to early childhood standards, and include ideas for classroom setup, a daily schedule, and reproducible material.

Susan Ehrhardt has thirty years of experience as a pre-K teacher in Cincinnati, Ohio. She has a BS in Education from University of Cincinnati, completed graduate studies in ECE at the University of Cincinnati and in Early Childhood and Special Education from College of Mt. St. Joseph.

The bad-breath germ and the plaque-painting germ join others to help children remember to brush their teeth. Lively, colorful illustrations show the germs that cause cavities and how important tooth brushing is to good dental health. Includes health information.

Discover how to support high-functioning and collaborative teacher teams in early childhood programs by developing healthy and confident team leaders. This manual covers topics of dynamic team teaching including: how to create unified teams, how to become teacher leaders, how to give and receive feedback, and how to build and assess differentiated curriculum.

Uniit Carruyo has been an early childhood educator for more than twenty years and is currently the Director of Education at Ithaca Montessori School in Ithaca, New York. Carruyo received her MS Ed in Leadership from Bank Street College of Education.

Relationships play an important role in human development, especially in the first years of life. Bridging the Relationship Gap provides caregivers tools and encouragement to be the strong, positive, and nurturing adult these children need in order to thrive.

Learn more about the factors that contribute to the achievement and relationship gap, including ecological, biological, and cultural differences. Most importantly, find many tools and resources to help you more effectively deal with the tough situations and become each child's strongest ally.

Approximately one in every thirty children born today is a twin or supertwin—a child of a higher-order multiple birth, such as a triplet or quadruplet. With twins and supertwins an increasingly growing population in preschool classrooms, early childhood professionals have more questions and concerns regarding the best ways to care for and educate preschool-age children of multiple births. Twins and Supertwins addresses these issues and highlights the best program practices supported by recent research and study findings; includes information on physical, social, emotional, and language development; identifies unique needs of twins and supertwins; and offers guidance to create partnerships with families.

Support an infant's healthy social-emotional and cognitive development with these age-appropriate activity ideas. The activity cards are compact and portable, making it easy for parents, caregivers, and educators to jumpstart interactive play and support brain development anywhere with babies throughout the day.

Twelve Essential Topics in Early Childhood Meetings is an easy tool for program administrators to prepare successful, high-quality professional development experiences for their staff during monthly meetings. Includes an agenda and outline for each topic along with a materials list, handouts, instructions for activities, and a CD-ROM with twelve PowerPoint presentations and reproducibles for each topic.

Nancy P. Alexander is an award winning professional trainer, the executive director of Northwestern State University Child and Family Network, and president of the North Louisiana Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

Play, academics, and standards can work together with the right strategies and support from educators. Take an active role in child-directed play to guide learning. Become a strong advocate for saving play in early childhood education by empowering teachers to join play and standards, and learn how child-led, open-ended play addresses the seven domains and Common Core Standards.

This book is full of research and resources that link academic learning and play experiences. Engage in provocative questions for teachers and administrators to help you effectively share the importance of play in early learning with others, and help restore play to its proper role as both fun and educational.

Gaye Gronlund, MA, is a nationally recognized consultant and author who works with early childhood programs across the country, specializing in developmentally appropriate practice, authentic assessment, play-based curriculum, and early learning standards. Her other publications include: Individualized Child-Focused Curriculum, Focused Observations, Second Edition, and Making Early Learning Standards Come Alive, Second Edition.

Thomas Rendon is the coordinator of the Iowa Head Start State Collaboration Office and an active supporter of policy to promote play at a state level. He has an MBA from the University of Iowa and is currently working on a PhD in early childhood special education from Kent State University.

To counteract the prevalence of childhood obesity and to establish lifelong healthy eating habits, this research-based early childhood curriculum is designed to increase children’s preferences for nutritious fruits and vegetables. The tested “seed-to-table” approach will engage preschoolers in all aspects of planting, growing, and eating organically grown foods. Also included are recipes children can help prepare and ways to involve the whole family in making healthy food choices. These activities can be tailored to fit any early childhood program, climate, or geographical region.

People who visit home-based child care settings are extensively knowledgeable about regulations and policies. They do not, however, receive the same training on equally important “soft skills” such as communication, modeling, motivation, and assertiveness. This resource provides tools and strategies to develop skills needed to be successful in the profession.

This leading resource is a specifically designed curriculum for family child-care providers. They will be able to incorporate best practices and activities appropriate for the mixed ages of children in their care. Developmental domains and milestones, learning areas, age-appropriate activities and outcomes, and more are included. It is far more affordable than other family child care curriculum alternatives, and it aligns with Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) requirements around the country.

Sharon Woodward is the author of several resources for family child-care providers and holds a degree in social work.

Make meal preparation in your child care center easy and fun. Includes step-by-step instructions and photos for 160 recipes that all fit the USDA's Child and Adult Food Program guidelines, a four-week cycle menu for lunch, a two-week cycle menu for breakfasts and snacks, plus a seasonal menu.

This record-keeping system is the leading business tool for family child care professionals. It includes monthly expense charts, attendance and payment logs, mileage records, food program tallies, and detailed income tax worksheets—all making tax preparation easier and helping to reduce taxes. Also included are monthly nutritious recipes, activities, and helpful tips. With this calendar, all of the family child care professional's business-related records are organized in one convenient place.

Sally Moomaw, EdD, is an assistant professor of early childhood education at the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of eight other Redleaf Press books and a frequent presenter at workshops and conferences across the country. Much of Dr. Moomaw’s research and teaching is in the area of STEM education.

Creative art should offer children the opportunities for originality, creativity, fluency, flexibility, and sensitivity. Remember, there is no right or wrong way of doing things in art. This collection of activities focuses on the process and not the finished product, to allow for growth and fun. All activities are easily adaptable for children from age two to eight.

The 145 process-oriented art activities cover a wide range of media including painting, crayons, collage and sculpture, chalk, and printing. Activities are easy to prepare, to set-up, and to develop into project-approach explorations building on young children's interests and inquiries. These hands-on projects have been classroom-tested to ensure they keep learning fun and engaging.

Deya Brashears Hill has spent more than three decades working in early childhood education. Early in her career, she wrote scripts for Sesame Street during its formative years. Hill's experiences have helped her develop expertise in brain development, curriculum, and diversity in early childhood education. She has served as the Director of Orinda Preschool and is a professor for various Bay Area colleges, where she passes her knowledge on to the next generation of early childhood professionals

From playground equipment to skyscrapers, structures are everywhere. The second unit in the Young Scientist series, Building Structures with Young Children guides children’s explorations to help deepen their understanding of the physical science present in building block structures—including concepts such as gravity, stability, and balance. Looking at science in a new way, this nationally field-tested curriculum supports the early development of important science inquiry skills such as questioning, investigating, discussing, and formulating ideas and theories.

The Comfort of Little Things is a thought-provoking book that empowers educators to give themselves and the people in their lives second chances in order for themselves and the children they teach to learn and thrive. This book includes stories from the author and contributors to the author's blog posts.

Educators are among the most loving and nurturing people on earth. Yet those same caring adults are too often very hard on themselves. The Comfort of Little Things provides strategies and tips on how to give yourself a second chance. Drawing on the growing body of brain research along with personal experience and stories from educators, Holly Elissa Bruno fills her book with ideas that will help you see the world with the wonder of a child. You can learn to open yourself to the moment, to look at yourself anew, and to let go of negativity. As she writes, "Second chances come from letting go of what holds us back. These second chances take more work. The work is always rewarded. Fear not."

Childcare providers must respond to emergencies and urgent problems, whether medical or behavioral, effectively. These two easy-to-use references will help them respond with confidence.

Each Redleaf Quick Guide provides a list of signs and symptoms, prevention tips, and criteria for seeking additional help. Experts have reviewed the guides to ensure their accuracy and developmental appropriateness.

Addresses common emergencies, such as bleeding, poisoning, allergic reactions, burns, and head injuries.

Pursuing third-party endorsements and accreditation is a significant undertaking for child care centers and preschools. Prove It! guides practitioners through the process of preparation, connecting criteria to classroom practices—including hygiene practices, quality interactions, quality learning opportunities and environments, and diversity—while maintaining high standards of care and quality.

Thousands of family child care providers save time and money using the Tax Workbook and Organizer—a comprehensive tool that takes the guesswork out of taxes.

Tom Copeland, JD, is a licensed attorney, tax and child care business specialist, and consultant for the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC).

For home-based family child care (daycare) providers, taking care of the children is only half of the job. The other half is taking care of the business—tracking expenses, being profitable, filing taxes, and meeting government requirements. This resource covers everything family child care providers need to keep accurate business records. If a family child care provider pays close attention to the recommendations in this book, he or she will be able to claim the maximum allowable deductions and pay the lowest possible federal taxes.

Since the previous edition of Family Child Care Record-Keeping Guide, Congress and the IRS have made many changes to tax rules that affect family child care providers. There have been changes in depreciation rules, adjustments to food and mileage rates, and clarifications on how to calculate the Time-Space percentage. Author Tom Copeland has been involved in many IRS audits and represented providers in several Tax Court cases that have also clarified numerous rules. Further necessitating this ninth edition, the IRS issued two significant new rules in 2013. These updates, new rules, and clarifications are detailed in this book; all of the information is applicable to child care providers in every state, regardless of local regulations.

Tom Copeland, JD, is a writer, trainer, lawyer, and consultant focusing on family child care business issues. He has conducted record-keeping, tax preparation, and business workshops for family child care providers across the country since 1981.

When an early childhood classroom teacher is promoted to a supervisory role, he or she must transition from guiding young children to supporting staff members. This professional development workbook, part of the Winning Ways for Early Childhood Professionals series, presents eight supervisory concepts to ease the transition and enhance and improve leadership skills. Using this workbook will encourage, empower, and equip the reader with knowledge and confidence to work with other adults.

Gigi Schweikert is a popular speaker at early childhood conferences and parenting seminars. She is the author of many books and contributes to early childhood periodicals and journals.

Family childcare homes provide care for hundreds of thousands of children every day. From Babysitter to Business Owner offers tried-and-true strategies for implementing established professional business practices in the home daycare environment, including:

• Developing a thorough parent handbook
• Selecting new clients
• Setting business goals
• Selecting an appropriate curriculum
• Creating “work” spaces in your home

Practical and easy to read, From Babysitter to Business Owner has everything home daycare providers need to make their business succeed.

Patricia Dischler has operated Patty Cake Preschool in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, for over 15 years.

From Goodnight Moon to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, books capture the attention and imagination of young children the way few other things can. Weaving the Literacy Web provides a framework for developing engaging, developmentally appropriate curriculum in the preschool classroom through the use of books children love. Six chapters offer an introduction to book-based webbing and ideas for activity planning, as well as helpful tips for observing children’s interests and evaluating books for the classroom library.

Making learning a hands-on experience, Do-It-Yourself Early Learning shows home child care providers how to find and use many of the inexpensive—and often overlooked—building, home-repair, and construction materials available at local hardware stores and home centers to create fun activities and toys that promote play, exploration, and discovery.

This innovative guide takes teachers on a journey through the aisles of the local home center to help them find creative ways to teach young children to build, interact, and learn from a wide variety of materials—from plumbing and electrical supplies to paints and hardware items.

Find solutions quickly and easily! This revised classic offers hundreds of updated tested solutions for the tricky problems, questions, and concerns that arise throughout the early childhood teacher’s day. Based on sound developmentally appropriate theory, this how-to book on classroom management techniques enables beginning and experienced teachers alike to run effective, successful programs.

New topics include working with ESL learners, helping children deal with traumatic life events, and using computers in the classroom.

Steffen Saifer is the director of the Child and Family Program at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, Oregon. He is also on the faculty of Portland State University, where he conducts research on effective interventions for helping children with challenging behaviors.

Looking at science in a new way, Exploring Water with Young Children focuses children’s explorations to help deepen their understanding of water and its properties—including concepts related to water’s flow, appearance and effect on objects. The third unit in the Young Scientist Series, this field-tested curriculum supports the early development of important science inquiry skills such as questioning, investigating, discussing and formulating ideas and theories.

Karen Worth is a graduate-level instructor in the early childhood education department at Wheelock College.

Ingrid Chalufour has designed and conducted training programs for a variety of early childhood staff for more than 35 years. Both authors live in Newton, Massachusetts.

Judith Anne Rice is a keynote speaker specializing in character building. She is the author of several books and an early childhood family education teacher.

Teaching STEM Literacy is comprised of ready-made, open-ended lessons reviewed and tested by teachers, which help educators integrate STEM learning into the early childhood classroom. Lessons are linked to the Next Generation Science Standards, and encourage creative ideas for three-dimensional STEM learning that are developmentally appropriate and exemplified through children's literature.

The three-dimensional STEM learning—content, concepts, and practices—comes in twelve, ready-made open-ended teaching units that make it easy to teach science and inquiry to young children. This book uses the 5E framework (engagement, exploration, explanation, elaboration, and evaluation) to cultivate children's skills of observation, questioning, and data collection by combining discovery, problem solving, and engineering solutions to authentic questions that young children might ask.

Juliana Texley holds a master's in biology and chemistry, and a PhD in curriculum development/science education from Wayne State University, and has over thirty years of teaching experience. She is a graduate-level adjunct professor specializing in educational technology and assessment, science, and science teaching at Central Michigan University and Lesley University in Massachusetts. Texley has been a National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) member for thirty years, and served as president from 2014-2015. She is on the board for Young Voices for the Planet and led the development and evaluation of online learning programs for JASON Learning.

Ruth M. Ruud has over thirty-five years of teaching experience ranging from early childhood to undergraduate studies. She has a master's degree in education with additional coursework in all areas of science. A former Delta Education FOSS (Full Option Science System) consultant, Ruth currently works as an adjunct professor teaching physical geography courses at Cleveland State University. She served as president of the Pennsylvania Science Teachers Association and has chaired a number of committees of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), is a member of the NSTA Recommends committee, and is the head reviewer for the NSTA Shell Science Lab Challenge.

Learn to integrate individualized curriculum into daily practice with this step-by-step guide. Using Developmental Studies, a new tool created and successfully field-tested by the author, implement a truly child-focused and individualizing curriculum, meeting each child where she or he is and ultimately making teaching easier and more rewarding. These user-friendly materials will help teachers reconnect and reengage with each student outside of all the standards that are required.

Gaye Gronlund devotes her time to helping teachers, administrators, and policy makers implement best approaches to teaching and assessing young children. Clients have included the NAEYC, NIEER, the State of New Mexico Office of Child Development and Pre-K Program, the Illinois State Board of Education, and more.

Working in the Reggio Way helps teachers of young children bring the innovative practices of the schools in Reggio Emilia, Italy, to American classrooms. Written by an educator who observed and worked in the world-famous schools, this groundbreaking resource presents the key tools that will allow American teachers to transform their classrooms, including these:

Organization of time and space
Documentation of children’s work
Observation and questioning
Attention to children’s environments

This workbook also contains interactive activities for individual or group reflection.

Julianne Wurm works as an instructional reform facilitator in the San Francisco Unified School District. She lives in San Francisco, California.

With over sixty-five hands-on art, science, and outside play activity ideas for creating engaging environments both at home and in early childhood and school-age care programs, The Ooey Gooey® Handbook is a must-have resource for everyone who spends time with children. For early childhood educators or parents who are just beginning their Ooey Gooey® journey, this is a great starting point. It includes an informational overview of how The Ooey Gooey Lady® started her work and is loaded with activities to get your gooey juices flowing. Each activity includes concept words to explain what children are learning.

Lisa Murphy has been involved with early childhood education for over twenty years, teaching and working with children in various environments. She presents hundreds of workshops and keynotes at national and international audiences each year on various topics related to early childhood education.

As the founder and CEO of Ooey Gooey, Inc., Lisa's mission is to assist in the transformation of early childhood education by offering the best workshops and trainings, the most up-to-date materials and resources, and insightful conversations and connections through the power of social media. She is recognized for her ability to link hands-on activities to educational standards, her outspoken advocacy, and her commitment to creating child-centered and play-based early childhood environments.

Holly Elissa Bruno, MA, JD; Janet Gonzalez-Mena, MA; Luis Antonio Hernandez, MA; and Debra Ren-Etta Sullivan, EdD, are acclaimed keynote speakers, authors, and experts on a variety of topics in early childhood.

The companion to the Early Childhood Staff Orientation Guide. Along with orientation on topics vital to early childhood professionals, this guide includes information just for mentors. Find valuable tools and tips to maximize mentoring skills and respond to frequently asked questions about the orientation process. Use this book to ensure you make the most of each new employee's potential.

Examine the evolution of developmentally appropriate practice with this biographical history of early childhood education. This book explores the theory's progression—from its beginnings in writings of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century philosophers, its experimental implementation by eighteenth- and nineteenth-century practitioners, and its scientific grounding in contemporary theory and research—and includes biographical sketches and perspectives of eleven philosophical, pedagogical, and theoretical figures—the giants—in this evolution.

David Elkind, PhD, is the best-selling author of more than twenty books and a well-known early childhood expert who has appeared on shows including Today Show, CBS Morning News, 20/20, Dateline, Donahue, and Oprah.

Enhance the quality of your teaching with collaborative, critical, and reflective thinking

Teaching young children is complex work. While you manage the day-to-day events that unfold in your classroom you also have to keep up with the demands of assessment and documentation. With all these challenges, how can you maintain the equally important tasks of encouraging children’s curiosity and supporting their joy of learning? How can you sustain your own curious mind and joyful spirit in your work? Reflecting with other teachers in a community of practice can strengthen your abilities to respond to the children in your classroom and share meaningful experiences with them.

This workbook is designed to be used with a group—a community of practice—but it can also be a self-study tool. The exercises help you to understand and practice the key elements of reflective teaching. Ten study sessions provide opportunities to engage with peers as you collaborate and connect theory and best practices in your classrooms. These experiences will help you evaluate and grow your reflective teaching skills; use the Thinking Lens™ protocol to align your daily work with your larger goals, values, and vision; gain a heightened sense of self-awareness and a stronger image of children; examine the details of your environment; and challenge yourself with new perspectives.

Deb Curtis, Debbie Lebo, Wendy C.M. Cividanes, and Margie Carter each have more than thirty years of experience teaching young children and adults. They lead professional development initiatives for child care organizations and are highly respected presenters and trainers across the country.