Today's students need to be able to do more than score well on tests—they must be creative thinkers and problem solvers. The tools in this book will help teachers and parents start students on the path to becoming innovative, successful individuals in the 21st century workforce. The children in classrooms today will soon become adult members of society: they will need to apply divergent thinking skills to be effective in all aspects of their lives, regardless of their specific occupation. How well your students meet complicated challenges and take advantage of the opportunities before them decades down the road will depend largely upon the kind of thinking they are trained and encouraged to do today. This book provides a game plan for busy librarians and teachers to develop their students' abilities to arrive at new ideas by utilizing children's books at hand. Following an introduction in which the author defines divergent thinking, discusses its characteristics, and establishes its vital importance, chapters dedicated to types of literature for children such as fantasy, poetry, and non-fiction present specific titles and relevant activities geared to fostering divergent thinking in young minds. Parents will find the recommendations of the kinds of books to read with their children and explanations of how to engage their children in conversations that will help their creative thinking skills extremely beneficial. The book also includes a case study of a fourth-grade class that applied the principles of divergent thinking to imagine innovative designs and come up with new ideas while studying a social studies/science unit on ecology.

Tap into children's natural curiosity and scaffold their creative abilities across all domains of learning--and nurture your own creativity!

"Today's students need to be able to do more than score well on tests--they must be creative thinkers and problem solvers. The tools in this book will help teachers and parents start students on the path to becoming innovative, successful individuals in the 21st century workforce"--

Art and literature are essential components of a child's education that encourage creativity, self-expression, and abstract, critical thinking. These skills, in turn, help a child excel in math, science, reading, and drama. However, traditional educational settings often destroy a child's innate self-esteem and creativity. Art and Children is an indispensable aid to educators and librarians interested in helping young children achieve their artistic and creative potential. This teaching aid provides thematic, unit-based activities that use art and literature to develop skills such as interpretation, self-expression, critical thinking, experiential learning, and problem solving. Accompanied by numerous examples, it offers step-by-step suggestions on how to plan, implement, and present these units and their related activities. Addresses of art suppliers are also provided.

Recognising the importance of creative learning processes and the arts for young children's physical, social and emotional development, this book provides guidance for early childhood practitioners to encourage creativity in their settings. Each chapter includes reflective questions and strategies that can be implemented in daily practice.

Creativity and the Arts with Young Children, 2e is written specifically for early childhood educators as well as professionals who work with children birth through age eight. The focus of this book, now in it's second edition, is on making the vital connection to music, movement, drama, and the visual arts in all areas of the classroom, as well as, developing creative teachers and professionals who will be able to foster an artistic environment. The book includes observations and pictures of teachers and children that demonstrate practical ways the arts can be used to help children reach their potential. There are expanded sections on multi-intelligences, Reggio Emilia, divergent questioning, and art recipes, and the book also includes literacy connections, and activities for adults at the end of each chapter. There are many ideas in the book for open-ended activities that are important for the development of young children and will encourage them to think in new ways. The standards and recommendations from professional organizations are addressed so that the reader can recognize what goals these organizations believe are important in the early years. Thorough in its coverage, the text speaks to children with special needs and cultural diversity, leaving the reader with the most complete information regarding arts in the young child's learning environment.