Teaching on a Shoestring

Book excerpt: Explores the educational value and potential of everyday objects for young children and suggests practical objectrelated activities to help develop learners cross-curricular skills. In an age of ever-tightening budgets, schools are careful to spend less and to spend wisely when building up collections of resources. With these value-for-money principles in mind, Grigg and Lewis examine the use of everyday objects in effective early years teaching and learning and go on to illustrate how they can be better exploited to develop in learners the four skills widely regarded as essential in the 21st century: communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Attractively laid out for easy reference, Teaching on a Shoestring dedicates a section to each object and includes: background information and interesting facts about the object, questions and focus points for the teacher to consider pre delivery, guidance on the resources and preparation required to carry out the suggested activities, and further ideas and signposts to follow up on and extend the learning. Suitable for early years practitioners, NQTs, parents and all those who work with young children.