Dig in: Outdoor Stem Learning with Young Children - Paperback

by Lea Ann Christenson (Author), Jenny James (Author)

Develop children's problem-solving and critical-thinking skills? Check.
Support children's communication and collaboration skills? Check.
Inspire children's creativity and innovative thinking? Check.
Meet early learning standards in literacy, math, and more? Yes, please!

How can early childhood teachers do all this? By engaging children in outdoor STEM discoveries!

Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children provides strategies, ideas, real-life examples, and information to help you get children outside and learning, all while meeting required early learning standards and objectives. Explore the Learning Life Cycle and discover fresh ideas for engaging children in deeper explorations and experiences outdoors that will stick with them into kindergarten and beyond. Have more aha moments, seize learning opportunities, invite questions, and investigate answers--while supporting rich STEM learning.
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Chapter 1: The Richness of Outdoor Learning
Chapter 2: The Learning Life Cycle
Chapter 3: The Deep Thinkers and the Child-Teacher-Land Relationship
Chapter 4: Planting the Seeds of Experiential Learning
Chapter 5: Growing the Roots of Wonder: 21st-Century Skills
Chapter 6: Unearthing STEM in the Learning Life Cycle
Chapter 7: The Sun and the Rain Make the Garden Grow--Directors, Teachers, Families, and Stakeholders
Chapter 8: Making the Outdoor Classroom a Reality

Back Jacket

Develop children's problem-solving and critical-thinking skills? Check.
Support children's communication and collaboration skills? Check.
Inspire children's creativity and innovative thinking? Check.
Meet early learning standards in literacy, math, and more? Yes, please!

How can early childhood teachers do all this? By engaging children in outdoor STEM discoveries!

Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children provides strategies, ideas, real-life examples, and information to help you get children outside and learning, all while meeting required early learning standards and objectives. Explore the Learning Life Cycle and discover fresh ideas for engaging children in deeper explorations and experiences outdoors that will stick with them into kindergarten and beyond. Have more aha moments, seize learning opportunities, invite questions, and investigate answers--while supporting rich STEM learning.

Chapter 1: The Richness of Outdoor Learning
Chapter 2: The Learning Life Cycle
Chapter 3: The Deep Thinkers and the Child-Teacher-Land Relationship
Chapter 4: Planting the Seeds of Experiential Learning
Chapter 5: Growing the Roots of Wonder: 21st-Century Skills
Chapter 6: Unearthing STEM in the Learning Life Cycle
Chapter 7: The Sun and the Rain Make the Garden Grow--Directors, Teachers, Families, and Stakeholders
Chapter 8: Making the Outdoor Classroom a Reality

Author Biography

Lea Ann Christenson, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of Early Childhood Education at Towson University in Maryland. Before earning her doctorate in curriculum and instruction, she taught kindergarten, first, and second grades, and served as an elementary assistant principal. Jenny James, MA, is an early childhood advocate, author, and director of a preschool in Maryland. She has served as an early childhood educator, a family counselor, a project manager for a child-care resource and referral agency, and a child-care training coordinator for the state of Maryland.