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"You see it everywhere in K-12. Kindergarteners design toys for their friends to practice empathy, while learning to use a saw and glue-gun along the way. Second graders deepen their understanding of character traits while designing and sewing puppets to represent a character in a folk-tale. In high school physics, students make wind turbines in order to internalize an understanding of how magnetism can create electricity. The "it" I'm referring to is "Making," and simply put, Making is any activity where people create something, often with their hands."

"Menomonee Falls - Once every few weeks this past school year, kindergarten teacher Tiffany Fadin corralled her squirmy young charges at Valley View Elementary to get feedback about their recent math lessons. "What specific things did we do in this unit that helped you learn?" she asked recently. "What things did not help you learn?" Behind Fadin, data points flashed on a board, showing how many more students could add and subtract within five digits than in weeks prior. The exercise was deliberate, underscoring a major shift in Menomonee Falls that's training everyone to use data to make decisions, from teachers and custodians to kindergartners. The strategies employed over the past four years have attracted national - even international - attention to Menomonee Falls, including visitors from Sweden and researchers from the Carnegie Foundation. Other districts around the state and other educational institutions, such as the State University of New York, are taking notes. Armed with promising new outcome data, Menomonee Falls Superintendent Pat Greco said she believes what they're doing is working, and that the district is the case study for how K-12 systems can increase achievement and efficiency. And they're doing it by employing methods rooted not in education, but in the manufacturing and health care industries. "Teachers were reticent about posting student performance data. They were reticent to invite feedback from students," said Greco, who began engaging a small core of staff in the work in 2011. "Now, student performance is the highest it's ever been," Greco said."

"The Foos is part of a trend toward increasing emphasis on code as a fundamental literacy. You may have heard about the Hour of Code nonprofit initiative, which claims tens of millions of student participants; or New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio's recent announcement that he intends to require teaching of computer science in all grades for all students. "A computer science education is literacy for the 21st century," the mayor said at the announcement. Educators, researchers and entrepreneurs like Hosford are taking that analogy very seriously. They're arguing that the basic skills of coding, such as sequencing, pattern recognition and if/then conditional logic, should be introduced alongside or even before traditional reading, writing and math."

"If you are a subscriber to this blog, you are probably aware that we champion the use of appropriate and integrated technology in ECE. As we begin a new school year, I wanted a technology center for our kids that we could use throughout the year. The QR Code Alphabet Games below will not only help introduce your kids to QR Code technology, but they will also allow for mobile technology integration as letters/words are introduced. "

"The Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation, a leading non-profit provider of environmental education for primary and secondary schools, is making its award-winning curriculum available free online. Kindergarten through second grade teachers can now access free Think Earth materials at www.thinkearth.org to teach students about the environment and the everyday behaviors that can help protect it. Updated Think Earth units for third grade will be available in September 2015, and grades four through eight are in development and will be available online in 2015 and 2016."

"SAN FRANCISCO - Many children in San Francisco do not have regular access to computers in school, let alone computer science classes. The school district is about to change that as it plans to become the first large urban school district in the country to commit itself to exposing every child to computer science starting in pre-kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. "We are not trying to produce an army of software engineers," said Bryan Twarek, SFUSD's computer science coordinator. "We want to open all doors to this industry, and right now those doors aren't open to everyone.""

"As educators, it is important to model ethical and responsible use of ICT for our students. As good digital citizens, when we are creating products in the classroom, we strive to use copyright-free music and images. That's where the site Freeplay Music really shines as a wonderful resource!"

Addition 1 is a simple math problem in addition for beginners using most-familiar fingers as manipulatives.

Fun Learning Educational Games, Videos, Activities for Kids in Kindergarten and First Grade

"Code.org, the non-profit group that offers a free tutorial in computer programming to students as early as kindergarten, is preparing to unveil its second annual "Hour of Code" lesson, but with an assist from Disney designed to attract more girls to participate. Disney Interactive teamed with Code.org to create a free lesson that teaches students to write computer code that enables Anna and Elsa, the two female characters from Disney's wildly popular "Frozen" movie, to draw snowflakes, snowmen and fractiles."