#stuart j. murphy

[vizlearning]

My Fabulous Pre-K Morning! A Visit to CCDC (Children’s Care & Development Center)

The morning I walked into CCDC, a preschool in Lincolnwood, IL, I was bowled over. I looked up and saw all the characters from my books! From children’s construction paper cut-outs on bulletin boards to schoolroom doorways decorated to look like the “houses” of the I See I Learn kids: Camille, Percy, Ajay, Freda, Emma and Carlos. In fact, the entire hallway was arranged as a town. It was incredible! It was like See and Learn City came to life! 

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do many school visits any more. (Over the years, I have been to more than 500 schools in 47 states and six foreign countries!) Knowing that I would already be in Chicago, CCDC director Susan Fahey—with whom I have presented twice at the National Head Start Association’s annual conference—asked if I could stop by. I had already digitally visited the school via Skype, but there is nothing quite like being actually in the room with young children reading stories together!

When I pulled out puppets modeled on the characters (prototypes), the children greeted them like old friends: “Good morning, Ajay!” “Good Morning, Freda!” 

I also had the opportunity to read some of my MathStart stories, each of which focuses on a different mathematical skill. That was great fun! The first 21 of the 63 books in the series are for Pre-K and K. Taken separately, they would rank among the largest early math series available. 

There is some interesting overlap between MathStart stories and I See I Learn books. Good social and emotional skills make it easier to learn everything, including math! 

So you see, it all kind of flows together. MathStart. I See I Learn. Young children. And learning. It’s great!

I hope you enjoy the video below as much as I enjoyed my visit to CCDC! 

— Stuart J. Murphy  

* Please follow me on Facebook, Twitter & Pinterest!

* Teachers / Adminstrators: Find out more about I See I Learn at School!

[vizlearning]

Creativity and Math? Of course!

People don’t often talk about creativity and math in the same sentence, yet the arts and creativity are critical to the study of mathematics, especially in the early years.

This is at the foundation of the STEM to STEAM movement. Although Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics can open the doors to all sorts of wonderful 21st century careers, our kids need the Arts to help them apply STEM skills creatively.

Our students need to be fully engaged in mathematics. They need to be:

creating math models
 writing math stories
 doodling and sketching about math
 and using multiple representations of mathematical ideas to express their thoughts There are lots of things we can do, both at home and at school, to be creative about teaching mathematics. In the short video embedded at the top of this post, there are several ideas, including some inspired by my MathStart stories. There is also a brilliant classroom activity involving some remarkably talented hamsters (!) courtesy of my good friend, fourth grade teacher Cathy Kuhns.

What are your favorite ways to teach math creatively? Please share! Send me note at [email protected]. I can’t wait to read all about them!

[vizlearning]

Merry Merry, Happy Happy!

- From the kids at Ready Set Pre-K!

(http://iseeilearn.com)

[vizlearning]

My Letter to the New York Times!

All the kids in in See-and-Learn City—me especially!—are so excited that my letter to the New York Times was published!

_______________________________

Helping Our Young Children Prepare for Life

TO THE EDITOR: "Teaching Peace in Elementary School" (Sunday Review, Nov. 15) reinforces the important message that teaching social and emotional skills must begin in the early childhood years.

There is increasing evidence that self-regulation, sharing, cooperation and the ability to interact in positive ways with others in pre-K and kindergarten are among the best predictors of success in school and in life. These capabilities extend well beyond the scope of social-emotional issues and have a positive effect on problem-solving, decision-making and other academic pursuits.

They also help build empathy and character and are critical skills to possess in our ever-changing world.

Parents, teachers and caregivers must make the acquisition of these skills a priority by modeling related behaviors and providing the experiences and tools needed to make this happen.

—Stuart J. Murphy

_______________________________

My I See I Learn books were developed to help parents, teachers and caregivers teach young children these important skills through a combination of simple stories and visual learning strategies. “For happier, healthier, more confident children” reads the tagline. Yes!!!

[vizlearning]

It’s Earth Day! Hooray!

Those clever kids from Maple Street School’s Save-the-Planet Club! Have you heard what they did? No? Well, when they cleaned up Gilroy Park, they took all the cans they found to the local recycling center. They also held a collection drive for more cans at school. They collected so many cans, they grouped them in bags of 10, 100  and even 1,000 cans. Can you imagine? Not only did they clean up the park and learn about place value, but they also made enough money to buy flowers to plant! Win, win, win! You can read all about it in my MathStart story, Earth Day—Hooray!

Do you collect cans and recycle paper and plastic bags at your school?  

••••••••••••••••••••••••

Some Facts About Aluminum Cans: 

Recyclers pay $800,000,000 for cans to recycle each year, but nearly a billion dollars-worth still end up in landfills. 

Recycling aluminum takes just 5% of the energy needed to refine aluminum from ore.  Aluminum can be recycled over and over, too!

Nearly 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

More than 100,000 aluminum cans are recycled in the US every minute.

It takes 60 days for a can to go from store to home to recycler to a new can!

Let’s all do our part and make every day Earth Day. Hooray!

—Stuart J. Murphy

[vizlearning]

Making New Friends: My Visit to Beginnings School

I met Dr. Donna Housman, a clinical psychologist and founder of Beginnings School in Weston, Massachusetts, at a public hearing regarding the state adoption of Preschool and Kindergarten standards for Social and Emotional Development and Approaches to Play and Learning. We each gave testimony at the hearing and soon realized that we had many common interests! Afterwards,  we began talking and Donna invited me to visit her school. 

From the moment I walked in the door, it was evident that Beginnings lives up to its motto: “A Child’s Place for Discovery.” The school serves children ages three months through Kindergarten, providing a warm and inviting environment for learning. 

I presented to two classrooms. The children were very good listeners! They loved Seaweed Soup, my Mathstart story about matching sets—and the smelliest, tastiest soup ever! We also read Camille’s Team together, an I See I Learn story about cooperation. They had lots of questions for me, which was delightful!

Donna and I had a chance to visit again after the readings. My visit to Beginnings is clearly the beginning of a wonderful friendship. 

Thank you Beginnings!

— Stuart J. Murphy

[vizlearning]

A School Visit in Cuba!

On a recent trip to Cuba, I had the chance to visit the elementary school in Las Terrazas, a sustainable community in the mountains of the Sierra del Rosario Biosphere Reserve.  Well-known for its massive reforestation project, Las Terrazas also has an ambitious program that encourages small-scale private entrepreneurship. 

The community is home to just over 1,000 people and maintains a progressive Pre-Kindergarten through 6th Grade school for its families.

We walked into the 3rd Grade classroom at the perfect moment. They were about to begin their English class. I was introduced to the students as an author from the United States. I brought about 25 books with me, a mix a titles from my MathStart and I See I Learn series.  These were given as a donation to the school.

I was asked to read a story to the students. I had both the English and Spanish editions of Percy Gets Upset and selected that as the book I would read. I read a few pages in English, acting out the key words in the story, such as “frustrated” and “grouchy.” I also focused on the strategies to stop being upset, including calming down and counting to ten. As I finished each sequence, the teacher would read the same pages in Spanish.  The students were a little shy at first, but it wasn’t long before they got into the story and had a great time. At the end, I received a big round of applause and I’m sure that Percy will soon be their Best Friend Forever!

— Stuart J. Murphy

[vizlearning]

#NHSA15 - Fabulous!

We had a full room for our presentation, What THEY See Is What YOU Get: Modeling Positive Behaviors! 

I started by providing some background, covering the critical topics of Intentional Instruction and and Visual and Contextual Learning. Camille's Team, the I See I Learn story about cooperation, was used to demonstrate teaching social and emotional skills with intent—with specific goals in mind—and utilizing strategies so that young children see and understand how the skills work and can be applied in their own lives.

Susan Fahey, director of a terrific Pre-K near Chicago called the Children’s Care and Development Center (CCDC),  followed by showing those kinds of activities in practice. Through videos, her teachers talked about the power of storybooks to model social and emotional skills, and specifically of the effectiveness of the I See I Learn at School program. Then, we saw video of young students acting out stories, role playing, talking about their favorite characters and describing the skills they had learned.

The session ended with an active Q+A and a plan of action for putting the main points that were presented into action. It was a full, fun-filled hour!

— Stuart J. Murphy