At an early age, young children often wonder why they must go to school. They may see the connection between practice and their ability to kick a soccer ball or to play a musical instrument, but seldom know the answer to the question, "Why is school important?" Elementary teachers can give young children the opportunity to learn that…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) lays out "a vision of what it means to be a literate person in the twenty-first century." Among educators, conversations about reading and writing have shifted to reflect the CCSS emphasis on informational, technical, opinion, and other non-narrative forms. Yet, these standards also demand that…

At its best, service learning involves students making meaningful connections to their own community and feeling empowered by the experience. Unfortunately, in the elementary years, student service-learning is often a one-shot effort in which adults make decisions for children, preventing them from truly having a hand in the project's direction…

Children's economic reasoning follows a developmental sequence in which their ideas about money and other basic economic concepts are forming. Even children in the early primary grades can learn some basic economics and retain understanding of economic concepts if they are taught in developmentally appropriate ways. Given how important economic…

A podcast is an audio file published to the Internet for playback on mobile devices and personal computers; the meaning of the term has expanded to include video files, or "enhanced podcasts" as well. Many students are already engaged with digital technologies when they first step into early childhood classrooms. Children as young as three years…

It is vital for young students to see how the lives of the veterans connect to their own lives. In this article, the author describes a project of making history come alive. The project started with a visit to the Otterbein Cemetery mausoleum to learn about the U.S. military veterans interred there. These veterans represented a century of U.S.…

Teaching social studies for understanding is complicated and challenging, but is rewarding when done effectively because students often exceed expectations. They construct understandings of the content, acquire a language to talk about it, and find a host of examples for applying it to their lives. Barbara Knighton, one of the authors of this…

Ray, a preservice teacher in Indiana, and Maxine, a 35-year teaching veteran in Hawai'i, set up a pen-pal program for the third grade students in their respective classrooms, 4,000 miles apart. This pen-pal program, used in conjunction with children's literature and community and technology resources, brought about memorable learning experiences.…

What happens when three primary-grade teachers, whose schools are located in Tennessee, Texas, and Michigan, decide to teach a unit of instruction focusing upon the same cultural universal (the human need for shelter) at the same time? How do the teachers use the Internet to share with each other their geographically and socio-economically diverse…