Back in the 1960s and 1970s, more than 99% of children's drawings depicted scientists as male. Specifically, only 28 out of 5,000 pictures showed scientists as female--all drawn by girls.

Thankfully, things have changed since then--but perhaps not enough.

In Kindergarten, children draw roughly the same number of male and female scientists. Girls tend to draw females, and boys tend to draw males. Then things shift dramatically. According to the education foundation Edutopia, a recent review of the research shows that "70 percent of 6-year-old girls draw a woman, while only 25 percent of 16-year-old girls do.

The article offers six tips for promoting gender inclusion in the sciences, each with a link to resources or research. They include intentionally sharing books that feature inspiring girls and women in science. (In a 2018 study, researchers found children's books depicted male scientists three times more often.) Another tip: encourage a growth mindset--in other words, emphasize that all students have the capacity to do science. ("Girls as young as six are willing to put more girls than boys in the category of "really, really smart.")

Click here to read more, including the other four tips.

The Atlantic magazine also ran an article on this topic, if you're interested in knowing more.

So says education professor Kathy Liu Sun writing for Education Week. For the last five years she's been working with Pre-K through second grade teachers, and she's concerned about the pressures teachers feel to meet standards and misconceptions about what it takes to learn math. "...instruction in the early grades is too often becoming more like traditional high school math classes. I have seen Kindergarten and first grade teachers giving short lectures followed by having children complete worksheets filled with math problems."

Instead, Sun suggests offering children opportunities to explore mathematical ideas in playful ways. In particular, she says, they need opportunities to engage with problem-solving where there are many possible solutions. "Our goal is to support them to develop perseverance, confidence and critical thinking skills." 

Read more.

If you would like some specific ideas for developmentally appropriate math in your classroom, sign up for our One-Day Summer Institute  and take advantage of  "Playing With Math in Mind," a session being offered by one of Long Island's most knowledgeable early childhood educators, Joan Rocchetta from the Child Care Council of Suffolk, Inc.

The registration link has just gone live for this year's full-day conference, to be held November 5 at the Crest Hollow Country Club. Keynote: Walter Gilliam from Yale University. Many more details will be released soon, but in the meantime you can be the first in line. 

 REGISTER NOW!

It's paradoxical but true: one of the best ways to help young children pay attention is to offer a "brain break"-- intentionally designed activities that prime them for learning. Writing for edutopia, Lori Desautels describes some specific "focused attention" practices that may be a little different from the activity breaks that you're familiar with. For example: she suggests asking students to lay on their bellies and move their arms and legs, as if they were swimming. Then ask them to lay still and pretend they're floating. Or give each student two small paper cups, fill one with water and ask them to pour the water back and forth. (We assume this is an outdoor activity.)

The goal: creating a state of relaxed alertness. Activities like these brain breaks help children slow down and focus, enhancing their executive functions and emotional regulation. 

Read more.

Looking for specifics on ways to introduce movement into your Pre-K or K day? A downloadable book (113 pages) from the Iowa Department of Education offers a quick rundown of the research, a chart showing the best time to introduce different motor skills, and 57 detailed activities, including some developed to aid transitions.

For example, the authors remind us that you can turn a read-aloud into a movement/motor skills exercise by assigning actions to certain words or phrases. If the word is "climb," students can bring their knees up and use their arms as if they're climbing a ladder; for "slide," bend both knees and move their body and arms as if they were skiing, etc.

Child development expert Rae Pica lists seven reasons that early educators are seeing more children acting out and acting up. And you won't be surprised to learn that several are connected to lack of physical activity. For one thing, they don't have enough time to play. ("Can you imagine if we insisted kittens and puppies stay still?") For another, they're spending too many hours in front of screens. (Many children--even young children--are leading sedentary lives filled with virtual relationships.)

Pica sums it up this way: "How could all of these circumstances not lead to defiance? Defiance is often the only way young children are able to push back. To express themselves."

Read more.