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Early Childhood Education (EARL)

This guide is intended for students in the Early Childhood Education program. It will help you locate children's picture books in the Library collection, and conduct research using our online databases.

What is the Early Childhood Education (ECE) Collection?

The Early Childhood Education (ECE) Collection is a small collection of resources designed for the ECE major.  You can find these materials in the Media Tower at Mack Library (Bethlehem campus), next to the children's book collection, or in the Children's Book section of the ESSA Library (Monroe Campus).  Look for a sign that says ECE on the bookcase.

The ECE collection contains books to help with lesson planning, crafts, activities, storytimes, and more.

Search the ECE Collection in the Library's Catalog

You can easily search this collection in the Library Catalog by changing the Shelf Location box to Early Childhood Education Collection and typing in your search terms:

Selected Titles From the ECE Collection

Dribble Drabble

Author: Deya Brashears Hill
Year: 2016
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"Creative art should offer children the opportunities for originality, creativity, fluency, flexibility, and sensitivity. There is no right or wrong way of doing things in art. This collection of activities focuses on the process and not the finished product, to allow for growth and fun. All activities are easily adaptable for children from ages two to eight"--Publisher's description.

Game On! Screen-free Fun for Children Two & Up

Author: Linda Armstrong
Year: 2018
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"This book is a collection of screen-free, traditional games and activities for young children that require nothing more than people, minimal materials, and their brains to play. All games and activities are adaptable according to the age of the children, their interests, and their abilities"--Publisher's description.

Joy of Movement: Lesson Plans & Large-Motor Activities for Preschoolers

Author: Mary Lynn Hafner
Year: 2018
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"This preschool movement activity book provides a therapeutic perspective. The combination of old and new games creates a purpose-driven physical motor curriculum. Each activity has been kid-tested. This well-organized and easy-to-use book includes fun, developmentally appropriate activities that foster physical development and build self-esteem. The activities are built around developmental motor milestones and are flexible enough to encourage skill development for a variety of learners"--Publisher's description.

A Little Drama

Author: Lavinia Roberts
Year: 2018
Location: Bethlehem
"The perfect resource for promoting children's social-emotional learning through more than 200 theater and drama activities across the early childhood curriculum"--Publisher's description.

Loose Parts 3: Inspiring Culturally Sustainable Environments

Author: Miriam Beloglovsky
Year: 2018
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"Loose Parts 3 contains inspiration and guidance on how to create early childhood environments that are culturally sensitive. Authors Lisa Daly and Miriam Beloglovsky gathered a multicultural advisory board to help identify opportunities to promote cultural sustainability, while avoiding generalization and bias"--Publisher's description.

Nature-Based Learning for Young Children: Anytime, Anywhere, On Any Budget

Author: Julie Powers
Year: 2019
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"This book is designed to provide ideas for all early childhood educators, ranging from novice to highly experienced, in a wide range of ecosystems, including forests, cities, prairies, coastal, urban, and deserts. It includes background information on a range of nature topics; reproducible parent newsletters; sample play-based lesson plans; guidance on health and safety issues related to nature activities; ideas for free/inexpensive equipment and materials, and for big-ticket items; ideas for family involvement; and connections to early childhood learning standards. Chapters are divided by nature topic, so readers can dip in right away where they want to start exploring"--Publisher's description.

Play Today

Author: Ann Barbour
Year: 2016
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"When young children are engaged in imaginative play, they are not just having fun; they are developing skills and concepts that are foundational to their learning. Teachers can get the most out of this critical development time with thoughtful preparations that allow children to freely explore their creativity and learn from each other. Using simple props and donated items, this book shows how childcare centers can be transformed into rich and rewarding learning spaces for children. 'Play Today' offers dozens of easy-to-do scenarios that will spark open-ended play explorations that help boost many aspects of brain development, including memory and flexible thinking; communication; social-emotional skills; mathematics; science; and literacy"--Publisher's description.

Playful Activities for Reading Readiness

Author: Latisha Hayes
Year: 2022
Location: Bethlehem
"Did you know play supports children's skill building, from language and literacy to memory and math? Through play, children can experiment with words and concepts, express emotions and ideas, and make connections. Playful Activities for Reading Readiness offers purposeful, play-based activities to develop the foundational literacy and language skills young children need to succeed in school. [...] Full of hands-on, use-tomorrow activities, ideas for extended practice in centers, literacy connections, and real-life classroom examples... correlated to the Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework and kindergarten Common Core State Standards"--Publisher's description.

STEM Play: Integrating Inquiry Into Learning Centers

Author: Deirdre Englehart
Year: 2016
Location: Bethlehem & Monroe
"This book approaches learning centers through the STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) lens, and shares how these themes can be integrated into centers to promote creativity and higher-level thinking. The text provides varied activities for the most common centers: art, blocks, dramatic play, literacy, math, science, music, and movement. Full of full-color photos that show the activities in real early childhood classrooms, teachers can easily use the book's ideas immediately in their curriculum"--Publisher's description.

Free Resources from Publishers

Some book publishers list free resources and activities that you can use for your assignments.