New Year, New Ideas - Time for Up & Down New York

With the whole toddler poetry thing coming to a standstill, I've moved on to bigger and better things for my little students for 2008. I've revised our curriculum... we will be reading Up & Down New York, a beautiful book by Tony Sarg from the 1920s. Remarkably, most if not all of the places Sarg featured back in 1926 can still be visited today. So one by one, Kelly, Molly and I will visit these 24 New York landmarks. In this social studies-based learning approach, we will also incorporate art, literature, science, etc. as it relates to that week's location. We'll also compare and contrast the then and now. I'm really excited, and hope the little ones share my enthusiasm for our revamped educational agenda!

Click here to read a review of Up & Down New York.

Click here to order Up and Down New York from Amazon.

Holiday Poem Time Again

I cant believe my last post was about thanksgiving poems, and now it's already time for winter solstice, holiday (hanukkah, christmas, kwanzaa) and new year's themed poems.

And TPCers out there with some great classics or contemporary finds to share?

Happy everything to one and all!

Toddler Poetry Community

Can this really be true? I just typed "toddler poetry community" into Google and this blog is the ONLY result that was returned. Now as happy as I am to be indexed, and to be an almost-sort-of a Googlewhack, what has happened to the rest of the TPCers? Just a few weeks ago, we were flooding servers! Demanding to be heard! And now, am I the lone person out there in all of cyberspace teaching my toddlers poetry?

At first this made me sad, to be alone in my poetry-focused toddler curriculum. But then I decided, perhaps it is too narrow to focus all of my educational efforts on poems of the day. And the kids are bored of it, that much is for sure. So starting next week I will be back with a more comprehensive educational agenda, perhaps one that more reflects the original city mom focus of this blog.

What do you think is the most important thing to teach kids? I'll take your ideas to form our first lesson plans here at Big City central.