Theme Play: Exciting Young Imaginations » (New Edition)

GARY ZINGHER has engaged children in thematic journeys in a number of settings. He has been the library media specialist at Corlears School, Manhattan Country School, and Bank Street College Children's School; the imagination consultant at the Children's Workshop School; a play therapist at St. Luke's Hospital; and the creative arts director at Camp Vacamas in West Milford, N.J. He co-developed and co-taught the New Perspectives course, "Creative Library Programs for Children" at the Bank Street College Of Education, and has led imagination workshops at Columbia Teacher's College, Pacific Oaks College, St. John's University, and the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He is the author of At the Pirate Academy: Adventures with Language in the Library Media Center (1990). His column, "Thematic Journeys" appears in School Library Media Activities Monthly. He also writes for Crinkles and Novelist.

Out of his years of experience in working with children, Zingher identifies some of the powerful and evocative themes of childhood, and explores why these touch children so deeply. He encourages professionals who work with children in school, camp, club and library settings to consider using these themes to develop thoughtful and creative programs and units of study. Included are recommended books and videos that illustrate each theme, questions for discussion, possible starting points (readalouds, stories to be told, sensory experiences, interesting objects, etc.), follow-up activities, and examples of fully described and developed thematic journeys. In this time of standards and accountability, this book reminds us of the joy of teaching and learning, and the power of the imagination.