Special Topics

Learn about outdoor preschools, bilingual programs, technology in early education, inclusive practices, and emerging trends shaping today’s early childhood classrooms.

A smiling child with Down syndrome holds up both hands covered in brightly colored paint, showing joy and creativity in an inclusive preschool classroom. The plain, light background keeps the focus on the child’s happiness and artistic expression.

Inclusive Preschool Classrooms: Supporting All Learners

A young boy with blonde hair wearing a green plaid shirt sits at a table, focused on using a tablet with a black case—the digital preschooler in a bright, softly blurred background.

The Digital Preschooler: Healthy Screen Time & Alternatives

Two young girls wearing glasses and colorful clothes sit at a table in an inclusive preschool library, drawing and coloring with pencils and crayons on paper, surrounded by books and art supplies.

Inclusive Preschool Environments: Support All Young Learners

Vibrant cut-out balloons feature their color names in English and Spanish, making them perfect for a bilingual preschool learning environment. Colors include red/rojo, purple/morado, black/negro, brown/marrón, and more.

Bilingual Preschool: Early Second Language (Brain Benefits)

Outdoor preschool classroom scene with a wooden easel and chalkboard, bins of picture books, colored pencils, and activity supplies arranged on artificial grass; shelves and greenery visible in the background.

Outdoor Preschool Benefits: Why It Helps Children Thrive

An adult holds a card with a drawing of a smiling face labeled excited while a young girl in pink and blue overalls smiles in the background, suggesting a social emotional learning or therapy activity.

Social Emotional Learning in Preschool (Activities for EQ)

A young child wearing a yellow jacket and blue backpack crouches in a forest, closely examining green ferns with a magnifying glass—an experience inspired by a nature-based curriculum—on a sunny day.

Nature-Based Curriculum: Bringing the Outdoors Into Subjects

A young girl wearing a virtual reality headset raises her arms in a classroom, while a smiling teacher assists her. Other children in the background join immersive virtual field trips and interact with educational activities.

Virtual Field Trips: Expanding Children’s Worlds with Tech

Three young children sit together at a table, smiling and looking at a laptop screen, appearing engaged as they explore the basics of digital citizenship.

Digital Citizenship for Preschoolers: Safe Technology Use

Young children sit on the floor, hands pressed together in a prayer-like gesture, practicing mindfulness as they attentively look toward an adult out of view. The setting appears to be a classroom or daycare.

15 Mindfulness Activities for Preschoolers for Calm & Focus

A group of young children smile and interact with a woman, likely a teacher, who is sitting and high-fiving one of them in a colorful classroom, embodying trauma-informed teaching practices.

Trauma-Informed Teaching: Preschool Gentle Practices

A young boy wearing glasses and a red bow tie stands in front of a chalkboard covered in greetings from different languages, smiling and giving two thumbs up—celebrating the joys of dual language learning.

Dual Language Learning: Supporting Multilingual Learners

A smiling woman in a Santa hat helps two young girls with holiday crafts, sharing the joy of cultural celebrations at a table covered with colored paper and decorations. One girl wears reindeer antlers, while the other smiles up with paint on her hands.

Cultural Celebrations in Preschool: Ways to Honor Diversity

A bright, organized Montessori classroom with eco-friendly wooden shelves, educational materials, plants, child-sized tables and chairs, and sunlight streaming through windows with colorful curtains.

Eco-Friendly Classrooms: Practices to Inspire Responsibility

A young girl in a blue jacket uses a small hammer on a log at a forest preschool, while another child in green is blurred in the foreground. The scene takes place in a wooded area.

Forest Preschool: All-Weather Outdoor Benefits for Children

A smartphone with a white screen displays the words screen time in colorful, playful letters. The phone, angled against a plain background, highlights the concept of tracking daily screen time.

Preschool Screen Time Guidelines: Finding a Healthy Balance