This timely volume will help teachers on the front line to tackle the challenges they face in today's classrooms with children ages 3–8. The authors show how good project work can provide solutions to problems that seem overwhelming to many teachers of young children. They offer practical strategies with examples to maximize the benefits of project work in classrooms where teachers face these 5 key challenges:

1. Overcoming the ill effects of poverty
2. Moving young children towards literacy
3. Responding to children's special needs
4. Helping children learn a second language
5. Meeting standards effectively.

"Teachers can respond to challenges and at the same time help to set the foundations for the children's future by incorporating good project work into the early childhood curriculum."

—Excerpt from chapter by Lilian G. Katz

"Those committed to excellence in the teaching of young children will find the specific methods needed in this work. The teacher practices that increase achievement are all here."

—Martin Haberman, author of Star Teachers of Children in Poverty