This is Miles and Niles final year at Yawnee Valley Science and Letters Academy and the final book in this series.

Miles and Niles are still up to their fabulous pranks, but this year Principal Barkin wants to be a prankster, too. Principal Barkin’s pranks are very amateurish compared to Miles’ and Niles’. He wants to join their team of pranksters, but no. Then, Principal Barkin wants to repeatedly retain Miles and Niles so their pranks will continue.

Soon there is word the superintendent has past away, only to have Principal Barkin’s father , the former Principal Barkin, become the ‘acting superintendent’. Principal Barkin and Superintendent Barkin do not see eye to eye.

Superintendent Barkin purposely tells Miles he is moving away, even though his mother has asked Barkin to keep it from Miles. This puts a dark shadow over Miles when his mother says it’s true. Miles and Niles are both so discouraged by the news. They both secretly and individually pull off one last prank at Yawnee Valley Science and Letters Academy’s on the night of their graduation dance. Principal Barkin catches them in the prank, but applauds their prank against his father’s 1933 2nd place trophy. Only the three of them (Miles, Niles, and Principal Barkin) will probably ever know the trophy has been changed, and that is fine with them. ” ‘ A masterstroke,’ said Niles, ‘to our whole career.’ ” (205)

This book focuses on understanding social interactions between very young children.  It promotes positive social engagement and is divided into sections based upon age – infants, toddlers and older toddlers.  The book attempts to explain different types of “communication” in young children such as hitting or vocalizations. It also provides strategies for supporting peer relationships in how you step up the environment or what role the adult takes on during the play.  This book primarily contains theory and a few basic ideas about how to think about setting up positive interactions. Lots of good things to think about, but not a lot of day to day ideas to use with an individual child. (Written by Michele Neely, SpEd preschool teacher for the Olympia School District)

This book is an activity list of fun and simple things to do with little kids.  It is organized by a child’s age and has “lessons” that incorporate cognitive, motor, social-emotional, language and self-esteem elements of development.  The book stresses interaction with parents and hands-on learning rather than using devices or technology. Each activity is fully described, background information given as well as why it is important to development.  Each age range section also includes a list of basic developmental milestones for caregivers to reference and work toward. Most of the activities need only a few common materials found around the house. There are lots of good, engaging activities to keep little ones happy and learning. (Written by Michele Neely, SpEd preschool teacher for the Olympia School District)

This book provides a 30-item checklist that describes seven essential features of high-quality behavior-guidance policies for programs serving children birth to 8 years old (gleaned from many different research sources).  The book presents their philosophical approach to behavior guidance; how having a high-quality policy can support classroom activities; the research field on which the policy is based; 5-step process for putting the policies into action.  A big part of the book is the TAGPEC (which is a tool for rating the current behavior policies in a program and guides those that don’t yet have policies). The audience for this book appears to be for those interested in the theory of discipline policies and evaluating policies of a large site or school district program, rather than an individual teacher looking to make changes in her classroom (although, there are some applicable tidbits).  (Written by Michele Neely, SpEd preschool teacher for the Olympia School District)

This book views venturing out into the world as the purest form of hands-on learning for young children (3 years and younger) as it provides so many opportunities for language, reasoning and exploration.  The book is divided into 4 main sections: Home & Community, Vehicles, Animals, and Our World. There are over 50 different “adventures” included, and each has a 1-3 activities to do afterwards that might be art, math, pretend play, sensory play, science observations or songs.  The “adventures” listed are all toddler fun; most are free and easily accessible in everyday life. The activities listed have a clear description of supplies needed and are fun and engaging. Simple book, with lots of fun activities to get the toddler out of the house. (written by Michele Neely, SpEd Preschool teacher in the Olympia School District)

The aim of this book is to provide fun, interactive lesson plan ideas for early childhood classrooms (Kindergarten or younger) that help to embed the different art content (Music, Drama and Visual arts) into rich STEM learning.  It focuses on learning through exploration, observations, questioning and simple investigations. 4-5 lessons for each section include open-ended tasks, opportunities for social interaction and opportunities for reflection and elaboration.  The activities and descriptions are fairly simple and traditional (no new earth-shattering ideas) but it does make clear how it connects to the learning standards for each section. The pictures are in black and white, small and not very helpful.   (Written by Michele Neely, SpEd Pre school teacher, Olympia School District)