Curriculum Materials Center

Big Books are used in the teaching of reading as a means to make the reading process visible and accessible to all children. The CMC has a selection of big books of stories such as those written by Joy Cowley. We are also collecting big books in the areas of science, social studies and Spanish language.

We currently collect a selection of the teacher’s editions of textbooks in all subjects taught in grades K-12. We acquire those texts that are written to the NY state standards where possible as well as those that are widely used in districts across Long Island. We attempt to offer the newer editions of these texts and a variety of texts from different well-used publishers.

We have a selection of popular games such as “Scrabble” and “Candy land” as well as educational games such as “Made for Trade” (a game about early American life), “Spanish Bingo” and “Blokus” (a pattern building game).

For many students, especially elementary students, tactile learning is imperative to the learning process. We have a variety of manipulatives for all subjects such as math manipulatives (ie. base 10 blocks, inchworm pattern pieces, flash cards and gears), tessellation blocks, plastic body parts, puppets and musical instruments.

We have a collection of science realia such as volcanic ash, sea shells, sand and marine invertebrates.

In our collection we have all of the Caldecott and Newbery award winning books as well as the classics that are often taught in schools. It is our goal to collect books that address the many issues important to modern children and young adults including those books which have been challenged. We also have a variety of picture books that teach math, science and social studies concepts, character education and foreign language. For our counseling interns there is a bibliotherapeutic collection.

In addition to the reference works we have online such as World Book encyclopedia online we have several reference works, in print, for children such as World Book, About the Author, Books to Read Aloud, Index to Fairy Tales, Children’s Books From A-Z and foreign language dictionaries. There are also some professional works such as the teacher preparation guides for state certification tests.

While we don’t house every journal owned by Hofstra University many of the journals used by practicing teachers are housed here in the CMC such as Science Scope, Mathematics Teacher, Social Education, School Library Journal and The Reading Teacher. The librarian can also help you find articles on education through Hofstra’s online databases.

We have a new, updated collection of these games intended for use by counselors (or counselors-in-training). The games address issues such as bullying, self-esteem, divorce and self-control. See the circulation desk for a chart that illustrates which issues and grade levels each game addresses.

We have a growing collection of some of the best recommended software available such as the Decisions, Decisions collection and Mathblaster.