THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAY
Our research and experience tells us that young children learn more through direct interactive experiences than through just listening to someone talk. That’s simply an educated way of saying that we value play! As you become familiar with our program you may be inclined to think that all the children do here is play. At good early childhood programs there is a lot of play – and there should be.
Play fulfills children’s natural desire to move and touch. Through play, children create their own themes, test ideas, solve problems, learn to see other’s points of view, use language, develop muscle coordination, explore their environment, and make discoveries.
Our children have several opportunities throughout each day. As teachers, we have several roles during free choice play. First, it is our job to establish the environment. We recommend parents to provide a variety of toys and materials especially chosen for the children to use. These toys and tools beckon one to explore and discover, to use one’s senses, to build and manipulate, and to cooperate with others. Our other role is that of facilitator – to help extend the play so that it becomes more interesting and more imaginative. It is not our role to control play, but to encourage and extend it.
Built into our daily routine is also a time we refer to as “group time.” This is the time during the day when each teacher implements a curriculum that has been designed for his/her group of children. Although this time includes some direct teaching, it is mainly filled with additional opportunities to explore one’s environment, to create, to discover, to participate, and to gain ideas and increase awareness and understandings about the world around us. Woven into our curriculum are activities and/or concepts involving art, music, drama, science, math, large and small motor development, literacy and language.
What we hope you see are children actively involved and exploring their surroundings. We hope you hear the sounds of laughter, the sounds of music and children’s voices active in play. Active learning is sometimes messy and often noisy. It is always relevant and consistently interesting.