Let's Play!

Using Play-Based Curriculum to Support Children's Learning throughout the Domains

Intuitively all early childhood teachers know that play is an integral part of young childrens lives, and
that being able to play, both alone and with others, is a hallmark of childrens healthy development. We
also understand that play enhances childrens physical, social/emotional, and creative growth, and we
daily assess this growth by observing children at play.

We observe children playing both indoors and outrunning, jumping, climbing, playing ball, and
dancingand we note their increasing abilities to move with confidence and control, to balance their
bodies, and to utilize eye-hand coordination. As they build with small blocks and play with manipulative
toys, we observe the gradual strengthening of their small muscles.

We observe individual children engaged in different types of play at different times, and we quickly
notice that their play becomes more complex and more social as the year progresses. We are able to
assess childrens growing abilities to direct their own play, to make decisions about materials and props,
and to assert their own ideas and opinions about what they want to play. As children begin to play
interactively, we see growth in their abilities to follow the rules of a game, to take turns, to share
materials, and to begin to cooperatively solve problems that emerge during the play.

And finally, as we daily observe children drawing and painting, building and constructing, and engaged in
the process of hands-on creative play, often with little or no intervention from adults, we observe how
play supports their growing abilities to express themselves uniquely and creatively, to explore new
materials, and to use familiar materials in new and more complex ways.

What other types of learning does child-initiated play support? Can play also stimulate childrens
cognitive development, and therefore be useful in supporting the development of science, math,
language, and literacy skills?

The Role of Play in Childrens Cognitive Development
By taking a closer look at childrens play, we see that it does more than stimulate physical, social-
emotional, and creative development. Play is also the primary means by which children explore the
world, investigate its properties, and build an understanding about how the world works. Think about a
small group of children playing in the block area, building with wooden unit blocks. They begin by
attempting to stack different sizes and shapes of unit blocks on top of one another. Using the rug as a
surface, they arbitrarily place larger blocks on top of smaller blocks, rectangular blocks on top of
triangular blocks, and place the blocks haphazardly, so that the tower quickly falls. One of them has an
idea! Maybe, if we put on construction hats and look like real construction workers, the tower will stand
up better! They quickly agree to try it, put on the hats, and begin to build again. No luck! The building
still falls after only a few blocks have been added. Finally another child notices that the bottom block is
wiggly on the rug and they move the blocks to the harder surface of the floor. This time, they are able
to build a little higher than before. After a few more attempts they notice that smaller blocks seem to
stay on top of bigger blocks more steadily than the other way around, and they start to choose the sizes
of the blocks more carefully, placing the larger blocks at the bottom. Their building begins to get higher
and higher. They are so excited about their success that they call the teacher over to see.

How Play Meets Learning Objectives and Goals
Through this play, children actively pose problems, explore solutions, and develop understandings of
real world concepts of form and function. By comparing and contrasting information gained from each
new experience to what they already know, they are actively constructing their knowledge of the way
the world works.

At the same time, the children in the block area have already initiated a curriculum that addresses goals
and objectives in the areas of Scientific Knowledge and Scientific Skills and Methods (Head Start Child
Outcomes Framework.) Through their simple building play the children have been exploring the
properties of materials (the rug, the hard floor, and the different sizes and shapes of blocks.) They have
investigated cause and effect and drawn conclusions about significant events (whether or not they wear
construction hats doesnt matter; which size of blocks they choose does). They have noticed change and
seen patterns (hard surfaces are easier to build on; large blocks work better at the bottom), and in so
doing, they have begun to generate their own theories about how to build a tall tower. As they continue
to engage in this type of block play over an extended period, even without adult intervention, they will
continue to gain information about the properties of the blocks, generate new ideas and questions
about what works and what doesnt work, and gradually refine their theory of tower building.

How can the teacher take advantage of this role of play in supporting childrens cognitive development,
and further build on it? How can the teacher initiate further play experiences that will deepen the
science learning that has already begun, and also support learning in the domains of math, language,
and literacy, and meet required standards in all of these areas?

Building a Curriculum Based on Childrens Play
The teacher can take advantage of the childrens high interest and engagement in the block play by
planning an entire curriculum unit around the topic of Structures and incorporating her standards-
based goals and objectives for childrens learning into well-planned building play experiences. In order
to do this the teacher:

Sets up the environment to stimulate building play;
Provides drawing and writing materials for documentation of building play and concrete materials for
children to use in making three-dimensional representations of their buildings;
Creates time in the daily schedule for discussion and reflection on shared and individual building; and
Uses teaching strategies that help children reflect on their building and think more deeply about the
science involved.

Throughout these planned play experiences the teacher supports standards of mathematics (number
and operations, geometry and spatial sense, and patterns and measurement) by introducing these
concepts in a meaningful context. She also integrates language and literacy goals and objectives by
helping children to discuss and document their building play, and by providing fiction and non-fiction
books on the topic of building.

Setting Up the Environment to Stimulate Play
The teacher sets up the environment to stimulate building play by posting pictures of different types of
buildings both familiar and unfamiliar to the children (including towers); posting childrens drawings and
teachers photographs of their own buildings; and supplying a variety fiction and non-fiction books on
the topic of building. These will all serve to peak childrens interest in building and provoke discussions
about different forms (sizes, shapes, characteristics, building materials) and functions of buildings. By
creating an environment that invites children to build, the teacher will also get more children invested in
the building play, and will be able to individualize for childrens needs and interests within the context of
a group topic.

The teacher introduces a variety of building materials for children to explore including different sizes,
shapes, weights, and textures of blocks. She is careful to include wooden blocks of different shapes and
sizes, soft foam blocks, cardboard blocks, interlocking blocks, and other types of open-ended blocks. The
greater the variety of materials available, the wider the range of childrens building experiences will be,
and the more information they will have on which to base their generalizations and theories about
building.

She adds props for children to use with their buildings, like small people and animal figures, construction
and traffic signs, and construction costumes and hats. These props serve to stimulate more complex
building, will stimulate and support social/emotional and creative goals and objectives, and may also
draw in some children who prefer a socio-dramatic approach to their building activities.

Documentation of Play Experiences
Drawing and writing materials will be provided that support children to observe their buildings as they
draw them and focus on the physical aspects of their constructions. She also supports childrens
representations in a variety of media. For a Towers focus, the teacher may supply long pieces of paper
so the children can represent very tall buildings. She may tape these pieces of paper to the wall so that
children have an easier time of representing the height of their structures. Placing paper and markers
next to all building play areas in the classroom will invite children to draw plans (blueprints) for their
buildings as well as representations of finished buildings.

A camera is an invaluable tool for documentation of childrens building play since the photographs can
be used in a variety of ways. They can be used as props during group discussions to stimulate language
and introduce building vocabulary at a variety of levels like top, bottom, door, window, foundation, roof,
and scaffold; as well as providing a written record of the many and various structures that children build
over time. In a Towers focus, photographs provide a permanent record of tower heights for example.
This ongoing perspective allows children to compare and contrast building play experiences from
different days and among different groups of children.

A variety of small concrete objects and collage materials like straws, pipe cleaners, bottle caps, and
recyclables, as well as pieces of clay and tape for holding things together are invaluable in supporting
childrens play construction of three-dimensional representations of their primary buildings. By using
secondary materials to represent the same structures children encounter new challenges, gain new
information about building materials and their properties, and generate new ideas about how to handle
them.

Time for Discussion and Reflection on Play Experiences
Short periods of time set-aside during the day for children to come together are frequently built into the
preschool schedule. In a play-based curriculum some of this time will be needed for individual children
and small groups to share with the rest of the class what building play they have been engaged in, to
share successes and challenges, and to invite ideas from one another for dealing with building snafus.
This is a good time for the teacher to share photographs, drawings, or even concrete materials so that
children have visual props for describing their experiences or can even demonstrate aspects of the
building play they are describing verbally.

Teaching Strategies in a Play-based Curriculum
In order to focus on specific goals and objectives throughout the domains and to maximize standards-
based learning, the teacher will be an active, engaged participant in all building play. While children are
building, she will observe, support, and extend their play by asking open-ended questions related to the
concepts being explored. For example, the teacher may have asked the original tower builders, What
have you discovered about what helps your tower to stand up? or Do you think the shapes of the
blocks you are using make a difference? Once she has added a variety of building materials to the area
she may encourage children to think about whether hard or soft blocks work better for making tall
towers or which textures work better at the top or bottom of structures.

The teacher will want to plan specific activities that extend learning into the domains of math, language,
and literacy. In a building unit she may introduce an activity in which children measure their towers in a
variety of ways; by counting how many blocks they contain (rote-counting, counting objects, one-to-one
correspondence), or by using standard and non-standard measurement. Childrens multiple
representations of their buildings will provide teachable moments for comparing, contrasting, matching,
sorting, and sequencing activities. Fiction and non-fiction books on the topic, as well as the childrens
own documentation of their building play, will provide multiple opportunities for introducing goals and
objectives in the areas of alphabet knowledge, book knowledge and appreciation, print awareness and
concepts, and phonological awareness. Ongoing discussions about childrens building play will support
listening and understanding, and speaking and communicating.

The teacher will be the primary documenter of childrens discoveries, successes, and challenges and will
use this documentation in a number of ways to remind children of previous building experiences for
comparing and contrasting different play episodes or for guiding group discussions. The teacher will also
be able to use her notes as a foundation for individualizing building experiences for children at different
developmental levels and for assessing each childs progress in the domains throughout the unit.

The teacher may make suggestions about ways for children to extend their building play or to represent
their building experiences in new ways. For example, by providing new materials that children may not
have thought of, such as small pieces of clay or tape for holding small constructions together.
And ideally the teacher will combine different pieces of documentation to create a record of what
children are doing and learning during the unit for the children themselves, and for parents and other
interested adults. In a building unit the teacher may make a poster using photographs and drawings of
specific structures children have made, adding their dictation about how they made the structures, as
well as her own written goals and objectives for childrens learning in the domains.

Conclusion
Play is an active, child-initiated process that supports childrens learning throughout the domains of
physical, social/emotional, creative, science, math, language, and literacy. By taking advantage of the
highly engaging nature of childrens self-sustained play, and using this as a jumping off point for a
deeper exploration of the science concepts involved, teachers can generate curriculum units that both
integrate child-centered play and maximize childrens learning throughout these domains. By thoughtful
planning and the use of significant strategies to enhance childrens play experiences, they can integrate
specific learning goals and objectives for the group and for individuals, dramatically enhance childrens
learning, and meet standards for preschool outcomes in all areas.