This study investigated whether the types and amount of playful activity and thought exhibited from early childhood to adulthood are related to aspects of moral development, such as empathy, behavior, and reasoning. It explored whether the assertions of theorists such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Erikson regarding the facilitative effect of games with…

Throughout the school year I invited children in a Grade Two/Three learning strategies classroom to participate in a visual narrative inquiry. The intention was to explore children's knowledge of community in artful ways; the children photographed and wrote in what was often an iterative process, where writing/talking and photographing…

Discusses theater for young children that seeks the drama of taking the silence of an object and animating it, through imagination, into being. (RS)

Presents anecdotes that support the argument that detailed illustrations in children's books foster, rather than stifle, children's imaginations; discusses several of the author's book illustrations to show how details were used to open up the reader to the artist's personal world. (GT)

Encouraging children to create imaginary worlds through writing provides them with ways of coping with the world in which they live, gives them the satisfaction of creating order and experiencing success, and prompts their natural inclinations to plan for a better future. In addition, such planning for utopias can both improve the quality of…

Uses summaries and excerpts from ERIC documents to define fantasy, examine its attraction for children, and describe how fantasy may be selected and used in the elementary school classroom. (DD)

Presents several highly imaginative poems for the young reader and suggests that E. E. Cummings' poetry is suitable for children's reading tastes. (RB)

Evoking storytelling as a human tendency, suggests that stories involve sight, sound, rhythm, voice, and spontaneous imagination. Claims that because stories appeal to children's inner lives, they are optimal for communicating "life and human relationships and the totality of the natural world." Also claims that stories encourage…

Child's play may be at risk in today's technologically-oriented society. The limited interactive capacities of high-tech toys constrain the possibilities for cognitive development, interpersonal learning, and the quality of relationships that can be formed. Current high-tech toys change the nature of play, so that the object, rather than the…

A variety of classroom activities are offered in this paper as ways of exercising children's imaginations. Following a discussion of the need for developing creative thinking in children, some ways to establish the freedom or atmosphere to begin fantasies are offered and a guided fantasy technique for classroom use is outlined. The second half of…

Provides examples of student poetry about silence and about sounds that disturb or emphasize silence. Shows how imagination and listening skills can be combined in creative expression. (RL)

Examines how television viewing alters the way children learn and relate to their world. Describes Montessori's view of the learning process and the importance of the carefully arranged environment. Presents evidence that television interferes with learning and that reading assists the learning process. Differentiates the development of…

This anthology presents a selection of children's writing collected and discussed by ten teachers from Great Britain. Part one presents a variety of different types of children's writing. Part two includes examples of creative writing. Part three includes examples of informative writing. Part four presents the writing of four pupils, ages seven,…

The processes involved in drama and the dramatic play of children are essentially the same in that they rely on an imitation of nature, involve a transformation of reality through imagination, connect seemingly irrelevant elements creatively, and bring a temporary, limited order to an emotional experience. When child's play is used as a basis for…

This curriculum guide is intended to introduce elementary school students to the reading and writing of poetry. Poems by recognized poets make up the bulk of the selections in the guide, but some poems by elementary school students are also included. The writers hope that the teacher will use the guide to encourage students to write their own…