This article explores how young children can play active roles as researchers, explorers, and designers of their outdoor environment. It introduces the Mosaic approach, a framework for listening and responding to young children's perspectives, first developed in a study in a London preschool in 1999 (Clark & Moss 2001). The author used this…

Vivian Gussin Paley, a MacArthur Award-winning author and former kindergarten teacher, has written 12 books that chronicle her work in promoting the fantasy play of young children. A major focus of her books is a process that she developed called "Doing Stories" or "Storytelling/Story Acting" (ST/SA). The ST/SA process requires only that teachers…

Many children have struggled to cope with the traumatic experiences brought about by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. This article recounts how the authors intervened in the lives of children and families after the storms. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper reports a self-study of developing an integrated play-based pedagogy in a preservice early childhood teacher education subject about play. It is framed by understandings of play in children's lives and adult learning. The self-study was initially driven by a contradiction between teaching preservice teachers about play through didactic…

Educators and education advocates have recently acknowledged that the ability to think systemically is one of the necessary skills for success in the 21st century. Game-making is especially well-suited to encouraging meta-level reflection on the skills and processes that designer-players use in building such systems. Membership in a community of…

Maryellen G. Paquette reveals the excitement and learning that can occur when high school students are presented with multiple opportunities to play. Activities that employ playful language and the whole body allow students to embody, name, and identify with complicated emotions and situations in Shakespeare's plays. In addition, play can be…

Staff at the Frank Porter Graham (FPG) Child Care Program developed the zone model of playground supervision (ZoMPS) to ensure a safe environment for outdoor play and enhance playground time for all children. In addition to the social and free-play elements of outdoor play, they wanted to provide activities that support learning and development.…

A theory of the dynamics of dyadic interaction is presented, based on the concepts of "concern" (i.e., intentions, goals, and interests), "appraisal" and "contagiousness." Differences between children who participate in a specific interaction are linked to differences in social competence and social power. An overview is given of the social…

Because sensorimotor and environmental factors have a profound effect on children's learning, every teacher should know how to weave strategies from occupational therapy (OT) into their everyday instruction. This is the guidebook K-3 teachers need to "think like an OT"--and form effective partnerships with OTs in their schools--so all students can…

This paper examines some personal and interpersonal issues concerning group work and informal learning in the music classroom. It analyses data from a recent research project, which adopted and adapted the informal music learning practices of popular musicians, for use in the classroom. The discussion focuses on three aspects of the project.…

The purpose of the present study was to explore the effect of both short- and long term Child-Centered Play Therapy on teacher-student relationship stress. Teachers identified 58 students exhibiting emotional and behavioral difficulties who were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups. Students in the short-term intensive play therapy…

This study examined and compared the effectiveness of a simultaneous prompting procedure used in both 1:1 and small group instruction to teach pretend play skills to a group of preschool students, three having a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder and one having a diagnosis of severe developmental disabilities. The study also assessed…

Play is the spontaneous or organized recreational activity of children; it is at the heart of the preschool curriculum. Play aids in the development of physical, intellectual, and social skills. Children's play progresses through three developmental stages: solitary, parallel, and social. Preschool teachers should arrange for four kinds of…

Considering the creation of proper play areas for children (school sites, municipal and mini parks, private homes and backyards, shopping centers, apartment complexes, recreational areas, roadside parks, nursery schools, churches, summer camps, and drive-in theaters) as one of today's major challenges, the author recommends that professional…

This study examined the effects of sex, structure, and social interaction on 18 white middle class children, nine boys and nine girls, attending a daycare center. The children were observed over a 6-week period during a 2 1/2-hour free-play time. Results showed that both sexes equally apportion all types of free-play time behavior, show the same…