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“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.” - Mr. Fred Rogers

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Rationale for Inclusion of Play in the Early Childhood Curriculum

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Rationale for Inclusion of Play in the Early Childhood Curriculum

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Play is used as a learning tool to develop children's language, emotions, social interactions, cognitive abilities, and physical abilities.
"...play helps children build self-confidence. When children are free to explore their ideas in a non-judgmental space, they’ll be better able to trust themselves and their ideas. Children can also learn social skills when they are playing with their peers. Plus, spontaneous play helps children learn to cope with stress in healthy ways by teaching them to think flexibly. Play may also have an important role in intellectual development, according to Harvard educators. When children are given time to play, they experience growth in memory, language, and symbol recognition skills. Playtime is also linked to learning readiness, which means that students can feel more engaged and prepared in class. Best of all, play gives children the opportunity to think creatively."(Waterford.org)

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"Play helps children develop cognitive skills—thought processes of learning. These include remembering, problem solving, making decisions, processing information, and learning language"(National Association for the Education of Young Children).

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Social Development: "Playing with others means noticing social cues, listening, and taking another person’s perspective — key aspects to developing empathy. Social play also requires children to share ideas and express feelings while negotiating and reaching compromises"(Shafer)

Emotional Development: "...children learn self-regulation as they follow norms and pay attention while experiencing feelings such as anticipation or frustration. Play also teaches children how to set and change rules, and how to decide when to lead and when to follow"(Shafer).

Physical Development: "In sports, outdoor games, and dance, children develop strength, muscle control, coordination, and reflexes. They push limits and try new things — racing down a hill, swimming underwater — that can motivate them to take risks in other circumstances"(Shafer).

Language Development: "To develop language for meaningful communication, children must have mental imagery, representational and thinking skills" (Westby, 1980).

Cognitive Development: "Children at play are solving problems, creating, experimenting, thinking and learning all the time"(raisingchildren.net.au).

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1. Language Arts
2. Social Studies

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Big Idea 1: Social Studies Dramatic Play: Grocery Store

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Big Idea 1: Social Studies Dramatic Play: Grocery Store

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Standard: Standard - 6.3.K.D

Identify products produced in the region or state.

Objective: The students will be able to identify different foods from different cultures from their previous knowledge. Through interacting with different students they will learn about more cultural differences and important foods in other cultures that come from their values and traditions. Additionally, by interacting with other students they will learn how interactions and conversations can differ based on the culture and environment that they come from. "When children engage in dramatic play, they are practicing telling stories in a sensible order, using rich vocabulary, and writing"(Shafer).

Materials: Pretend food, pretend money, shelves, dollar bills, coins, register, shopping basket, signs, shopping carts.

Activity Description: The students will be assigned roles for the grocery store. Some of these roles will include customers and store clerks. The students will learn about different cultural foods that will be provided in the store and how that food can represent a culture and their traditions. They will be able to interact with each other and work on their conversation skills.

Assessment: This grocery store dramatic play center will help the students learn about different foods from different cultures. "Naturally, by exposing students to a diverse range of opinions, thoughts, and cultural backgrounds, you’re encouraging them to be more open-minded later in life. This will make them open to new ideas and be able to attain a greater comprehension on a topic by taking in different points of view."

"When children engage in dramatic play, they are practicing telling stories in a sensible order, using rich vocabulary, and writing"(Shafer).

Adaptations and Supporting Students with Special Needs:
It is important for all of the students to be engaged in a dramatic play center. Some things that should be considered is if the dramatic play center is accessible to everyone. Making sure there is enough space in the center for students in a wheelchair or walker, allowing students to help asses a student with a disability in the dramatic play center, and making sure every item is labeled and has a correct spot in the center so it can be easy to spot/ accessible are all adaptations that can be done in the grocery store.

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Big Idea 2: Language Arts Center: Vocabulary Development 

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Big Idea 2: Language Arts Center: Vocabulary Development 

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Standard: CC.1.2.PREK.C With prompting and support, make connections between information in a text and personal experiences.

Objectives: Students will be able to participate in shared viewing experiences, as well as listen to a variety of stories by following simple directions.

Materials: ("Metropolitan Cow" by Tim Egan, "Metropolitan Cow" video, Paper with cow shapes on it, Pre-cut facial features on paper, Glue, Coloring materials

Activity Description: Watch the video and discuss with the students whether or not Bennett was a good friend and what parts of the video and book show it. Then, students will create their own cow by gluing paper cut-outs of facial features onto the cow to decorate it however they would like.

Assessment: I will place the cows around the room to showcase the students' work and discuss the importance of being a good friend and qualities of a good friend. The students can even write names of their friends on the back of the cow and explain why they are good friends of theirs.

Adaptations and Supporting Students with Special Needs: Subtitles can be used in the video for students who have a hearing disabilities. If there is a sight disability, they will be able to hear the words spoken. This activity is very adaptable for all types of children and a great way to learn about friendship through literature.

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Emotions for Kids - Happiness, Sadness, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Surprise

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcZvAL-eO4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIX_m44zcGA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQGmL6jYqpA

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Supporting Children with Special Needs Through Adaptations

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Supporting Children with Special Needs Through Adaptations

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It is important to create different adaptations and modifications for the students that come into the classroom with special needs or intellectual disabilities. Some examples of this could be extra help in the classroom, bigger print on worksheets, or a quiet work corner. There will be many different students that come into the classroom and it is important to provide them all materials available for them to be successful.

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"Keeping the calming corner inside of the classroom helps to ensure that the behavior does not become an avoidance tactic for difficult tasks. It also helps to promote and encourage self-calming strategies"(The Watson Institute).

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I contributed to the Padlet's book shelf. I found a few books that I felt were able to relate to Metropolitan Cow. The books I chose all were about culture and friendship.

The next way that I contributed to this project was that I chose the cultural videos to display. All of these videos described a little bit about others' cultures and why it is important to be aware of one's surroundings. There are so many cultures in the world we live in, so learning other people's cultures can be really helpful.

The last thing I contributed to this project was the Language Arts Lesson Plan for Big Idea 2. I Googled a Language Arts lesson plan, and I found an excellent one on the book "Rainbow Fish." Rainbow Fish and Metropolitan Cow both have the theme of friendship, so I created my own lesson plan for Metropolitan Cow and created an activity. Also, I found a video read-aloud for the book my group chose. I think children learning content areas through literature is extremely beneficial.

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I contributed to the padlet through the three book shelves. All of the books have to do with different cultures and celebrating differences as well as emotions and how to deal and regulate them.

I also completed the rationale for play in the early childhood classroom, the rationale for play in the early childhood classroom for parents, and the benefits of play using the five domains. I used multiple resources to find information and quotes to help support the rationales.

I found the video about emotions which connects to the bookshelves. The calm down/sensory area was one of the ideas for adaptations for students with special needs, which I added as well. I also completed all of the citations for this assignment, and created the works cited document.

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I contributed to our first big idea for the grocery store dramatic play center. In this section I was able to find a standard that matched up with our content area of social studies and learning about other cultures through food and other traditions. I was also able to help find a visual for this section that clearly displayed what the center should look like. I also created a clear objective of what the students will be able to do in this center and what they will learn from it. I listed the materials that should be provided and will be helpful in this dramatic play center.

I also contributed by helping find pictures for other resources and help brainstorm our ideas for the big idea sections. I helped find a few pictures for our bookshelf that related to our story we read which was Metropolitan Cow. These books in our bookshelf and the story that we read reflect how all cultures have differences.

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I contributed to the 1st big idea which was the dramatic play center. I was able to find a photo that helped visual what the grocery store would look like. I was also responsible for describing the activity and what the students will be doing in the center. I then talked about the assessment and how the objective of the grocery store can help the students learn about culturally different foods and traditions. Lastly, on the 1st big idea I was able to discuss different adaptations that can be done in the center for students with disabilities.

I was also able to contribute by creating the "supporting children with special needs through adaptations" box. In the box I talked about how important it is for there to be different adaptations and modifications in the classroom for students with disabilities. As well as how important it is that all students are provided with materials and adaptations so then can be successful in the classroom. I was able to find a picture discussing different adaptations that can be done in the classroom to make sure it is as inclusive as possible.