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I'm wondering if my data will be mostly observational data. Is this going to be difficult to do while teaching? What kind of data will I be able to collect? How will I collect data on play to prove it has strong ties to student learning?

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Kindergarten today has changed drastically, and with that so has the time for play in the classroom.

Is kindergarten the new first grade?-- This idea came up in many of the articles. I too, believe kindergarten expectations are what first graders used to be expected to do.

"Kindergarten has become less of a venue for creative thought, free exploration, and pretend play, and more of a structured setting with rigorous requirements to prepare children for future standardized assessments" (Ray and Smith, 2010, p. 5)

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Pellegrini and Smith (2013), “Play with objects allows children to try out new combinations of actions, free of external constraint, and may help develop problem solving skills” (p. 8). Play is important for students to learn how to problem solve, which is an essential skill for academic learning.

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Play in the classroom contributes to student learning by:
1. Fostering language development and early literacy skills
2. Helping students learn to self-regulate
3. Assisting students develop problem-solving skills

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Matthews, Morrison, McClelland, & Ponitz (2009) talk about the importance of self-regulation and how it contributes to school success. “Poorly regulated children are at a greater risk for achievement, emotional and conduct problems, and school drop out in middle school and adolescence” (p. 605). Also stated was, “Recent research reveals the importance of early behavioral regulation for multiple areas of achievement, including reading and mathematics” (2009, p. 607). My study will not merely study self-regulation and academic success like Matthews, Morrison, McClelland, & Ponitz; however, if play can help students self-regulate, then play will improve student academics.

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Being able to self-regulate is an important concept in attaining academic skills; therefore, play is essential in learning self-regulation skills. This concept is also believed by Ray and Smith (2010) when they state, “it is no surprise that self-regulation has been found to be strongly associated with better academic outcomes, and the degree of effortful control can actually predict kindergarten students’ later abilities in early reading” (p. 10).

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Gullo and Hughes (2011) state, “For children, play is serious work and is an important vehicle to promote language, cognition, social competence, and self-regulation” (p. 326). I too, am hoping to find that play in kindergarten is important for the academic success of kindergarten children.

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According to Pellegrini and Smith (2013), “Play with objects allows children to try out new combinations of actions, free of external constraint, and may help develop problem solving skills” (p. 8). Play is important for students to learn how to problem solve, which is an essential skill for academic learning.

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“The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Preprimary Project, a cross- national longitudinal study, found that children’s language performance at age seven was significantly higher when teachers had allowed children to choose their own activities at age four” (Lockhart, 2015, p. 3). My focus is not on language and play alone; however, language development is essential for students when learning to read, write, compute mathematical equations, etc.

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With high expectations for kindergartners and reading, it’s important that students take part in activities that contribute to learning to read. Christie and Roskos (2011) state, “Play activity supports cognitive-linguistic abilities and skills that prepare children for learning to read” (p. 214). Their study shows that pretend play, sociodramatic play, thematic-fantasy play are important for students and early literacy skills.

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Although my study does not pertain to half day versus full day kindergarten, Pelletier (2015) completed on a study of half day and full day kindergarten in Ontario, which also had a focus on play. One key concept in this study was that there was more play in the full day kindergarten program. The overall results showed that the kindergarten students in the full day program (where there was more time devoted to play) had greater vocabulary and self-regulation then children in the half-day kindergarten program.

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According to Lynch (2015) “research increasingly shows that play expedites a variety of social, cognitive, motor, and linguistic improvements” (p. 347). Student learning increases when students have developed language skills, and student learning also increases when children are able to control their behaviors. My topic will allow me to investigate these strong links between play and student learning.

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My study plans to show that play enhances learning, and oral language plays a key role in learning to read. Golinkoff, Hirsh-Pasek, Weisberg & Zosh (2013) state, “Language is the currency of social interaction and school achievement” (p. 39).

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Nicolopoulou (2010) also addresses that fact that play in early childhood has “a critical role in promoting these socioemotional skills during children’s early years” (p. 3). Just like Nicolopoulou, my plan is to prove that play has ties to academic learning, and without being able to self regulate it is difficult to sustain activities and participate in the learning process.

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I plan to study “play” in kindergarten because I want to find out how it benefits young children academically to show there is strong link between play and learning so that I may better understand why play is important in the kindergarten classroom.