curriculum and practice must be 

adapted to the maturing needs, 

abilities, and interests of the child. "

When teaching younger children it is our job to create a safe, and encouraging environment. When we do this, children learn and gain more knowledge because they feel safe and the needs of the students are meet. Teachers are educated through many different teaching programs and learn how to utilize ideas so many different ways. I believe we will reach and change more students if we focus on and collaborate maturing needs, abilities, and the interests of our students it doesn't matter how anyone teacher decides to teach, we can academically reach struggling students and have them reach the goals they need to be successful in life.

measured in units of joy* 

I absolutely love that quote from the article. It is 100% true. Children are busy and need to continue to be busy, that's how they learn and grow. Teachers that teach early childhood education know to well what happens when we give a kindergarten too much time of nothing to do. We get a classroom full of tired, restless, emotional kids. It is important like this article stated to ensure every single moment of a kindergarteners  day is accounted for. However, we must maintain a healthy balance of their time. Throwing too many activities can cause more anxiety to students and the teacher. We all know there's never enough time in the day to complete everything that is requested of us. When we show this type of frustration our children feel it too, and they are to little and not mature enough to be able to handle those emotions yet. 

I love to start each day with a sweet, loving song. Then while waiting on the announcements we talk about their week or really anything they want to talk about. In my class we recently started a few centers, we worked on writing the room with our letter "c" of the week. I was kind of nervous to just let them go, but they did amazing. I even noticed when students finished they were eager to help other friends out. As we should have stopped about 10 minutes sooner, I literally could not stop those kinder kids giving help on their own terms. And the sweet smiles they both got when they completed the task together. It was priceless and something I will always remember.

throw balls, they are constantly 

fertilizing neural growth and 

integrating complex areas that the 

natural world offers."  It has been researched and proven that children need to have free, hands-on play to increase their brain development and reach their highest potential. 

It's heartbreaking to hear people say "all they do is play in kindergarten" Teachers are just babysitters in that grade level. If we continue to push more academically onto our early childhood children, and push out play then our children can't develop fully at the social, emotional, and language level. We must continue to allow play for our children, so they can happily learn and be encouraged for school.

emotional adjustment. Confirmed evidence shows that children have better attention spans after playtime has occurred. (Olga Jarrett)

It is research proven to benefit kids that are allowed playtime in schools, so my question is why are we trying to decrease the amount of playtime early childhood children receive? We as teachers need to take the steps necessary to keep play inside the classroom for our students to learn at an age appropriate level, so they can achieve and reach milestones needed to grow.