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The education world is driven by the No Child Left Behind law, as a result state funded preschool programs will soon be held accountable for meeting academic standards. In the article “Accountability Comes to Preschool” Deborah Stipek is confident this is attainable. Teaching academics can be woven into a developmentally appropriate play based preschool program. Young children can be taught skills while they are engaged in meaningful play. Stipek (2009) states, “Teachers need to have clear learning goals, plan activities carefully to achieve those goals, assess children’s learning regularly, and make modifications when activities are not helping children learn (pp17).”

To achieve this success teachers must support children in all areas of development. Each child’s social/emotional and physical well being directly affects their learning. Teachers need to actively support children in their development, play, have a well-prepared environment, supply resources, provide scaffolding, and take them to the next level in learning. Educators must meet children at their level, consider their needs and interests, and provide instruction that is purposeful, appropriate and enjoyable.

“Making the case for Play Policy” supplies researched based reasons to support play based preschool programs. When children engage in physically active play they will benefit physical and mentally. There are many advantages to active play including: large muscle development, fine motor development, hand-eye coordination, positive health benefits, reduced stress, and self-control. Brain research has concrete evidence that has connected active play with cognitive development. Fox also pointed out that “Current research on early literacy outcomes shows a relationship between active, socially engaging, play and early language and literacy development ( ).” The research strongly supports play and play-based environments, within in the environment you will find literacy props, art activities, and emphasis on environmental print, poetry, songs, charts, storytelling, books, and time to explore.

Reaction

I taught full day kindergarten for the 2001/2002 school years at a charter school. The school encouraged a very play based curriculum. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t sure how I felt about teaching full day kindergarten. I wondered how I would fill the day with learning activities. Most of my planned instruction took place in the morning, and in the afternoon we played. I would observe the children, I would play with the children, and then I would ask them questions. The places those questions took us. At this time in my life I agreed with play and the play policy, but I also had the time to devote.

I currently teach four-year-old preschool, but now my classroom is located within a public elementary school building. We meet Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings from 9:15 am-11: 45 am. I understand how essential play is to young developing children, but I currently teach a play based preschool program with very active teaching involvement. In Deborah Stipek article she explained in great detail ways to incorporate play while learning objective are being met. I choose this article because it is a reflection of my current teaching practice, where the other article supported my pass teaching experience.

Research has shown the children learn best through play. As early childhood professionals we need to bring meaning to their play, we need to explore different means to develop their play. We need to encourage children to ask questions, explore, and discover through play. We need to offer rich experiences with engaging materials. In order for children to learn and truly understand concepts, we need to provide hands-on experiences that allow them to see how things work and help them to construct knowledge about concepts. I believe a true play based program can include all my thoughts but you need to have a large amount of time for the children to natural reach this point, where in my current practice I bring concepts to the surface, I encourage higher order thinking, and oral language.

. Teachers should welcome preschool standards; these standards could help guide our work with children. While our assessment and observations should guide our instruction, standards would give us a framework. Within the framework we should also incorporate brain research to our teaching, consider multiple intelligences and learning style when present new ideas. When presenting new ideas to children we should use many mediums, by doing so children will be able to connect to the new knowledge on different levels.