The author argues that play always occurs within a social context and in relation to the various cultures that coexist within the classroom and the school setting. She uses Vygotsky's definition of play as dramatic or make-believe play for preschool children, and she applies Vygotskian and post-Vygotskian theories, including Daniil Elkonin's categories of play, to examine mature and immature play among preschool children. She describes case studies of dual-language learners (DLLs) and English-only (EO) preschoolers (who need more time and scaffolding to acquire mature, make-believe play) along with those of reluctant players. She also promotes Bodrova and Leong's observation and assessment measure, PRoPELS, for teachers and researchers seeking to help children reach a mature level of play in early childhood classrooms. She concludes with suggestions for supporting such mature play.

This chapter guides early childhood teacher educators, teachers, and policy makers to use appropriate technological tools in early childhood classrooms. It begins with learning theories related to computational thinking with a discussion of Seymour Papert and presents Marina Bers' framework. The chapter includes a professional development model for teachers and teacher educators. Technological apps and computational thinking are offered for use with face-to-face, hybrid, and remote instruction in early childhood settings. Many of the digital tools described in the chapter have numerous suggestions and resources available for teachers, teacher educators, and students to create a platform to begin using digital tools and evaluate how to select and use digital media. Changes can be brought about by reimagining classrooms and reshaping pedagogy with continued professional development.

Mixed-age groups have been shown to be effective in classroom settings, but only a handful of studies have explored mixed-age grouping in play. This research is a case study of one New York public elementary school that places great value on recess and mixed-age groupings. The school has implemented Let Grow Play Club before school one day per week for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. We use child interviews, teacher interviews, and parent surveys to examine the perceptions of mixed-age, outdoor play provided in Play Club and the school more generally. Across the different types of data, stakeholders expressed their support for cross-age interactions in mixed-age groupings. This play was perceived as valuable for helping build friendships and developing social skills, as older children become role models to younger ones. As suggested by Vygotsky’s (1978) theories, children are learning from one another and enhancing their development through unstructured play.

This study offers a look inside one school community The school implemented Let Grow Play Club and a recently expanded 40-minute recess period Data are from observations of children's play periods, child interviews, and teacher interviews We argue that play has significant cognitive, emotional, and social benefits for elementary school children Periods of play at school help students to focus, build friendships, improve mood, work cooperatively, and work through conflict without adult intervention The study has implications for the expansion of play, including recess and programs like Let Grow Play Club, for all schools as a social justice issue

In this chapter, we explore the connection between block play and STEM learning which is rooted in research and theory. We also look at a play-based community-learning center where block play is the focus. Blockspot® utilizes the wooden unit block for school-aged programming to help children build STEM and social and emotional competence. The Blockspot® play-based program provides preschool and school-aged children opportunity for inquiry and exploration led by children and supported by teachers. It furthers its Learning Community mission through collaborations with local schools and businesses by providing STEM and socially conscious programming available for everyone outside of school hours.

Implementing a play-based curriculum presents challenges for pre-service and in-service teachers given the current climate of standards and didactic pedagogies. This study highlights the value of playful learning and its rightful place in early childhood classrooms for children of all ages. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the use of spatial words with children aged between three and nine years. The benefits of the use of spatial words in a playful venue to advocate block play for not only preschool children, but elementary-school-age children were examined. This article suggest that industry and academia need to collaborate to provide play venues for children, and unit blocks need to be brought back into early childhood programmes.

Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophical orientation concerning dialogism offers a challenge to contemporary play theory. This study demonstrates the benefits of a Bakhtinian analysis of double voicing in early childhood programs. Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism, specifically Bakhtin’s ideas on genre and utterance, has received less attention in the analysis of play. Bakhtin’s conceptualization extends the notion of genre to all spoken utterances in play activities. The purpose of the present study was to examine the existence of Bakhtin’s typology of double voicing with preschool children as they talked and built structures with unit blocks. Bakhtin identified three basic varieties of double voice discourse: (a) unidirectional, (b) vari-directional, and (c) active discourse. The investigation took place in a preschool classroom that encourages a playful curriculum. Drawing on videotaped preschool classroom examples, preschoolers’ use of double voicing in the context of block play was analyzed. The data found the two types of passive double voicing: (a) unidirectional and (b) vari-directional, as well as active categories of hidden dialogicality, parody, and skaz. Bakhtin’s view of language acquisition is discussed by only a handful of early childhood play scholars, and this article suggests early childhood professionals use Mikhail Bakhtin’s double voicing typologies in classroom as a contemporary view for framing early childhood socialization and discourse.

This study seeks to demonstrate the benefits of bilingual instruction, story drama, and play with low-income preschool children. Sixty-five percent of the children in the study were dual language learners (DLLs). The investigation took place in a state-funded, public, universal prekindergarten program implementing Tools of the Mind (Tools), a Vygotskian play-based curriculum. Teachers read aloud fairy tales twice a week. Children in three classrooms were exposed to one of three read-aloud conditions: English-only, bilingual and no play, or bilingual and play. The results indicated that the classroom that provided bilingual instruction and play had significantly higher English proficiency and story recall scores than either of the other two classrooms. Providing opportunities to play and reenact fairy tales seemed to have positive effects on English proficiency and story recall for low-income preschool children.

The Trouble with Play Susan Grieshaber and Felicity McArdle Maidenhead, England: Open University Press, 2010. References, indices, illustrations.144 pp. $96.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780335237906While readers might assume The Trouble with Play presents an analysis of the siege on play in schools, authors Susan Grieshaber and Felicity McArdle, in fact, offer a perspective on play that departs radically from the assumed truths of early-childhood education. Early-childhood educators, influenced by developmental theory dating back to Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Friedrich Froebel, believe that play is natural, holistic, and innocent. The authors argue, instead, that play is not always innocent, fun, and natural, and they assert that it often involves social injustices.Specifically, the book challenges six valued beliefs about play: that play is natural, that it is about development and learning, that it is normal, that it is fun, that it is innocent, and that it is a universal right. The first six chapters explore these beliefs. Chapter 1 provides an overview of these ideas and questions normative, conventional models of child care. Chapter 2 deconstructs the binary logic that separates play from work, fun from effort, and pleasure from pain, though the authors fail to cite Kathy Hirsch-Pasek's arguments supporting the benefits of unstructured play for children's learning or contrary viewpoints suggested by Nina Howe and Robert Pianta.Clearly, the research is contradictory, and we need more empirical data before we can draw conclusions about play and work. I agree, however, with the authors' claim that the reliance on slogans and mantras about work and play and fun and work reinforce the divide, rather than disrupt the tensions between free play and academic activities within our institutions.The next chapter questions the idea that play constitutes children's natural way of learning, claiming instead that play is often manufactured-especially in early-childhood settings like classrooms. Rousseau's Emile established this idea of the natural development of children. But Emile is a lengthy work of fiction. In real life, Rousseau placed his five children in a state foundling home. Today, early-childhood educators continue to view children's play as natural and innocent, even as educators often tightly control children's play. As someone who has collected over forty-five hours of children's free play video data in several preschools and kindergarten classrooms, I have often seen what Brian Sutton-Smith and Greishaber and McArdle call the dark side of play, in which players frequently reject each other based on race, gender, social, economic, and cultural capital and on proficiency in English. Teachers often will not tolerate these types of free play, which are not pure, nor innocent, nor natural.Chapter 4 detours to examine the use of art in early childhood, and the authors illustrate the taboos around the teaching of art through a case study of preservice teachers. This chapter reads differently from the rest of the book. I see the connection between play and creativity, but I question why the authors single out art, excluding other disciplines related to play curricula.Play liberates children to reenact peer and adult worlds and to develop their own culture, but rules for play and players dominate early-childhood settings and are often socially unjust given the cultural and ethnic compositions in our schools today. Chapters 5 and 6 address rules and fairness of play. The authors use observational data in vignettes to prompt readers to reflect on issues dealing with rules and fairness in early-childhood settings. …

Professional development was conducted to assess the effects of dialogic reading (DR) on child outcomes related to vocabulary development in English and Spanish. Six teachers and 72 children enrolled in a state-funded public universal prekindergarten program, partnering with higher education, participated in the study. The content of the professional development consisted of research-based DR strategies and vocabulary for English-only, bilingual, and Spanish-dominant speakers. The format included in-service training workshops, consultations, and reflections within community of practice meetings. The results showed that the intervention led to an increase in vocabulary over time within and across language groups. Regardless of teacher experience and educational training, vocabulary for all prekindergarten children improved. Suggestions are offered for replicating DR techniques in early care and development settings. Findings add to the importance of providing instruction in vocabulary for low socioeconomic status prekindergarten programs as well as the role higher education can serve in partnering with public schools.

The purpose of this research-to-practice article is to describe dialogic reading (DR) as a professional development intervention that took place in a state-funded public universal prekindergarten program, partnering with a university. Our goals were to use a research-based literacy program to measure child outcomes related to vocabulary development in English and Spanish. Through our professional development, faculty at our university provided in-service workshops, consultations, and reflections within community of practice meetings. Children varied in their home language experiences and we used a few data sources to provide insights about children's home language abilities. We categorized children's language exposure as English only, bilingual, and Spanish dominant. Teachers’ fidelity of implementation of weekly DR lessons learned during in-service training was monitored by university faculty. Practical implications of the findings to replicate this research with diverse populations are provided for early childhood teachers.