This document discusses the benefits of a play-based approach to early childhood education, particularly in kindergarten. It notes that decades of research show play-based programs lead to greater long-term learning gains compared to more academically focused programs. While children in play-based programs may initially lag in skills testing, they surpass their peers in more direct-instruction programs by 4th grade. The document advocates for integrating literacy learning into a child's natural play, rather than focusing on direct reading instruction, and emphasizes the critical role of a highly trained teacher in creating an optimal learning environment.
This document discusses the benefits of a play-based approach to early childhood education, particularly in kindergarten. It notes that decades of research show play-based programs lead to greater long-term learning gains compared to more academically focused programs. While children in play-based programs may initially lag in skills testing, they surpass their peers in more direct-instruction programs by 4th grade. The document advocates for integrating literacy learning into a child's natural play, rather than focusing on direct reading instruction, and emphasizes the critical role of a highly trained teacher in creating an optimal learning environment.
This document discusses the benefits of a play-based approach to early childhood education, particularly in kindergarten. It notes that decades of research show play-based programs lead to greater long-term learning gains compared to more academically focused programs. While children in play-based programs may initially lag in skills testing, they surpass their peers in more direct-instruction programs by 4th grade. The document advocates for integrating literacy learning into a child's natural play, rather than focusing on direct reading instruction, and emphasizes the critical role of a highly trained teacher in creating an optimal learning environment.
This document discusses the benefits of a play-based approach to early childhood education, particularly in kindergarten. It notes that decades of research show play-based programs lead to greater long-term learning gains compared to more academically focused programs. While children in play-based programs may initially lag in skills testing, they surpass their peers in more direct-instruction programs by 4th grade. The document advocates for integrating literacy learning into a child's natural play, rather than focusing on direct reading instruction, and emphasizes the critical role of a highly trained teacher in creating an optimal learning environment.
the classroom; counting with Unifix cubes; traversing the playground bars; circle time; creating structures with blocks; embodying the movement in the words of a poem; in a submarine at the Childrens Museum in Dover.
Play: the Beginning of
Life-long Learning Does a play-based approach in kindergarten serve children well as a foundation for the more academically rigorous years ahead? When looking at the most recent research about how children learn and what kind of skills are most needed for a strong 21st century education, this question can be answered definitively, Yes.
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his January, the organizations
Defending the Early Years and Alliance for Childhood issued a major report, Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose. This report pushes back on the widespread beliefand emerging expectation through the Common Core State Standards (CCSS)that children must learn to read in kindergarten or earlier in order to be strong readers and successful students when older. In fact, decades of research shows that many children are not ready to read in kindergarten, and greater longterm gains come from child-centered, play-based programs than ones based on teacher-driven instruction and standardized testing. Although children in a play-based program may initially lag behind in skills testing compared with their peers in a more scripted, directinstruction program, a large study in Germany found that by grade four the former had surpassed the latter in all areas measured. Sant Bani has always taken a research-based approach to early child-
hood education. In this, the School
has been guided by best practices developed from research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience, and the advice of Master Kirpal Singh in Toward the New Education, a foundational document for the Schools approach to teaching: A child is the center of creative life. It needs to be opened as a flower is opened, gently, by sympathy, not by force. Do not let the child be imprisoned in the examination machine; never let him be snubbed and scolded. As the focus of many kindergarten classrooms has shifted to preparing 5-year-olds to, in the words of the CCSS, Read emergent reader texts with purpose and understanding, what is being lost? Karen Gregg, Sant Banis long-time kindergarten teacher, asks, What are children not learning when they are being taught to read before they are ready? The complexity of play engages higher-level thinking and expands and integrates brain connections more than regimented activities. Through play, children learn creative thinking, persistence, to sustain posi-
tive relationships with others and form
an interest in learning about the world around them. If missed, you cant easily get the time back to teach these foundational skills that children need to be successful students. Some parents are concerned about whether the play-based approach in kindergarten will serve their children well as a foundation for the more academically rigorous years ahead. Nancy Nager, professor of Child Development at The complexity of play Bank Street College of Education, says this is a engages higher-level false choice. In a New thinking and expands York Times article and integrates brain of October 21, 2014, she says, The core connections more than behavioral elements regimented activities. that drive college and career readiness, many of thempersistence, planning, the ability to communicate and the capacity to collaboratehave their roots in early childhood play. While grownups recognize that pretending helps children find their way into the world, many adults think of play as separate 21
Clockwise from left: recess
time on the playground; experimenting with snow and food coloring on the sensory table; poetry in the classroom; a child reads a story she has written herself; play with natural materials outdoors; first graders shape beeswax figures while listening to a story; a big smile.
from formal learning. The reality is
quite different. As they play, children develop vital cognitive, linguistic, social and emotional skills. They make discoveries, build knowledge, experiment with literacy and math and learn to self-regulate and interact with others in socially appropriate ways. Play is also fun and interesting, A highly trained teacher which makes creates a secure, supportive school a place environment for children to where children look forward to build confidence in themspending their time. selves as learners. What does play-based literacy instruction look like? At Sant Bani, Language Arts, which includes spoken language as well as reading and writing, is integrated into each area of the curriculum. Letter recognition, sounds and formation are taught and reinforced through movement, games and constant exposure. Time is built into the schedule for play, and an abundant supply of open-ended materials (blocks, model22
ing clay, items from nature) engages
children in imaginative, self-directed play that creates opportunities for children to tell stories and develops their understanding of abstract symbols (blocks can be houses or cars, a square of fabric can be a lake or a cape) that is critical to relating to the printed word. Kindergarten students are read to by the teacher, and by second graders in a year-long partnership with that class. Teachers also lead the students in Story Telling/Story Acting, a process developed by teacher and writer Vivian Paley, where students dictate stories developed during play which are then acted out by others during group meeting time. The stories are then printed and the players/writers illustrate and read their own work. A critical element to the success of any play-based approach to early childhood education is the teacher. Creating collaborative, responsive classrooms where play is sustained during large blocks of time is a skill for a teacher and can be as complex as play itself. A highly trained teacher creates a secure,
supportive environment for children
to build confidence in themselves as learners and community members, and fills the classroom with a rich variety of oral and print language resources. She or he carefully observes each child, assessing their developmental level and interacting with them individually to facilitate their progress toward appropriate goals. Sant Banis early childhood teachers all have advanced degrees in education, and due to smaller class sizes (up to 16 students), are able to provide this individual attention. In addition, children have immediate and frequent access to outdoor play areas and natural landscapes. Master Kirpal Singhs suggestion that every school should be situated in a lovely spot of nature is supported by extensive research into the benefits of nature play: improved motor skills, vision, creativity, focus, sense of place and emotional wellbeing. Karen Gregg says, Play produces joy. And children learn more when they are happy.
Good News for Play
In August 2014, Bank Street College of Education partnered with the New York City Department of Education to launch a Getting Ready for Pre-K professional development institute in response to Mayor Bill de Blasios committment to implement universal pre-kindergarten in NYC. Karen Gregg, a Bank Street graduate, was one of the facilitators of the multi-day sessions to train 4,000 preschool teachers in play-based education. Ginia Bellafante of The New York Times writes, More and more poor children will theoretically be taught as the citys affluent children are, which is to say according to the principles of immersive, play-based, often self-directed and project-driven learning. There is hardly an elite, private preschool in the city that doesnt align itself with the philosophies of Reggio Emilia, an educational model that arose in Italy after World War II and gained prominence in the States in the 1990s with the notion that children must have some control over the course of their learning and must be given a means to express the various languages they possess. Art, music and imaginative play assume a significant role.