Using a content analysis method, this study develops a culturally based inventory of play categories from parents and children reports and explores how such types of play varies in environment and time. A total of 171 parent-child dyads from 13 Hong Kong kindergartens participated in the study. Results reveal that play practices reported from Hong…

Playing is an activity that affects significantly the psychological development and learning in preschool age. Opinions among researchers and practitioners are divided about adults' role in children's play. Despite being a children's activity, high-level, complex social play hardly appears without adult mediation. According to the narrative play…

This study examined children's use of narrative strategies and social purposes in dramatic play through a sociocultural theoretical lens. We analysed language and nonverbal communication in play scenarios involving 17 kindergarteners and their teacher. Children used language and other communication modes to develop plot, character, and setting.…

"Ready, Set, Respect!" provides a set of tools to help elementary school educators ensure that all students feel safe and respected and develop respectful attitudes and behaviors. It is not a program to be followed but instead is designed to help educators prepare themselves for teaching about and modeling respect. The toolkit responds to…

Prominent theorists assert that engaging in sociodramatic play is an essential activity for the development of self-regulation. This study proposed the use of sociodramatic play as an intervention tool for building self-regulation in kindergartners. In this study, two sociodramatic play intervention paradigms were compared to a control group. In…

Socio-dramatic play (SDP) creates a zone of proximal development in which optimum cognitive development occurs. To participate successfully in this kind of play children and their partners must create shared meaning, or what is referred to in the socio-cultural literature as intersubjectivity. Based on intersubjectivity and SDP, this study…

This article examines the pervasive influence of progressive education and travel on a public school kindergarten teacher's professional life. In a statement included in her handwritten list of goals for the children in her classroom, she echoed John Dewey, noting that a kindergarten child should "....live life fully and well because this is a…

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…

The traditional kindergarten program often reflected a rich but generic approach with creative contexts for typical kindergartners organized around materials (manipulatives or dramatic play) or a developmental area (fine motor or language). The purpose of kindergarten reflected beliefs about how children learn, specialized training for…

This study explores a teacher's understandings of the role of play and her use of play in literacy learning serving children from diverse language backgrounds. The participants in this study were a public pre-kindergarten teacher and her class. Data were collected from interviews, informal conversations, observations, and self-reflexive notes. The…

This study documented the ways in which the spontaneous narratives of a focus group of young children reflected the ways in which these children constructed meaning about their world and their place in it. Participants were six kindergartners who engaged in extended episodes of imaginary, dramatic play and produced complex descriptive narratives…

The early years are a time of joy and a period of great learning for young children. They are beginning to interact with print and experience the delights of being read to. This article presents the experiences of a kindergarten teacher during her class' independent reading time. Aside from just plain fun, children can acquire a wide range of…

Playing the Play describes the experiences of a storyteller and teacher of literature who created a literature-based literacy program at Concourse House, a homeless shelter in Bronx, New York, for women and their young children. This program is based on the belief that pleasure is the primary reason children want to learn to read, and that where…

Vivian Gussin Paley's "storytelling curriculum" consists of two interdependent activities, dictation and dramatization. It has long been recognized for its impact on young children's psychosocial, language, and narrative development. As a result of the Bush administration's educational policies, holistic, play-based curricula like storytelling are…