Learning through the arts has the potential to stimulate open ended activity that encourages discovery, exploration, experimentation and invention, thus contributing to children's development in all areas of learning and helping to make the curriculum meaningful to them. In this book, the author draws on her extensive experience of promoting young…

Explores the implications of envisioning theater and drama in education as a "laboratory for learning," citing that Theatre-In-Education fits the laboratory model by integrating formal theater as aesthetic experience with informal drama as a learning medium. (MM)

The relationship of play and language to development of the sense of self is examined. The value of playful, affectively charged interchanges between caregivers and children is highlighted, and guidelines are established to determine a child's level of development. An intervention model is proposed for children developmentally delayed in terms of…

By allowing college students of German to write and perform their own plays, it added a tremendous boost to their interest in speaking a foreign language. This motivated them to do what they would ordinarily have done with great reluctance--memorize a text and engage in an intensive, goal-oriented activity in German, outside the language…

This narrative details the responses of children and adults to a story about young children welcoming a boy with severe disabilities into their own story telling and re-enactment. Linking the act of story telling to the practice of the Hasidim, who would teach people to think about goodness by telling stories about holy men performing good works,…

Creative dramatics has potential as a therapeutic recreational tool with special populations. Informal dramatic activities such as characterizations with hats, fantasizing, and improvised television commercials can be learned by students and applied in hospitals and nursing homes. (JN)

In this interview with a Florida kindergarten teacher, the whole language philosophy is used to help elementary students learn skills through ongoing reading and writing activities. Thematic units are used to encourage teacher facilitation and peer teaching. (DG)

Addresses drama in the early childhood classroom as a useful tool for focusing on many of the current concerns in education including problem solving, integration of curriculum, writing across the curriculum, and authentic assessment. (RS)

Suggests that, through practical understanding of quantum theory, teachers can develop new role-play and narrative strategies, arguing that describing fictional worlds through narrative and exploring virtual worlds through role play can transform children's consciousness. Applies the quantum theory metaphor to drama, learning, and self-image.…

This paper explores the relationship between mental activity and physical well-being, through examination of such component activities as imagery, relaxation, sociodrama, and play. The paper concludes that wellness involves the physical and mental health of an individual, positive future images, and true communication with ourselves and others.…

Discusses improvements in playground design and how playgrounds for young children can be further improved by more focus on gross-motor, social, dramatic, and constructive play. Also examines the largely negative role of activity panels that many playground companies include on their structures, noting that such panels often present academic…

Children's lives are infused with stories at home, at school or the library, and in the media. This article discusses how to harness the power of literature and use it to develop positive character traits in young children. Storytelling is a fundamental way in which human beings process and share events as well as the feelings surrounding those…

The primary purpose of this master's thesis is to describe some therapeutic uses of dramatic play with the mildly aggressive preschool child. The child for whom the suggested play interventions are considered appropriate is characterized by sociality and attachment to both peers and adults, and is not chronically aggressive. After the first…

Asserts that literacy can be seen as a dramatic set. Shows how this conceptualization makes sense of the central concerns of language programs and provides an explicit means for developing literacy. Notes that drama activities provide experiences across many linguistic registers. (RL)

Describes a discourse created by second graders who were deliberating about important social issues in the course of discussing a story. (BB)