Administrator Insights & Advocacy

          Spending time with the director, who is a "working" director, which means she also teaches in the classroom, displayed the level of play needed in an early childhood program and how it works with young children in learning. The atmosphere is comfortable, busy, fun, inquisitive, welcoming, loving, inclusive, and engaging. And all of this is contributed to the main learning method of play. Interviewing and talking about about how play is used in the classroom proved to be all I believe in. The director, the lead teachers, and the teachers all shared how they have become more intentional with using play to foster concepts for learning. This is right on with where I am leaning in researching and advocating. They shared the need to educate the community and the parents in understanding how play is used and how it is essential to teach young children.
          The conflict is about what use to be kindergarten and what it is now. Most educators see it as as first grade rather than kindergarten. The director also shared her concerns about this change. First, kindergarten is still not a requirement to take before entering elementary school. Second, it is no longer about introducing young children to the educational system. And third, the pressures to read and perform other academics is developmentally inappropriate for the age and stages the children allowed to come into kindergarten are. They feel its a transition with all of the standards as well as the understanding from parents who is causing the high increase in young children repeating kindergarten.
          It feels like we are in a cyclone of transition with the demands in kindergarten and what is developmentally appropriate. Again, I am wondering exactly what to research as far as play and kindergarten readiness. One of the parents shared with me about how they are sad to see their time with the early childhood program come to an end. They have two older children and have been through kindergarten already and feel for their youngest because of how he has grown and learned through all of the play he has engaged in at preschool. They are a little worried, yet they know he is of age and needs to go on. I am not sure what to think of this but will set up a time to interview this family for my research. Do you think that would be helpful?

Are they really playing?

     In the field setting I am observing in, there are three teachers and two aides for twenty-one students who range from 2 1/2 years old to 4 years old. The class is designed for three years old turning four years old during the time school runs, which is September through May. The program is a play-based program and is open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., depending on how old the student is and where they are developmentally. Students are broken down into a Monday, Wednesday, and Friday class called the butterfly's, which are 4 year olds turning 5 years old with a slightly older class called Pre-K, and a Tuesday and Thursday class called the ladybug's, which are the ones described in the beginning of this blog. I interacted with the teachers, the aides, the director, and the students during the observations.
     I do not know where to begin in describing what I observed. First, the place was huge with an amazing amount of rooms to do a variety of activities as well as just changing environments to help those students who need to be redirected. Second, the routine and the activities seemed to flow smoothly and play was intentional. I have not thought about play being intentional while the students are engaged in the activities. The activities were theme based and the added materials were also theme based. For example, there were farmers hats in the dramatic play area and the block area, they had toy farms with the animals to go with it in the middle of the main room, farm puzzles, farm animal puppets, farm cutters for the play dough, farm stamps, stuffed farm animals all around, and several books available. The directed activity was making a handprint chick, holding real baby chicks, and looking for farm animal manipulatives in a tub of beans. When I asked the teachers about the set-up and the materials available around the room, they shared a few clever insights. One teacher told me "Play is how young children learn because they are involved in doing something and they also engage in what interests them. When they are interested they will be able to remember and grab hold of concepts that is intentionally being introduced through the materials around the room." This was an ah-ha moment for me because I thought to myself are they really playing or are they doing activities to learn. Both is happening and both happens  simultaneously. You can't have one without the other, even adults do this.
     Can this be a topic for my research paper on play in young children? That is the topic of intentional play instead of play and the development of young children? What do you think?