• Welcome to Preschool 1
• Daily Schedule for Preschool 1 Class
• Curriculum for Preschool 1
• Play Time
• Forms and Paperwork

Importance of Play

Play is an essential part of life for young children.  Just a few quick reasons why play is important:

Play promotes:

• Physical development
• Intellectual development
• Social development
• Creativity

Play also helps to develop emotional values.

Sara Smilansky did research to determine how children learn through play and how this affects their future academic success.  She has distinguished four types of play:  functional, constructive, dramatic or pretend, and games with rules.

Functional play. Functional play is a form of play in which children use their senses and muscles to experiment with materials and learn how things go together.  It satisfies children's need to be active and to explore.  Typically, in functional play, children repeat their actions over and over while talking to themselves about what they are doing.

Constructive play. Constructive play also involves handling materials, but with an important new dimension.  In constructive play, children learn the different uses of play materials.  They start putting things together based on a plan, becoming a creator and organizing their materials and sustaining their attention for longer periods of time than in functional play.  At this stage children's actions are purposeful and directed toward a goal.  They make constructions, such as roads or houses, and delight in seeing that what they have made will last even when they are finished playing.

Dramatic or pretend play. Dramatic or pretend play can develop alongside functional and constructive play and is often seen in toddlers.  When one child pretends alone, his behavior is referred to as dramatic play; when two or more children are involved in a sustained make-believe play episode, their activity is called sociodramatic play.

In dramatic play, children typically take on a role, pretend to be someone else, and use real or pretend objects to play out the role.  Children often re-enact something they have experienced or watched.

Sociodramatic play is often guided by rules children have learned through their own experiences and requires children to adapt to their peers.  For example, if a child is pretending to iron and her playmates say that little children aren't allowed to handle irons, the child may have to modify her role and become a grown-up in the play scenario.  Sociodramatic play is a high-level cognitive and social task, requiring feats of imagination, reasoning, and negotiations with other children.

Games with rules. Games with rules involve planning.  There are two broad types of games with rules - table games and physical or movement games.  Both require children to control their behavior, both physically and verbally, to conform to a structure of present rules.

Each child will pass through these stages at his/her own pace.  Free play gives teachers the opportunity to observe children and determine different stages of development.  There is a lot of thinking going on while they are playing.

Dodge, D.T., Colker, L.J. & Heroman, C. (2002).  The Creative Curriculum for Preschool (4th ed.).
Washington, DC:  Teaching Strategies, Inc.