For Your Binder

Enough with the false dichotomies already!!!!  Child-centered doesn’t mean the kids run the show and warm & caring early childhood settings are not the opposite of intellectual ones.  #DAP #play #learning #teaching 

Social competence in kindergarten was a significant indicator (in adulthood) of both positive and negative outcomes across all domains: education, employment, criminal justice, substance abuse & mental health.  This link will take you to a summary of the study.  There's a link to the complete study here.     #DAP #teaching #learning #play 

This is a valuable collaborative resource created by The National Playing Fields Association, PLAYLINK, The Children's Play Council, Play Wales, Play Scotland, Sutcliffe Play & Playboard Northern Ireland.  At it's core is a shared belief that children need to play and as such, need environments that are suitable for them to do so.  #play #playwork #learning #teaching #outside

It's only October, but already Nicky is exhibiting symptoms of student ennui. The other day, when his mother asked him the best thing about school, he said lunch. Most boring? Art history.  Sound typical?  Perhaps.  Except Nicky isn't a moody adolescent - Nicky is only 5.  #pushdown #DAP #play #teaching #learning

While I am not sure you will need to plan a hand-clap lesson, the first part of the article provides a nice quick overview of some of the history of hand-clap games as well as connection between hand-clap songs and literacy. #DAP #play #recess #songs #playground

Loose parts were provided on playgrounds located in two housing structures in Paris. The researchers had questions:  How will children play with objects that are not toys? How do the objects affect children's play? #play #toys #playwork #adventureplaygrounds #recess #outside

The title has changed over the years but the message hasn't - why do we continue to interrupt engaged children to come to a meeting???  #books #stories #play #teaching #handouts

Missed the workshop? Want to watch it again? Got a DVD player? Lisa has DVDs of all her workshops! #oldschool  

Unit blocks have been around for over 100 years!  Why is their potential still so often underestimated?? #math #play #blocks #DAP #learning #teaching

I've included this resource mainly for the image you'll see when you click the link (although it's not an off-base blog post by any means!) I wanted you to see Mitch Resnick's Creative Learning Spiral without (full disclosure: forgive me) all of the MIT tech speak, including descriptions of the technologies he's created, that usually fill the articles that contain the image.  I love this image.  I also believe when children are playing they tap into this cycle of creativity without needing to scratch any crickets.  #play #DAP #creativity

In these secret places, children develop and control environments of their own and enjoy freedom from the rules of the adult world. #dens #forts #outside #environments #play #parenting #teaching #learning

Kindergarten should be the graduate school of fantasy play! Where did we go wrong?  #play #DAP #theorists #teaching #learning

The ambiguous, variable, and paradoxical nature of the play concept is so widely accepted, that most play theorists consider the search for a universal definition to be pure folly. #play #theorists 

Note: while no date is provided in the article, I originally read it in 2015 if that provides any context.