It might look like your child is “just playing,” but did you know play is hard work?
Play provides opportunities for children to learn, grow, and develop their language skills, social and emotional skills, and their creativity.
See below to find out what your child may be learning, while they are “just playing.”
Circle Time
When I participate in circle time activities, I am learning…
- to listen and understand spoken language
- to add my ideas to the discussion…my ideas have value.
- new vocabulary connected with the topic of discussion
- to remember the words of songs and finger plays
- the names of others in the group
- to cooperate and be considerate of the needs of others
- to plan what we will do and what we will need to do it
Instruments
When I play with instruments, I am learning…
- to be conscious of rhythms in music concepts of fast, slow, loud and soft
- to express myself in a new way
- to interpret signals and cues
- listening skills and auditory discrimination
Songs
When I sing songs, I am learning…
- principles of music and rhythm
- vocabulary
- memory skills and sequencing
- to be conscious of others
- auditory discrimination skills (recognizing differences in sounds)
- various concepts emphasized in songs
- awareness and identification with my culture and the cultural heritage of others
Puppets
When I play with puppets, I am learning…
- to express ideas with words
- to take on the role of someone else
- to communicate with voice tones as well as words
- to use my imagination
Books
When I look in books and hear stories, I am learning…
- that learning to read is important and enjoyable to exercise my own imagination
- to listen well to spoken language
- to make up my own stories
- to handle books with care
- the meanings of more and more words
- to express my own thoughts, feelings, and ideas better
- that letters on a page represent words…talk written down
- to use more and more complex language patterns in my own speech
- to follow the development of thought and ideas in the plot of a story
- to interpret pictures to represent ideas
Puzzles
When I play with puzzles, I am learning…
- about the relationship of parts to the whole
- eye-hand coordination
- concepts of shape, size, color, and location
- vocabulary related to the subject of the puzzle
- sorting as I group “sets” of puzzle pieces belonging to different puzzles
- independence as I complete the puzzle without help
- self-confidence as I learn more and more difficult puzzles
- problem solving based on the clues of the puzzle
- about negative and positive space, seeing something against its background