(c) McGraw-Hill 2011

1. Chapter 4:
Play and Exploration as
Curriculum
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2011 McGraw-Hill Higher Education. All rights reserved.

2. Play and Exploration as Curriculum
• Three ways caregivers create curriculum out of
play include:
– Giving children freedom
– Helping children pursue their special interests
– Providing resources
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3. Freedom, Interests, and Resources
• Free play and exploration:
– Is undirected and monitored activity.
– Allows children to make choices.
– Allows caregivers to learn about children’s
development and needs.
– Allows caregivers can set up the resources children
need to pursue their interests.
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4. Adult Roles in Play
• What are adult roles in play?
– Setting up the environment for play
– Encouraging interactions and then stepping back
– Supporting problem-solving
– Observing
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5. Adult Roles in Play
• Setting up environments for play
– Caregivers must pay attention to safety issues.
– Safety is the key to exploration.
– Make sure children have hazard-free access to a
variety of play materials.
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6. Adult Roles in Play
• Encouraging interactions and then stepping back
– Children learn from their peers.
– Adults should encourage child-child interactions, then
step back.
– Selective intervention allows caregivers to:
• Protect children from unsafe situations
• Facilitate learning when needed
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7. Adult Roles in Play
• Encouraging interactions and then stepping back
– Adults can be involved in play, but:
• Refrain from promoting adult-directed activity
• Resist the urge to set up goals
• Try to step back from play and observe children instead
How were adults involved in your play as a child?
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8. Adult Roles in Play
• Supporting problem solving
– Scaffold problem solving by:
• Determining the point at which the child is about to give up
• Providing assistance that allows children to gain a sense of
satisfaction
• Allowing children to learn on their own, without interference
• Encouraging children to tell you when they need help
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9. Adult Roles in Play
• Observing
– Observing involves focusing attention.
– Observation allows caregivers to slow down and be “in
the moment.”
– Observation allows the caregiver to better structure the
play environment to support individual children’s needs
and interests.
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10. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Environmental factors that influence play include:
– Group size and age span
– The set up of the environment
– Happenings
– Amount of free choice
Free play depends on a
– The problem of the match prepared environment!
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11. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Group size and age span
– Larger groups tend to be over stimulating.
– Quieter children tend to be ignored in larger groups.
– When combining infants with toddlers, be sure to protect the
youngest children.
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12. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Group size and age span (continued)
– When combining toddlers with preschoolers, protect toddlers from
inappropriate equipment and conflicts.
– Children who are immobile also need floor space.
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13. Setting Up Environments for Play
• The setup of the environment to support play
– Keep play area separate from caregiving areas.
– Make sure everything in the play space is touchable.
– Provide for both gross and fine motor activity.
– Provide both hard and soft materials and surfaces.
– Let children find unique ways to combine toys and
materials.
– Provide the right amount of choices and toys.
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14. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Happenings
– Happenings refer to experiences the children have in
the play environment that can be planned or
unplanned.
– Adults should take advantage of happenings that occur
by chance in the play environment.
– Happenings put the focus on he child’s experience and
can be very simple or they may be more complex.
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15. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Happenings
– Happenings include:
• Squeezing sponges in trays
• Crumpling tissue paper
• Mashing bananas
• Snapping spaghetti strands
What happenings can you think of?
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16. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Free choice is an important ingredient of play.
Let’s see, to make play
I need 1 cup of happenings,
½ cup of free choice, 2 cups
of group size…
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17. Setting Up Environments for Play
• The problem of the match
– The play environment should provide familiar
experiences along with new ones that are appropriately
challenging.
– Ideally the challenging experiences are ones in which
the children need no adult interference, scaffolding, or
intervention.
– Adaptation incorporates assimilation and
accommodation.
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18. Setting Up Environments for Play
• Remember:
– Adults do not need to push children to make choices
out of fear of children’s boredom.
– Boredom is educational! Boredom encourages children
to push from an internal motivation.
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19. Online Learning Center
• See Chapter 4 of the text’s Online Learning
Center for chapter quizzes, Theory Into Action
activities, Video Observations, and more.
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