EAS-409 Play in Early Childhood Education

On 24 March, it was finally time for game show which I have been waiting eager as we have given our best to come up with the role play.  Vivian Gussin Paley (1929–2019) focused on the internal world of the child. A pioneering early childhood educator, researcher, and author, she dedicated her life to observing how young children naturally use fantasy play, storytelling, and story acting to develop language, express their culture, and make sense of the world around them. Vivian Gussin Paley’s "Storytelling and Story Acting" curriculum approach bridges the gap between spoken and written language by transforming a child's individual imagination into a shared literacy experience. In this method, children dictate their original stories word-for-word to an adult, allowing them to see a direct connection between their oral voice, print, and punctuation, which naturally builds essential narrative skills like sequencing, plot structure, and character development.   When the clas...

Reflecting on the evolution of play theories has fundamentally transformed my understanding of the classroom, shifting my view of play from a simple recreational break to a vital developmental necessity. I have learned that play is as Friedrich Froebel famously stated, the "highest expression of human development" because it allows a child’s inner soul to find free expression. This insight alone has reshaped my perspective, I no longer see a "wiggly" child in a classroom as a distraction, but rather as a living organism responding to the Surplus-Energy Theory, needing to expend leftover energy to function effectively. I have also learned that children’s physical needs are the foundation upon which more complex learning is built.                                                                           ...