To create a classroom where first encounters with literacy are playful and exploratory - not formal and separate from the child's world - this book spills out a rich cascade of ideas in four areas: making the classroom a print-rich learning environment, including print in daily activities, practicing literacy through art activities and dramatic play, and recasting the teacher's role into spectator, advisor, resource, and scribe. Hundreds of ideas support these goals. Grades preK-2. Suggested resources. Illustrated. Good Year Books. 204 pages. Second Edition.

To create a classroom where first encounters with literacy are playful and exploratory - not formal and separate from the child's world - this book spills out a rich cascade of ideas in four areas: making the classroom a print-rich learning environment, including print in daily activities, practicing literacy through art activities and dramatic play, and recasting the teacher's role into spectator, advisor, resource, and scribe. Hundreds of ideas support these goals. Grades preK-2. Suggested resources. Illustrated. Good Year Books. 204 pages. Second Edition.

Play provides young children with the opportunity to express their ideas, symbolize, and test their knowledge of the world. It provides the basis for inquiry in literacy, science, social studies, mathematics, art, music, and movement. Through play, young children become active learners engaged in explorations about themselves, their community, and their personal-social world. An Integrated Play-Based Curriculum for Young Children offers the theoretical framework for understanding the origins of an early childhood play-based curriculum and how young children learn and understand concepts in a social and physical environment. Distinguished author Olivia N. Saracho then explores how play fits into various curriculum areas in order to help teachers develop their early childhood curriculum using developmentally and culturally appropriate practice. Through this integrated approach, young children are able to actively engage in meaningful and functional experiences in their natural context. Special Features Include: Vignettes of children’s conversations and actions in the classroom Suggestions for activities and classroom materials Practical examples and guidelines End-of-chapter summaries to enhance and extend the reader’s understanding of young children By presenting appropriate theoretical practices for designing and implementing a play-based curriculum, An Integrated Play-Based Curriculum for Young Children offers pre-service teachers the foundational knowledge about the field, about the work that practitioners do with young children, and how to best assume a teacher’s role effectively.