Understand play schemas to see inside children’s minds. Actions of Play builds on recent research and revelations about play schemas to transform understandings of play-based learning and project work in early childhood programs. Play schemas are the patterns of actions that play takes—transporting, enclosing, rotating, and more—the verbs of play rather than the nouns. The repetitive behaviors, play patterns, and play intentions of schemas facilitate children’s brain development and also help them make sense of their world.
Schemas take the place of noun-based topics in project work, increasing children’s creativity and complex thought. Schemas give educators insight into children as they work out problems and increase their understandings through play. The authors ask: How might we build a curriculum using play schemas? How might we interweave our children’s play with play schemas and create projects? Actions of Play shares the stories of their programs and their documentation and action research as play schemas became the bedrock of their curricula.
About the author
Heather Jackson is the executive director of The Sunflower Schools in Orangeville, Ontario, Canada, and has been an early childhood educator since 1980, working in a Reggio-inspired approach for twenty years. She also facilitates many workshops in Ontario on the Reggio approach and related topics.
Lisa Agogliati has over thirty years of preschool teaching experience, including integrated arts programs, inclusion settings, and emergent curriculum. She has worked at the National Child Research Center in Washington, DC, since 2009 as a lead teacher and pedagogista.
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