Play for young children is not recreation activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor escape activity.... Play is thinking time for young children. It is language time. Problem- solving time. It is memory time, planning time, investigating time. It is organization-of- ideas time, when the young child uses his mind and body and his social skills and all his powers in response to the stimuli he has met. --James L. Hymes, Jr.As we are beginning this new semester, I have thought of some ways that I hope will improve and change the morning activities that the children choose. I explained to most of you during our Parent-Teacher conferences that I believe it is so important and want the children to choose the activities that they are interested in, therefore I put out varying activities that help to develop gross and fine motor skills, memory, linguistic and numeric literacy. Each child can perform at their own level, some are content to keep things simple while others like to be encouraged to see what other things can be done with a 'set' activity - such as can we boost it up by counting items, sorting by shape, color, or texture, etc. In redoing the choices for this semester, I have chosen to experiment and see if by putting out less to choose from, that the children will actually be able to have a better opportunity and chance at guiding their choices to experience all the varying activities that focus on different skill sets. I will rotate the activities through frequently, and will also still be working with students one-on-one or in small groups, monitoring what the students are choosing, and to see if they might need a little "push" in the direction to try something new. Sometimes they don't try because they haven't done it before and even though I show and explain each object, there is something wonderful about our "comfort zone" - however, when given the chance to try something with one-on-one attention, I have seen that most are delighted with how fun and enjoyable the new activity is, and they continue to play and use that skill set for quite some time. We can always work at encouraging and modeling behavior of being willing to try something new!
Here are some pictures from December of the children involved in their morning ac
tivities. This is a time where we ask that they respect each other's work space - they need to keep their own space physically (each person works on their own task unless I specifically ask them to work together or I am working witha small group) and they also are to use quiet voices. They can talk with one another as long as they don't interrupt other people around them. I have noticed that this is key as this is an age and time that they are looking for validation in the work that they are doing. When they build a tower they 
want someone to see how tall it is! They need to feel the reward and have the sense of accomplishment that they are doing a great job! We will continue to work on understanding how to give someone space, while still being a supportive friend and giving "thumbs-up" or other words of encouragement. This is a great group of little friends, and it is very enjoyable to see the real joy that they feel for one other as they see one of their friends who has done a great job and their want and desire to tell them so! As with many activities our children do, at first glance it seems that all they are doing is playing...however play is all about learning and there is always a lot of discovery and exploring that happens during this "play"! If you ever ask your child what they did, and they respond "PLAY!", hopefully we will express as m
uch enthusiasm and encouragement for them to continue their play, as we would if they responded, "I know how to count to ten in Spanish and French," or "I learned to play Fur Elise on the piano." Never underestimate the power of PLAY!
tivities. This is a time where we ask that they respect each other's work space - they need to keep their own space physically (each person works on their own task unless I specifically ask them to work together or I am working witha small group) and they also are to use quiet voices. They can talk with one another as long as they don't interrupt other people around them. I have noticed that this is key as this is an age and time that they are looking for validation in the work that they are doing. When they build a tower they 
want someone to see how tall it is! They need to feel the reward and have the sense of accomplishment that they are doing a great job! We will continue to work on understanding how to give someone space, while still being a supportive friend and giving "thumbs-up" or other words of encouragement. This is a great group of little friends, and it is very enjoyable to see the real joy that they feel for one other as they see one of their friends who has done a great job and their want and desire to tell them so! As with many activities our children do, at first glance it seems that all they are doing is playing...however play is all about learning and there is always a lot of discovery and exploring that happens during this "play"! If you ever ask your child what they did, and they respond "PLAY!", hopefully we will express as m
uch enthusiasm and encouragement for them to continue their play, as we would if they responded, "I know how to count to ten in Spanish and French," or "I learned to play Fur Elise on the piano." Never underestimate the power of PLAY! Play builds the kind of free-and-easy, try-it-out, do-it-yourself character that our future needs. We must become more self-conscious and more explicitin our praise and reinforcement as children use unstructured play materials: “That’s good. You use your own ideas....” “That’s good. You did it your way....” “That’s good. You thought it all out yourself.”
--James L. Hymes, Jr.,
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