"They invent scenes and stories, solve problems, and negotiate their way through social roadblocks. They know what they want to do and work diligently to do it. Because their motivation comes from within, they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. "


"Research comparing 50 play-based classes with 50 early-learning centers found that by age ten the children who had played in kindergarten excelled over the others in a host of ways. They were more advanced in reading and mathematics and they were better adjusted socially and emotionally in school. They excelled in creativity and intelligence, oral expression, and "industry."


"The creation of a healthy balance described above has been blocked by current policies and government-imposed practices and programs, including No Child Left Behind and Reading First. These well-intentioned but fundamentally flawed mandates rely on testing and on didactic and scripted approaches—especially for teaching children from low-income backgrounds—in spite of the fact that these practices are not well supported by research evidence. Indeed, many of the current approaches to kindergarten education are based on unfounded assumptions and preconceptions about what is best for children and schools."

I picked these because I strongly agree with them. Play is important not only as a child but as an adult too for many of the same reasons. Children have become so programmed to believing that their is one right answer and one way to do things, that they are lost when you let them be creative. One of the girls in my third grade class, is so smart but when we color or paint she is lost. She sho usually is done and helping other students has to have some help her or they finish painting for her because she wants to quit. I think that the NCLB limits teachers and prinicals. I see it all the time especially now because WESTest is coming up. Teachers change their lessons to more reading and english because this is what they "need" to learn so that they keep their jobs. It's there to prevent teacher from not doing their job but it keeps teacher from excelling at their job and reaching out to the student that really need help. There is so much drill and kill going on and the student that haven't been doing well still aren't and they won't test well but enough of the students that have been doing fine or better will keep them from being in trouble.

PLAY=LEARNING

BENEFITS OF PLAY