Education Commons^™

Orchestrating A Kindergarten Block Program : The Teacher's Role, Abbey Butcosk

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Analyzes the role of the teacher in kindergarten block building

"Where Do The Bears Go?" The Value Of Child-Directed Play, Genan Anderson, Anita Spainhower, Ann Sharp

Genan Anderson

This article uses the socio-dramatic play of pre-K children to reinforce the rich learning that occurs in child-directed play. The teacher’s role in supporting the play through adapting the environment with props and space as well as intentional teaching through the use of open-ended questions, suggestions, modeling, and providing additional information is made explicit. The authors voice strong support for the importance of play in early childhood classrooms to build competence in common core standards and to assist in the development of executive functioning, problem solving, and self-regulation.

Waldorf Kindergarten And Reggio-Inspired Kindergarten: Documenting Value And Effectiveness Of Two Arts-Based Approaches, Daria Stowell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten are two arts-based approaches to early childhood education that are viewed as strong educational alternatives to traditional education and serve as sources of inspiration for progressive educational reform. This study describes, interprets, and appraises the intentions and operations of two Waldorf kindergartens and two Reggio-inspired kindergartens in the United States in order to uncover the aims, practices, and values of both.

Five questions guide this study: (1) What are the intentions of Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten? (2) What do Waldorf kindergarten and Reggio-inspired kindergarten look like in practice? (3) What do the children have …

Children’S Enjoyment Of Play During School Lunchtime Breaks: An Examination Of Intraday And Interday Reliability, Brendon P. Hyndman, Amanda Telford, Caroline Finch, Shahid Ullah, Amanda Benson

Dr Brendon P Hyndman

Background: Enjoyment and play during school lunchtime are correlated with children’s physical activity. Despite this, there is an absence of studies reporting children’s enjoyment of play during school lunchtime breaks. The purpose of this study was to examine the intraday and interday reliability of children’s enjoyment of school lunchtime play. Methods: Surveys used to assess children’s enjoyment of lunchtime play were distributed to and completed by 197 children (112 males, 85 females), aged 8–12 years attending an elementary school in Victoria, Australia. Children completed the surveys during class before lunch (expected enjoyment) and after lunch (actual enjoyment) for 5 days. …