This book is packed with fun and exciting activities that enable the child to make sense of the world that they live in and relate it to their own experiences in order to enhance their personal and social development.

A practical book for teachers consisting of 10 YC and TYC articles on the importance of integrating rich content-based, teacher-guided instruction with meaningful child-centered play to nurture children's emerging capabilities and skills.

This book is packed with fun and exciting activities that enable the child to make sense of the world that they live in and relate it to their own experiences in order to enhance their personal and social development.

This practical book provides pre- and inservice teachers with an understanding of how math can be learned through play. The author helps teachers to recognize the mathematical learning that occurs during play, to develop strategies for mathematizing that play, and to design formal lessons that make connections between mathematics and play. Common Core State Standards are addressed throughout the text to demonstrate the ways in which play is critical to standards-based mathematics teaching, and to help teachers become more familiar with these standards. Classroom examples illustrate that, unlike most formal tasks, play offers children opportunities to solve nonroutine problems and to demonstrate a variety of mathematical ways of thinking—such as perseverance and attention to precision. This book will help put play back into the early childhood classroom where it belongs. Book Features: Makes explicit connections to play and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. Offers many examples of free play activities in which mathematics can be highlighted, as well as formal lessons that are inspired by play. Provides strategies for making assessments more playful, helping teachers meet increasing demands for assessment data while also reducing child stress. Includes highlight boxes with recommended resources, questions for reflection, key research findings, vocabulary, lesson plan templates, and more. “This is one of those books that I wish I had written. It is smart, readable, relevant, and authentically focused on children.” —From the Foreword by Elizabeth Graue, Sorenson Professor of Early Childhood Education, University of Wisconsin “In this deceptively easy-to-read book, Amy Parks explains two things that could make a world of difference in early childhood and elementary classrooms: Mathematics isn’t something in a workbook—it’s a fascinating part of the real world; And playing in school isn’t a luxury—it’s an essential context for learning about all sorts of things, including mathematics. Through vignettes of children learning mathematics as they play, Parks helps teachers recognize their ‘answerability to the moment,’ eschewing someone else’s determination of ‘best practice’ in favor of what works with actual children eager to learn mathematics.” —Rebecca New, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book explores early childhood teacher educators’ lived experiences in designing and implementing intentional play-based approaches in teaching preservice teachers. The chapters cover action research, teaching stories about playful classroom practices, and diverse narratives about developing preservice teachers’ positive views toward play. Early childhood teacher educators will be encouraged to (re)explore their beliefs about the roles of play and playfulness in higher education. Readers will learn playful strategies to actively engage preservice teachers in building meaningful knowledge about play and how to use play to support young children’s learning across varied cultural contexts, experiences, and individual differences.

Winner of the 2013 Nursery World Awards! This is a key text for all those studying for degrees and foundation degrees in early childhood, early years and related disciplines and for candidates on EYPS pathways. It takes the reader through a detailed exploration of the nature of play examining the features and the concepts of play. Guidance on the observation of children′s play is included and the text encourages students to appreciate the value of play in development and in socialisation. Children′s rights and the ownership of play are also covered. With interactive activities and case studies throughout, the text helps students to arrive at an understanding of their own practice in relation to play. About the Early Years series This series has been designed to support students of Early Years, Early Childhood Studies and related disciplines in popular modules of their course. Each text takes a focused look at a specific topic and approaches it in an accessible and user-friendly way. Features have been developed to help readers engage with the text and understand the subject from a number of different viewpoints. Activities pose questions to prompt thought and discussion and ′Theory Focus′ boxes examine essential theory close-up for better understanding. This series is also applicable to EYPS candidates on all pathways. Other titles in the series are Early Childhood Studies, Childhood in Society for Early Childhood Studies and Child Observation for the Early Years.