"Hey! Where's the toys?" Play and literacy in 1st grade

Childhood Education, Fall 1996 by Patton, Mary Martin, Mercer, Jennifer

My son Austin galloped into his 1st-grade classroom exhibiting the same robust enthusiasm for school with which he had greeted kindergarten. He stopped abruptly. Looking around in astonishment he turned to me and asked, "Where's the toys?" I could see the confusion on his face; surely we must be in the wrong classroom! Ms. Chandler, his teacher, quickly assured him that the closet held games for rainy days. Austin was not reassured, however, as we were living in the desert where the average yearly rainfall is eight inches! I felt an immediate pang of regret and sorrow for my child, who would be experiencing the painful rite of passage from "playing" in kindergarten to doing "real work" in Ist grade.

The generally acknowledged difference between kindergarten and 1st grade becomes obvious when you walk into a "traditional" 1stgrade classroom. Opportunities for child-initiated learning barely exist. Most notably, such classrooms lack centers for construction, sand and water play, sociodramatic / housekeeping play and woodworking. The centers that are present tend to be skills-based and ditto-driven.

"Playing" in child-initiated learning centers is considered the domain of preschool and kindergarten, while 1st grade marks the transition into a "work" environment. It is as if educators believe that during the short span between kindergarten's end and 1st grade's beginning, children magically transform into abstract learners who no longer need to interact with their environment in active, playful ways. Early childhood experts generally agree, however, that learning occurs "primarily through projects, learning centers, and playful activities that reflect current interests of children" (Bredekamp, 1987; Katz & Chard, 1989). This discrepancy in theory and practice might be explained by the fact that 1st grade historically was not considered a part of early childhood education. Today, however, the National Association for the Education of Young Children defines early childhood as birth through age 8, and many school districts are beginning to include 1st, 2nd and sometimes 3rd grade in their early childhood curricula.

Developmental continuity describes the natural progression of children's developmentally appropriate education experiences as they move from preschool through the primary grades (Barbour & Seefeldt, 1993). The transition from kindergarten to 1st grade is the most abrupt transition for young children, as evidenced by frequent comments such as, "He'll never make it in 1st grade-he's just not ready!" We think these ideas will help make Ist-grade classrooms ready for all children.

The 1st-Grade Teacher's Dilemma

First-grade teachers must often contend with administrators', 2nd-grade teachers' and parents' expectations that all students will be reading by the time they leave 1st grade. Teachers often cite this pressure as the reason their curriculum is so worksheet-driven. We believe,however, that child-initiated learning centers are not incompatible with literacy development. Child-initiated learning centers support literacy acquisition by encouraging children to construct their own learning in an environment that promotes exploration and engagement. In this setting, critical 1st-grade skills of reading and writing are integrated throughout the day's activities. All learning centers foster literacy with carefully chosen materials and props that promote literacy behaviors (Strickland & Morrow, 1989). This article will describe a "How To" approach for creating a lst-grade learning environment that is simultaneously developmentally appropriate and supportive of lst-graders' literacy development.

Playing To Learn

Play can be defined as an activity that is pleasurable, voluntary, spontaneous, devoid of imposed tasks or regulations, intrinsically motivated, undertaken for the process rather than an expected outcome and that requires active participation (Frost, 1992). "Quality play is not a luxury but a necessity in the lives of young children. . . Play contributes to learning and cognitive maturity as children consolidate what they know with what they are learning as they play" (Zeece&Graul, 1990, p. 15). Child-initiated learning centers promote learning through play by motivating students to engage in active learning experiences. Childinitiated learning centers are activelearning areas where students choose to engage in learning opportunities for large blocks of time (45 minutes or more). We will describe ten learning centers that we believe should be a part of every 1st-grade classroom: sociodramatic, block building, puppetry, library, construction/woodworking, sand and water, creative arts, science/math, writing and cooking. Lists of appropriate children's literature and props/materials for each center are included throughout this article. The centers should be both individually appropriate and age appropriate (i.e., materials and experiential activities should accommodate and engage all learning styles and span a diverse range of skills, interests and abilities). The aim can be accomplished if the centers support: