Children Gain Powerful Knowledge through Play

Children learn through play. You hear us say this often, but what does it mean? From birth, children are active participants in building their own understanding. They do this by experimenting, observing, and participating with other children and adults.

Children construct knowledge and build on what they already know. Adults observe each child. They watch the children work with the materials and toys. Teachers prepare the environment to help each child build on what they already know. What does this look like at Tiffany’s daycare?

Here is a quick tour of what a child is learning as they play with the different materials, media, and toys.

When playing games and working puzzles or building with Legos, they are learning:

• Small muscle control
• Eye-hand coordination
• To increase their focus ability and concentration skills
• Parts-to-whole concepts
• One to one correspondence and sets

You may see your child doodling on paper with a marker or a pen. They are learning:

• Utilization of fine motor skills
• Visual discrimination
• About shape, color, space, and texture
• To express their thoughts on paper
• To experiment with letter sounds (invented spelling)
• To construct words, phrases, and sentences
• The power of print
• The importance of literacy
• The joy of reading and writing

During dramatic play your child may be dressing up or pretending to serve a friend food. They are learning:

• To interact with others
• Empathy through role playing
• To take turns and to share
• Relationship of home, school, and the community
• Language skills and new vocabulary
• Math concepts, such as more/less

With blocks, you may see your child building a "farm" or making a "road." They are learning:

• Spatial relationships and physical properties of objects
• Cooperation
• Problem solving skills
• Math concepts such as size, shape, weight, and volume.