Pelletier – setting the classroom for play

I think a classroom in which you tend not to see as much play might be set up differently first of all, so the space might be set up in a way that encourages more seat work and less activity that may not have as many opportunities for children to make their own choices and explore, but rather to do what it is that the teacher or ECE has asked them to do. So you might see desks, although we tend not to see that so much anymore, but you might see desks, but you might see groupings of seat work areas. You might see play centers if you will around the outside of the classes, something as a place where children can go after they’ve finished their work, rather than play being set up as the classroom space, where there is a large open space, where activity centers can be combined in ways that capitalize on children’s imagination and need to put things together in their play. So I think really, really you see the space. You see materials in a way that engage children’s interest, that capitalize on their need to make choices about what they want to do. Educators allow them to use materials in creative ways, not in particular didactic ways, but in ways that build on their curiosity. So their space, their materials, their time is set up differently too, so time would involve large time blocks rather than chopped up time for language and then math and then science, these things would be more integrated and there would be large time blocks. For instance, we know that children won’t even engage in play if they know they’re going to be stopped.