When all the shelves are empty
Without picking up a pencil, without using a worksheet, without direct adult instruction -- these materials and the children's imagination leads to exploration in quantity, attribute, position, movement, direction, order, sequence, and pattern.
What is Dramatic Play?
We take a sharp departure from community helper, teacher-shaped delivery and packaged dramatic play -- that is not the scaffolding we are looking for -- and this departure takes us down a path that is not always a sunny, little place of a brick-solid house with garden. Mostly, our dramatic play is built of sticks and how fabulous is it when it holds? And falls?!?
The Cache Builders
To the uninitiated, it looks like there are gigantic piles of debris everywhere. To us, the teachers, parents, and children of The Cooperative School, these glorious pile-ups look like expressions of joy.
Planned Serendipity, A Discussion About "Child-led Curriculum"
Humans have been using story to enliven their play for a very, very long time so this is nothing new.This is what “planned serendipity” is – we imagine and re-imagine possible story lines and collect materials that enrich them and enjoy the play that unfolds.