Teaching Practices to Support Learning through Play in Your Preschool Program

Presented by Kristen Kemple, Ph.D., Professor of Early Childhood Studies, University of Florida
Sponsored by Gryphon House

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Do you find yourself struggling to justify the importance of play in your preschool program? Do you wonder how to explain the contributions of play to children’s learning and development? Would you like to develop your own skills for making the most of play’s potential?

In this edWebinar, Kristen Kemple, Ph.D., Professor of Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida, provides an overview of the nature of play, and an introduction to how play contributes to children’s learning in the areas of language, literacy, self-regulation, mathematical thinking, scientific reasoning, creativity, socio-emotional development, and physical growth and well-being. To make the most of children’s play, we can do so much more than simply provide the time and the space for play. After a general overview of teachers’ various roles in supporting play, the presentation zooms in on a few selected specific skills that preschool teachers can develop and use to optimize the learning power of children’s play, while still allowing it to be play!

Watch this presentation to learn how to:

• Explain what play is and what it is not
• Identify at least two contributions of play to children’s learning, development and well-being
• Describe at least two play-support skills you can use to support children’s learning and development through play

Learn how to optimize children’s play to support learning goals. All preschool educators and administrators are invited to this recorded session.

About the Presenter

Kristen Kemple, Ph.D., is a professor of early childhood studies, and a member of the Anita Zucker Center for Excellence in Early Childhood Studies at the University of Florida. She received her Ph.D. in child development and family relationships from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. As a former preschool teacher in a variety of settings including Head Start, she is committed to combining her “real world” experience and her scholarship to provide relevant research-to-practice support for early childhood educators. Dr. Kemple is the author of Planning for PLAY: Strategies for Guiding Preschool Learning. Her research and writing focus on the role of play in early childhood education, social and emotional learning in early childhood, and early childhood teacher education.

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Watch the Recording

 Gryphon House, Inc. is an award-winning publisher of early childhood resources for teachers and parents.