"Play is the work of children. Our job is to complicate the play."

Here at Risen Savior Early Childhood Center, we pride ourselves on play based learning. We believe learning should be fun and meaningful.  Our classes are designed to meet the interests of the children.  They have the opportunity to explore, discover and create their own knowledge through developmentally appropriate activities.  As a 4-star center, we set high standards of quality care and education.

But the big question on parents' minds is- how does play contribute to reading? How does play prepare our children for the academic challenges of elementary school and beyond?

First, let's talk about Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). ZPD isn't just a fun reference to the Zootopia Police Department! It is the metaphorical space between what a learner can do independently and what they can achieve with guidance. Introduced by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, it represents the optimal learning phase where a task is challenging but entirely doable with the right support.

In the above image, we can see that the center circle encompasses things a learner can do on their own. This would be considered things that are simple, and easy for a child. If their learning environment only accommodates this inner circle, they are not challenged, will not grow, and will become bored, leading to more behavior issues.

The outer ring is what a learner cannot do. This would be like giving a 4 year old double digit addition with regrouping and asking them to complete it with no help. As expected, this is when they become over challenged. They give up, they hate learning, and again, we see an increase in behavior problems.

The middle ring is the sweet spot. This is the Zone of Proximal Development! These are activities that the learner cannot complete alone, but they can succeed at with guidance. That guidance gives them the confidence to eventually be able to do the task on their own. The learner is just the right amount of challenged to keep them excited, motivated, and ready to learn.

Based on this research, we can provide children with play based strategies that perfectly fit within their ZPD.

1. We don't put 2-year-old activities in a 4-year-old room.
2. We rotate activities to maintain interest.
3. We play with the children to introduce new concepts and ideas.
4. We use play to reinforce the new concepts and ideas.

Here is an example:

A 2 year old classroom is learning about frogs. First, they read "That's Not My Frog..." by Usborne which uses bright colors and different textured patches for little hands to explore. We know that children who are 2 years old are just starting to develop phonological awareness (the ability to interpret the sound they hear in spoken language). With this knowledge, the teacher creates a play-based activity, within the students' ZPD, to reinforce their beginning phonological knowledge.

The teacher creates an activity called Froggy Sound Hop. Students hop from lily pad to lily pad, and discover pictures of frogs and other familiar objects while listening for words that begin with the /f/ sound, such as frog, fly, flower, and fish. Together, they exaggerate the beginning sound in each word, repeat it aloud, and celebrate our discoveries through movement, songs, and pretend play. They will also come across words that do not start with that /f/ sound, such as tree or log, to help them recognize the difference between /f/ and other sounds.

At 2 years old, children are just beginning to notice that words are made up of different sounds. They are not expected to identify these sounds on their own yet, but with guidance from caring adults, they can begin to hear similarities between words and enjoy experimenting with language. This type of playful support helps children build confidence while strengthening important listening and communication skills.

Activities like Froggy Sound Hop also encourage gross motor development, imaginative play, vocabulary growth, and social interaction—all while laying the foundation for future reading success. By combining movement, exploration, and joyful learning, we help children discover that learning can be both meaningful and fun.

There are many other ways that play builds strong readers, but we'll just talk about one more for now!

All things start at 0. Babies are not born understanding how to speak, read, or even play. All things need to be taught; and we can't teach things in any order that we want. There are neurological development pathways in our brains that follow a specific pattern of what needs to happen before something else.

Take a look at these stairs:

The stairs represent the developmental steps that take place in a child's mind to make them a successful speaker and reader.

Babies and infants start learning language by listening. They listen to you all day long, creating new pathways in their brain to eventually be able to express what they've listened to into formed words. Next they can move on to rhyming, alliteration, and eventually reach the top step.

Let's say a child is working on developmental step #2- rhyming.

Sure, you can give a child a worksheet that asks them to match rhymes; but imagine building rhymes instead. Let's put pictures and words onto blocks and ask children to build the tallest rhyme tower with you. Doesn't that sound way more fun than a worksheet? Now we're building our imaginations, we're physically moving our bodies, practicing balancing blocks, and rhyming all at the same time.

At first glance, rhyming games may seem like simple fun, but they play an important role in preparing young children to become successful readers. Remember when I talked about phonological awareness in the frog activity? Rhyming is one of the earliest and most enjoyable ways to build it. It helps them to recognize patterns in language and teaches them that words are made up of seperate sound parts (morphemes and phonemes). This later develops into the ability to sound out unfamiliar words, recognize word families, and decode text as they learn to read.

In Conclusion

All of us here at Risen Savior ECC believe in brain science, and brain science tells us that children learn in specific steps, at specific levels. We are here to meet children at those levels and provide developmentally appropriate activities to support their learning milestones. We don't over challenge them by giving a 2-year-old a 4-year-old activity. We don't oversimplify by giving a 4-year-old a 2-year-old activity. Most importantly, we make learning relevant and exciting; and we do all of this through play.

If you are interested in learning more about brain science, and how play based curriculum supports it, feel free to reach out!

Thank you for stopping by for another blog post, stay tuned for more soon!

Makenna 

My name is Makenna and I am the Family Support Specialist at Risen Savior Early Childhood Center (ECC). My goal is not only to support students, but also the amazing families who care for them every day.

Throughout the year, I'll be sharing practical tips, child development insights, fun activities you can try at home, highlights from Risen Savior, and resources to help your family thrive.

Whether you're a current family or just beginning your preschool search, we're so glad you're here!

To start off our blog, today I'll be sharing some tips on how to have a great preschool morning!

First Day Drop-off:
The first day can be tough for both students and parents, especially if a student is not used to going places without you by their side. It is our goal to ensure that your student feels welcome and safe within our walls, and that you feel confident leaving your baby in our hands. Here are some ways to help the first day drop-off go as smoothly as possible:

• Talk positively about school before the first day
• Practice independence at home such as:
  • Picking out their outfit for the day
  • Picking out their own breakfast
  • Allow them to put toothpaste on their toothbrush, wash their hands, and brush their hair in front of a mirror
  • Give them safe tasks like tearing lettuce, washing fruits, or carrying their own unbreakable plates to the table
• Label their belongings
• Talk about what to expect at drop-off
• Help them feel confident 
  • Read school themed books
  • Provide them with a comfort item
  • Create a goodbye ritual
  • Visit their classroom and teacher ahead of time

Here are some books to read to your child before starting school for the first time:

Now after the first day stress is over, it's time to repeat this drop-off process each day throughout the school year. There will be good days, and bad days. There will be days where you get a quick "Bye!" as they run to their best friend in the classroom; then there will be other days with tears, hugs that don't let go, and it can feel very heavy in your heart to have to leave them. This is all normal! Just like adults, children experience highs and lows, it is our job to help them work through those hard times and cherish the happy times.

Here are some pointers on how to help you and your student have a great preschool drop-off every day:

• Keep your routines short and positive
  • Long, drawn out routines will make it harder and harder to drop off because they get used to spending extra time with you, and slowly that time will increase as the days go by.
  • Stick with a simple hug, high five, "I love you," "I'll see you again soon," "Have a great day at school."
• Let your child do one thing independently (carry their backpack, choose their shoes, put in their pin number in the lobby, etc.)
• Talk about something they are excited to do at school today on the ride there

Lastly, don't stop reading about school after the first day! When children read things that are relevant to their lives, they are much more focused and engaged. Just like we want to read our children books about our own cultures and other cultures; we want to have them read about familiar school experiences and new ones. We want to meet them where they're at and broaden their horizons too. Here are some stories to continue reading about school at home:

In conclusion, school drop-off doesn't have to be a source of stress between you and your student. Taking proactive steps at home to prepare for drop-off will help immensely, but when it's a tough morning, our teachers are well trained at handling any tears or upset and can assist you anytime you need.

Thank you so much for reading through our very first blog post! We hope to talk about many helpful topics throughout the year through this format, and hope you will come back frequently for these kinds of resources! Also, if there is ever a topic you'd like to suggest to us, feel free to do so! We love input!

From all of us here at Risen Savior ECC, welcome!