Achieving Learning Goals Through Play, Second Edition
By Anne H. Widerstrom, Ph.D.

Play is more than just fun; it’s a powerful teaching tool that helps young children learn. With this practical, activity-filled guide, you’ll have ready-to-use strategies for weaving individual learning goals into play throughout the school day. Created for use with children ages 2 to 5 who have special needs — but equally effective for typically developing children — Achieving Learning Goals Through Play gives you age-specific ideas for using classroom play centers and materials to create learning opportunities

suggestions for supporting individual and group learning goals during familiar types of play (such as housekeeping, outdoor activities, and music and rhythm play)

straightforward planning sheets that help you work play activities into your existing classroom schedule

strategies that develop children’s social skills during group activities and free play

tips on adapting play for children with special needs Throughout the book, there’s information on how play activities can help children develop cognitive, communication, motor, social, and preliteracy skills. Helpful appendixes offer guidelines for developmentally appropriate practice, resources for including children with disabilities, and photocopiable planning matrixes. Use this strategy-filled guidebook to help all your students reach their learning goals in fun, creative ways.

New to this edition:

a chapter on emergent literacy and more literacy-building activities greater focus on inclusive environments and group settings more adaptations for children with severe and/or multiple disabilities more advice on addressing challenging behavior

Paperback
approx. 224 pages
8-1/2 x 11
September 2004

Table of Contents

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I: The Role of Play in Early Childhood Education

Why Is Play Important?

Changing Perceptions of Play in Early Childhood Education

Adapting Play for Children with Special Needs

II: Planning and Writing Goals and Objectives for Children with Disabilities A Planning Matrix for Play

Individualizing Goals for Play

III: Let's Play: Embedding Teaching and Learning Goals in Play Activities

Block Play: How High Is Our Tower?

Sand and Water Play: Mud Pies Are Delicious!

Pretend Play: I’ll Be the Mommy, and You Be the Daddy

Manipulative Play: Real Materials Are Best

Outdoor Games and Play: See How Fast I Can Go!

Play with Music and Rhythm: Beating Our Drums and Tooting Our Horns

Play with Creative Materials: Getting Messy with Glue and Paint

Emergent Literacy: Please Read Me a Story

Catalog of Play Activities: Embedding Learning Goals in Play

IV: Playing Together and Making Friends

Big Groups, Little Groups: Let’s All Learn Together

Learning Social Skills Through Play

Connecting Home to School and Beyond: Enabling Families to Participate in the Classroom and Community

Achieving Jasmine’s Learning Goals Through Play

References

Appendix A: Sources for Adaptive Equipment and Learning Materials
Appendix B: Guidelines for Developmentally Appropriate Practice: Adaptations for Children with Disabilities
Appendix C: Resources for Including Children with Special Needs
Appendix D: Play Checklists
Appendix E: Reproducible Play Matrices and Play Quiz