The need for structured play opportunities does not end when children enter grade one. Older learners in the Emerging Phase also need the support it provides for vocabulary development and growth in appropriate ways to communicate effectively with others.

Supporting Oral Language Development within Structured Play

Social play, as a primary means by which children learn about their world and develop their abilities to communicate with others, has been the focus of early childhood education literature for more than a century. As many good resources exist that describe ways to maximize the benefits of structured play, this will not be the focus here¹². The suggestions in this section will focus more specifically upon the ways to support oral language development through structured play opportunities (see also Incorporating Literacy into Social Dramatic Play, p. 116 for ways to support children's interest in and abilities to write and read).

Objectives

Students will demonstrate:

• emerging ability to use listening to understand the meaning and intent of others.
• emerging desire to participate in the discussion of ideas.
• increasing abilities to collaborate and co-operate with peers to create and participate in dramatic activities.
• increasing abilities to use role play and simulation to:
  • express knowledge and understandings
  • express their own cultural identity
  • extend understanding and appreciation of their own cultural identity
  • appreciate similarities and differences in cultures, lifestyles, and experiences.

Materials

• Various. The materials in play centers are dependent upon the nature of the particular center such as Housekeeping or Home Center, Sand Table, Water Table, or Block Center and on the particular topic being explored such as "Transportation" or "Fishing Camp" (see Children First, pp. 29-45 for ideas).
• Books, posters, movies, and videos related to a center or topic
• Camera
• Chart paper and markers
• Materials for bookmaking.

It is particularly important to be sensitive to the experiences of children from low income families when selecting foci for social play centers.













































Keep your conversations informal and avoid too many questions. You want to help students become accustomed to communicating about their work and ideas without "putting them on the spot" or giving them the idea that they are working or creating products for your benefit or praise.

Procedures

The choice of centers to support children's oral language development requires a knowledge of the communities from which your children come. While some of your structured play centers will be ones that extend children's experiences beyond the familiar, others will be selected to represent the cultural groups that reflect children's experiences.

1. Introduce a new center at your group meeting time in some of the following ways:
   • showing some interesting materials in the centers and briefly demonstrating a few ways to use them
   • reading a book or viewing a video related to the focus/theme of the center with your class.

   As you discuss ideas and activities related to the center, incorporate theme-related vocabulary or interesting sentence patterns into your own speech and questions. Sometimes just hearing a new word or sentence structure a few more times in a related context is sufficient to result in children incorporating it appropriately in their own conversations.

   For example, you might say: "Letter carriers used to be called postmen even though some of them were women. We'll try and remember to call the people who deliver mail from our post office, letter carriers. Those of you who want to work in our post office sorting and stamping mail will be postal workers."

   Draw attention to the ways characters in books talk to each other as another way to increase students' attentiveness to language use.

   For example, you might say: "I like the way the mother in this story always said, 'And I certainly hope you won't forget to kiss me good-bye' whenever her children asked if they could go somewhere. Do you think you might say that if you were a mother or father?"

2. Role play ways to solve problems that arise (see Supported Role Play for Social Problem Solving, p. 36). Remind children as necessary to "use their words" to solve problems and provide the language for those children who need it.

3. Stress the use of language for planning and carrying out plans co-operatively in play centers or other activities.

   For example, you might say: "Don't forget to talk to each other about how you are going to share the materials at your center today." or "You will have to make a plan together about what you want to build today."

   Show appreciation of children's abilities to plan together at your next group meeting by collecting examples of such talk as you circulate during structured play or center time, and sharing them with the class.

4. Enter briefly into children's play to provide additional language for the social situations they create and the materials they are using or pretending to use. Strengthen their understanding of the following:
   • the idea that people in the situations they are pretending to be in would be talking to each other
   • ways to apply new vocabulary to concrete situations.

   For example, upon entering the block center that has been turned into a fire station, you might say: "So, who's working the late shift tonight? I'd rather work the day shift so I can do things with my family after supper." or "Have there been any fires on this shift?… Were you able to save the house?" Stopping to visit with two children using small vehicles in the sand table, you might say: "You've certainly made some good roads in your town. My street has so many bumps in it that it makes the car shake but your streets are nice and smooth. Do you have to resurface them very often?"

5. Show appreciation for the ways that children talk to each other as they work/play together at centers or during other activities.

   For example, on observing two children talking together at the craft table as they work on individual collages, "It's fun, isn't it, to have someone to visit with while we are working. Sometimes my sister and I like to bake together so that we can chat as we work."

6. Briefly discuss children's creative projects or play with them as you circulate around the room or playground. Your conversations should:
   • draw students in
   • support them in expressing ideas and feelings about their learning, while keeping the ownership for their learning in their hands.

   For example, on walking by a child who is painting, "I'm really interested in how you made that colour." … Maybe you could bring your painting to our group time today and tell your classmates about how you did it." On observing children playing a game of their own invention outdoors, "You look like you are really having fun. I like the way no one who wants to play is left out and newcomers can join. Maybe this would be a good game to explain to everyone at Sharing Time today."

7. Incorporate a group time at the end of structured play or Center Time for children to share the work they did that day, describe ideas they had, things they learned, and ways they solved problems.

8. Keep a camera in your classroom and take pictures of children involved in structured play and learning centers. Use these pictures as the focus for classroom discussions. Invite the children in the photographs to tell something they remember about the experience captured in the photographs. Children can also dictate or write captions for each photograph. These can be made into books and become the focus of conversations between children in the class or children and their parents/guardians, reading buddies, and others.