Play Environments - Pre-K Classroom

On March 17, 2009 I observed in a pre-kindergarten classroom at St. Mary Immaculate Parish School for a half hour during free play time. During this time, children were called over individually or in small groups to complete two centers - one where they used their fingerprints to make shamrocks and another where they worked on letter formation. In the classroom, there is a large wooden castle with stairs leading up to an open play area. As cool as this seemed to me, not many children were playing in it. The teacher told me that in the beginning of the teacher, when it was still new, almost all the students used to play in there, but now that they have gotten used to it, it seems less exciting to them. At this age, there was a lot of gender separation and also many children who were playing alone. When they were playing in groups, it was not usually more than four children. Boys were playing on the train table and doing puzzles, while girls were using the blocks to build towers and using manipulatives to create stories, either with other girls or individually. Boys were also playing superheroes in an open space, using no equipment. When the kids were doing the puzzles, they were playing with the pieces and pretending they were people. One of the teachers scolded them, telling to they had to use the puzzle "properly" or put it away. Boys and girls were both playing in the dollhouse, coloring and playing house. In the house area, there were children who were playing Mommy and Daddy and one or two who were the dogs. The parents made the meals and cared for the babies, while also playing fetch with the dog. The plastic food was used not only as the adults' food, the baby's food and the dog's food but also as dog toys. The roles were pretty fluid, with children choosing to stop being the mom and start being a dog whenever they wanted. The table and a large plastic tupperware were made into a cage for the dog. Play was pretty independent, unless one of the children refused to share with his friend. In these cases, the student would run and tell the teacher, who would set a time limit on how long each could play with the desired toy. This seemed to help the problem.