Children process and learn information by playing with it. Play is the way children learn what no one can teach them. Depriving children of play has negating opportunities for self-initiated and pleasurable learning experiences. Children learn when they explore and play, involve their sense, manipulate real objects, work together with adults and children, make meaningful plans and decisions, see the results of their actions, and build upon what they already know. Play is the all-encompassing business of children -- their work, their entertainment, their methods of sorting out the world. Beyond the urgent survival requirements of food, care, and shelter, children need a wide variety of play activities for healthy physical, mental, and emotional development.

Children need to discover their own answers to the questions why, when, and how come, in a relaxed and noncompetitive environment which promotes creative play. The understanding of these questions does not come through words alone. Preschoolers have important lessons to learn about themselves that have virtually nothing to do with education as adults understand it. Children are dependent on real experiences they can feel, touch, taste, smell, hear, and see. They need to hear the voices of playmates as they converse while playing in the housekeeping area, feel the difference between cornmeal, water, sand, play-dough, see how blocks can be transformed into a castle, how puzzle pieces fit together, and see a playmate dressed up in play clothes. This sensory style of learning remains the dominant way children build solid understandings about themselves and the world in which they live.

One of the most important ways children clarify their understanding of the real world is by playing make-believe or pretend play. Dramatic play (pretend play) and block construction provide children with many opportunities for creative play. In dramatic play, children transform the physical environment into a symbol. This type of play appears rather abruptly at 18 months, continues to develop between ages three and four, peaks between five and six, and then declines in early elementary years as children's interests shift to games.

Dramatic play lays the framework for children's abstract thought, and for future creativity and storytelling. Children try out many different roles (mother, father, teacher, baby, and community helpers). As they role play, it is important for them to have a place to conduct their dramatic play. Appropriate props (dress-up clothes, hats, dolls, cardboard boxes) enhance the reality of the play. Children need freedom to move from one activity to another as their tastes dictate, and they need uninterrupted time to carry a play situation through its satisfying completion. A rich background of actual life experiences is fundamental to developing creative play. Field trips, holidays, books, visitors, science experiments will increase the base of experiences upon which they can build their play.

Many skills and abilities develop during block play as they do during dramatic play. Children playing with blocks observe size relationships and construct principles, initiate a plan, develop eye-hand coordination, use language, and cooperate with others. Children are thinking as they play with blocks. Our understanding of children's spatial concepts and other aspects of cognitive development increases as we watch children manipulate and design block arrangements.

Blocks provide endless opportunities for the development of emerging perceptual motor skills such as stacking, reaching, grasping, lifting, shoving, carrying, and balancing. Block building is emotionally satisfying as blocks lend themselves readily to building structures of considerable heights and large dimensions, helping the children to feel strong and masterful. Children also feel creative as blocks ay be used to build anything that suits their fancy. Blocks help children grasp the principle that operations are reversible (when a tower falls, it returns ti a prior form) They can demonstrate conversation (four blocks can be piled into a variety of shapes to retain their quality of fourness). Blocks also show the principle of transitivity where four short blocks equal two longer ones which in turn equal one very long one. This provides a good visual pre-tah skill of whole, one-half, and one fourth.

Through play, children exercise and develop their growing bodies, learn muscle control and coordination. Play stimulates more than muscle development in children, it involves the mind and emotions. Children jump with joy, bang with anger, run with fear, and bounce with pleasure. They are allowed to play out their emotions and express their feelings.

Toys and materials used in play can also serve as an important educative function. Some educational toys teach children colors, shapes, sizes, and words. Puzzles are quite useful in helping them understand that not only can things be broken down into parts they, but that can also be reconstructed. Drawing, coloring, and painting materials can be used by children to express their changing image of reality.

A good preschool program offers children a rich learning environment and permits the to explore it without fear of failure. Children will achieve a sense of self-worth as they play alone or as they develop wholesome social relationships with peers. Playing is fun and necessary for a joyful early childhood.