Tools for play inspire the desire to write

by Deborah J. Stewart, M.Ed. 
Mrs. Courtney and I spend a lot of time working out which tools for play we want to make sure we put together for the kids to use in our classroom….

Our primary goal in planning each day is to come up with different processes that not only promote growth and development, but also inspire growth and development…

Along with any process or play activity, we consider what type of growth and development might be inspired by this process and what kinds of tools for play can we add without it becoming too cluttered on the table and yet still keeping it interesting and inviting for the children…

Part of inspiring children is to bring in processes that the children are already showing an interest in. My students have been asking me to set out the telephones for play since the very first week of school so I went and dusted them off and we set them out in our outdoor classroom…

The telephones inspire conversation and imagination and role play all by themselves but I wanted to also inspire the children to do a little writing so I added clipboards, pencils, and paper to the table as well…

The telephones partnered with the clipboards, pencils, and paper did indeed inspire the process of writing in my classroom….

Some of the children are writing numbers and letters that I can recognize and others are not yet at the point where their writing can be “read by the teacher” but the important thing to keep in mind is that the children, regardless of developmental readiness, are each inspired to write something…

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