The School Superintendents Association (AASA) has a featured article in their journal referring to play in kindergarten! A MUST read!!! A MUST to share!  http://www.aasa.org/schooladministratorarticle.aspx?id=8450 

It appears that there may be a resurgence which is advocating for purposeful, intentional and facilitated play which if we jump on that bandwagon perhaps there will be some change in current practices which do not support the importance of play.

I also want to share another piece from Jen Kalis the Early Childhood PST from CESA 4.

This is just too good not to share! Karen Nemeth (DLL & EC author, consultant, and advocate) recently wrote an article called,  "The D.A.P. Gap: Is Cute the Enemy of Quality?" In this amazingly thoughtful and timely article Karen states, "True D.A.P. based on the research tells us that skills and letters and phonemes should be learned in the context of useful, authentic content...especially for dual language learners!" (and, of course, we know this is true for children with disabilities, too!).  This certainly supports the case for project approach and play-based learning. Karen challenges teachers and care providers to dig deeper using the questions-"What for? and What more?"  This article really hits home for me and many of the concerns that I've been having about schools, especially kindergarten, moving away from true D.A.P for more developmentally inappropriate  methods such as worksheets and isolated tasks. I don't think we can move toward inclusive practices or Tier III level specialized instruction strategies in our work if true D.A.P. is not happening as the foundation of  the EC programs and schools we support. I  plan to use this article as a talking point with teachers and administrators alike.