1. Student-Initiated Play and
Literacy Development
Play for young children is not recreation
activity,... It is not leisure-time activity nor
escape activity.... Play is thinking time for
young children. It is language time. Problem-
solving time. It is memory time, planning time,
investigating time. It is organization-of-ideas
time, when the young child uses his mind and
body and his social skills and all his powers in
response to the stimuli he has met.
--James L. Hymes, Jr., child development specialist, author

2. Oral Language
• Oral Language is a crucial part of literacy
development
• Research shows that vocabulary and oral
language skills are a bigger predictor of later
success in reading and writing than phonics
and alphabet knowledge
http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/alli
anceforchildhood.org/files/file/kindergarten_r
eport.pdf

3. Think of oral language as the base
of literacy. Reading and writing
cannot exist without it.
Oral
Language
Reading Writing

4. • Research shows that children who engage in complex
forms of socio-dramatic play have greater language
skills than non-players, better social skills, more
empathy, more imagination and more of the subtle
capacity to know what others mean.
http://www.allianceforchildhood.org/sites/allianceforchildhood.org
/files/file/kindergarten_report.pdf

6. Making lists of things to bring,
Passports and tickets at the Airport

7. Dramatic Play
A seat for the KING

9. A Place for Every Zoo Animal

10. At the
Restaurant…
… we take orders
… make menus
… write receipts
Doing some serious
work!

11. Some “poison scientists” have just discovered the
recipe for poison. They carefully read the recipe and
label the bottles of poison.

12. Questions?