DOUBLE TAP TO ZOOM WITH PHONE OR TABLET A Note To You From Lisa….. In her book, Teaching in the Key of Life, author Mimi Bronsky-Chenfeld talks about the “wolves” that are occasionally seen stalking school hallways and lurking around preschool classroom doors. Wolves, by definition, are those concerned types who want to know what children are “doing” all day (read: doing to get ready for kindergarten). They desire to know the rationale for flubber, the developmentally appropriateness of ooblick, the reason for the hokey pokey, the goal of splatter painting, and the objective of swinging on your tummy. They seem to search incessantly for an overall justification of the importance of what we might call “play.” Great will be the day when we no longer have to defend what we do— but for now, we do. Therefore, we must be armed with an arsenal of information. And while we fight as we might to have play valued for it’s own sake, we have the professional responsibility to be able to articulate what is happening when children do play. When children are engaged in meaningful experiences and spend time in environments that emphasize wonder, discovery and creativity, (not the accumulation of a bunch o’facts) “learning” is happening all day long! Unfortunately though, many of us work in environments where there is a lot of pressure for children to be performing, gathering random bits of knowledge and hurrying up to be “ready” for the next expectation with no time left to appreciate the here-and-now. As professionals we must work towards being able to convey our message about the value of play to the “wolves” that come to our door. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL 7