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Serious Fun: How Guided Play Extends Children's Learning

Girl building a structure while her teacher observes

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Marie L. Masterson, Holly Bohart

About the Book

Guided play is a powerful tool educators can use to help preschoolers and kindergartners learn essential knowledge and skills in the context of playful situations. Apply the information, strategies, and ideas in this book to 

  • Provide content-rich, joyful learning experiences
  • Balance child-guided and adult-guided play
  • Set up play environments with learning goals in mind
  • Offer suggestions and questions during play to prompt children’s reflection and deeper learning


Young children’s natural curiosity and dynamic imaginations can lead to exciting and meaningful learning opportunities. Discover how to provide guided play experiences along with opportunities for unstructured play to support children’s knowledge in key areas and their lifelong enjoyment and pursuit of learning.

E-book versions of this publication are available in Spanish, Arabic, and Mandarin.

Academics' Choice Awards Smart Book Winner

Table of Contents

This section includes links to full chapters from inside the book (PDF).
  • Introduction
    Marie L. Masterson and Holly Bohart
  • Part One: Intentionally Creating Play Environments for Learning
    • Chapter 1: Brain Science and Guided Play 
      Brenna Hassinger-Das, Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, and Roberta Michnik Golinkoff
    • Chapter 2: Observing, Planning, Guiding: How an Intentional teacher Meets Standards Through Play
      Patricia McDonald
  • Part Two: Providing Rich Content Experiences Through Play
    • Chapter 3: Supporting Language Through Culturally Rich Dramatic Play
      Irasema Salínas-Gonzalez, María G. Arreguin-Anderson, and Iliana Alanís
    • Chapter 4: Connecting Art, Literacy, and Drama Through Storytelling
      Bonnie Ripstein
    • Chapter 5: Playful Math Instruction and Standards
      Deborah Stipek
    • Chapter 6: Fostering Positive Experiences in the Math Center for African-American Boys
      Danielle B. Davis and Dale C. Farran
    • Chapter 7: What Can You Do With Bamboo? Preschoolers Explore a Natural Material
      Condie Collins Ward
    • Chapter 8: Engaging and Enriching Play is Rigorous Learning
      Shannon Riley-Ayers and Alexandra Figueras-Daniel
  • Reflection
    Marie L. Masterson
  • For Families: Play and Learning Go Hand in Hand
    Laurel Bongiorno
  • References
  • Resources for Further Learning
  • About the Authors and Editors

Book Details

Product Code: 1137
ISBN: 978-1-938113-39-0
Publish Date: 2019
Citation (in Chicago 17th ed. style): 
Masterson, M.L., & H. Bohart, eds. 2019. Serious Fun: How Guided Play Extends Children’s Learning. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Related Resources


Online Training

This self-paced online module for preschool teachers focuses on planning, implementing, and observing playful activities that enhance children’s knowledge and skills. Register today!

Study Guide

Download the study guide for additional strategies on how to implement, observe, and assess playful learning in the classroom.

Webinar

The powerful impact of play-based learning - In this webinar, Psychology expert Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and policy analyst Shayna Cook, dig into the latest research on why play is critical to children’s learning and development. This video will help educators learn strategies to gently guide play in ways that boost knowledge and skill development. Administrators and policy makers will discover why recent brain research supports increased time for play-based learning.

Online Articles

The Case of Brain Science and Guided Play: A Developing Story - This article examines the relationships between children’s play and development. (Young Children, May 2017)

Playful Math Instruction in the Context of Standards and Accountability - Did the children in this article know they were participating in math lessons? Probably not. But they were indeed learning math through what we refer to as playful instruction. (Young Children, July 2017)

Observing, Planning, Guiding: How an Intentional Teacher Meets Standards through Play - This article describes achieving a balance of child-directed and teacher-guided play in the classroom. (Young Children, March 2018)

 

Looking for more resources on Play? Visit our topic page to browse our collection of articles on the topic.

Enrich Your Curriculum: Purchase the Module!

The Serious Fun! online module is self-paced and designed for preschool educators looking to enhance their knowledge of guided play in the classroom. This module for preschool teachers focuses on planning, implementing, and observing playful activities that enhance children’s knowledge and skills. This online learning experience offers guidance on how to interact with children during play, carefully evaluate teaching practices, incorporate meaningful play opportunities into rigorous and developmentally appropriate practices that can result in deep, rich learning for children, and more.

 

This course is available in English and Spanish:

Audience: Teacher
Age: Kindergarten, Preschool
Topics: Curriculum, Assessment, Classroom Management, Curriculum Development, Other Topics, Play
Marie L. Masterson

Marie Masterson, PhD, is the director of quality assessment at the McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership at National Louis University, where she oversees evaluation for ExceleRate Illinois. She holds a doctorate in early childhood education, is a licensed teacher, and is a national speaker and author of many books and articles that address research-based, practical skills for high-quality teaching, behavior guidance, quality improvement, and leadership. She is a contributing editor of Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth Through Age 8, fourth edition, and coauthor of
Building on Whole Leadership: Energizing and Strengthening Your Early Childhood Program. Dr. Masterson is a former higher education faculty teacher trainer and early childhood specialist for the Virginia Department of Education. She provides educational consulting and professional development training to child care programs, schools, and organizations engaged in quality improvement and equitable teaching initiatives.

Marie L. Masterson
Holly Bohart

Holly Bohart is senior editor in Books and Related Resources at NAEYC. She formerly taught in special education early childhood programs.

Reviews

Serious Fun demonstrates the importance not only of children’s play but also of teachers’ roles as intentional facilitators. Educators will find strategies that best fit children’s needs as well as ways to share with families the importance of play for all areas of learning.
—Noelle Woytko, Lead Preschool Teacher, Children’s Village, Philadelphia
 
Through a vibrant narrative, the authors explain how a playful approach to learning paired with teachers’ astute observation skills facilitate optimal development for children. If you are seeking an authoritative resource on play, update your library with Serious Fun: Guiding Play to Extend Children’s Learning.
—Vivien Geneser, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University–San Antonio
 
This is the perfect book for every educator who sees play as valuable for learning and for those who are still exploring play-based approaches in their settings. As an educator for 35 years, I wish this book had been around during my early teaching of young children. I appreciate the courage shown in producing such a resource for current and future educators, and I can’t wait to share it with my colleagues and the families I serve.
—Melody Robinson, Owner/Director, Parent’s Helper Home Daycare, Oak Park, IL
 
Effective educators understand and support the role of both free and guided play in early learning settings. The authors have captured the power of play with real-life situations and scenarios. You’ll be encouraged to reflect on your own practices and ways you can adapt the ideas to your own setting. 
—Kathryn Raasch, Principal, Wayne Township Preschool, Indianapolis
 
With suggestions that are well supported by research, professional standards, and resources, this comprehensive book illustrates how practitioners can support and guide play to benefit all children.
—LaDonna Atkins, Professor of Child Development, University of Central Oklahoma
 
Teachers are essential to facilitating play so that it is filled with learning opportunities. This book addresses the critical considerations for supporting playful learning and instruction in practical ways.
—Gaye Gronlund, retired educational consultant and coauthor of Saving Play: Addressing Standards Through Play-Based Learning in Preschool and Kindergarten
 
This volume is rooted in current best practices and built on a firm foundation of developmentally and culturally appropriate teaching. The influence of both Vygotsky and Malaguzzi are evident throughout the text in how educators respect and build on young children’s enormous capacity for learning. The book also offers support for teachers wanting to communicate with families the advantages of play for each learning domain.
—D. Reece Wilson, Assistant Professor, James Madison University

 

[Serious Fun: How Guided Play Extends Children’s Learning] offers richly informative and timely coverage of a paradigm that perhaps can stop, once and for all, the cycle of alternating between overly didactic instruction and overly permissive free play. The book provides many opportunities to consider important basic questions about the adult’s role in children’s play and the relationship between teaching, playing, and learning. Play is valuable, certainly, even when it does not contribute to the curriculum and even if teachers are not involved. Nevertheless, this book draws attention to the role of teachers (or parents) in providing background experiences, making play provisions, and implementing interactional strategies; in other words, guiding the play of young children.

—Excerpt from Teachers College Record review by James Johnson

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