Summary

This unit can be used at the beginning of a prekindergarten school year to assess the students’ ability to perform different types of play because it is based on the New York State Core Curriculum Standards. The eight different types of play that I used for lessons in this unit are; free play, associative play, parallel play, cooperative play, dramatic play, sociodramatic play, readers theater, and constructive play.

The first two lessons are on free play, allowing the students to decide how, with what, and with whom (if anyone) they would like to play. The teacher will assess how the children play and make notes for future reference. Then, lessons three through nine were about specific forms of play that will first be modeled by the teacher before the children participate in each lesson. Finally, the last lesson, or culminating activity for the unit is to allow the children to return to their initial lessons involving free play. It is during this time that the teacher will get a lot of information about how the children play and which forms of play the children prefer.

The teacher will use the assessment rubric to make notes about the forms of play she sees and use that information to help her form the lessons for the next few months of the school year. The goal of this introductory unit is to get to know and understand how the students learn so the teacher can plan her lessons in a way then benefits all of her students’ needs so they can each learn to the best of their ability.