Laura Soto

April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

Creating a Center: My Plan
Rational Statement
This play center gave the students the opportunity to explore an open-ended engagement
that revolves around music, dramatic play, and building. Due to the childrens interest, I created
a center that could be approached in many ways. My case study has specifically demonstrated a
consistent interest in music and dramatic play both in her household and at school. My case
studys pseudonym is Anne. Anne always comes to choice time knowing exactly what she wants
to play and it usually involves some sort of socio-dramatic play that is inspired by something that
she learned at home. Anne is very creative and uses an abundant of resources for her dramatic
play. When asked what she was playing, Anne would answer that she was being a teacher, she
was cooking, she was taking her baby to school, or that she was doing a puppet show. Here are
some specific dates and locations in which I observed this type of play: January 7
th
(Tuesday)
during choice time she was being a photographer; January 24
th
(Friday) during choice time
where she said she was singing another classmate to sleep; January 28
th
(Tuesday) on the big
playground where she made pancakes out of sand; February 10
th
(Monday) after snack; February
25
th
(Tuesday) during choice time where she set up a puppet show; February 26
th
where she
pretended to call a friend; March 6
th
(Thursday) on the big play ground; March 10
th
where she
pretended to be the mommy and drive to the store; March 11
th
where she made pretend food on
the playground and sang Im a Little Teapot; and March 12
th
she played teacher with her sister at
home.
Some funds of knowledge that I took into consideration when creating the play center
were language (Dad speaks French, both parents speak Spanish, and older sister is learning and
teaching younger siblings Mandarin), music (the family enjoys listening to opera, they have LP
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

records and there are instruments in their home that are used) and dress up (the family goes
shopping for vintage clothing, has inherited vintage jewelry that the children dress up with, and
mom had a renaissance era dress custom made for herself).
During the week of April 6
th
, the whole class created a circular stage and turned on the
music and started singing to it and playing instruments during choice time. This was the perfect
segue into my play center.

Schema
I introduced the play center during earth week when we were discussing recycling and
upcycling. For one day we talked about upcycling: what is it? Do you do it? Why do we do it? I
brought in these pictures:
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2


On the second day we talked about what a stage was and the multiple things that you can
do on it: sing, act, dance, play instruments and have puppet shows. I asked a lot of questions to
understand their previous knowledge. Then I left the material in a pile and took a step back,
unless they asked for my help (which they did).
Create the Center
Materials: CDs, microphone, flat wood blocks and scarves (As you will notice in pictures, they
added stones.)
Story Box: I added some cultural songs on one CD that included songs like: Macarena, Waka
Waka and La Bamba. I tried to include more cultural music in the languages my case study was
exposed to but it was hard to find songs that were appropriate for the classroom.
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

Literacy Props: I put the names of the songs on the CDs. We talked about the symbolism behind
the numbers on the CD player. I also discussed writing a Beware of Tripping sign but my
students decided against it.

Set-Up: I laid the planks in a pile with scarves and put the new CDs in the CD box

Issues: We discussed building safety
Picture of Center and Environment


Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2


Evaluating the Center
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2


Field Notes:
I pointed out gender in my field notes because I found it intriguing that they separated so
drastically into girls and boys (3-5 boys were building the stage using boards, bricks and
stones and 3-4 girls were playing dress-up with fabrics and costumes)
Questions I asked: What should you do next? How could you fix that?
Two boys started fighting about a CD and I talked them through what they were doing. I
ultimately had to remove one of the boys and used multiple calming strategies.
Here was some conversation I heard that caused me to mediate:
Those are my new CDs! (One of the children went to change the CD that was in CD player.)
I dont want him to help! (The children had to share and problem-solve to create a common
goal.)
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

What are you building? (One of the girls came to interact with the boys while taking the dress-
up clothes but was ignored by the busily working boys.)





















Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

Reflection
It was interesting how many roles I was placed into when I created an invitation to play.
For some odd reason, I figured I would continue to be the stage manager since I initiated the
play. However, this was not the case at all. I initiated play by getting excited and asking what we
should build and what was the safest way to do it. My boy students started building before I
could even formulate a further plan. I watched them furrow their eyebrows and get to work. I
debated whether I should address how to work together in this task but took a step back and
solely supervised for safety. Throughout this dramatic play, I was able to be a stage manager (I
created the invitation), participant (I was told to hold pieces and help build), mediator (helped
them use their words to share), and an observer (I believe I will always have this role as a
teacher. However, Im still learning how to be consistent in documenting these observations).
Teachers need to be learners in order to be efficient in their role as a teacher. Observing is an
essential part of being a learner. Another important point that underlines why observation is
important is, inquiry is not a technique, but rather, the very focus of education (Paley, 14).
Next time, I hope I can fully take on one role-- and only one role. I feel I didnt get the complete
experience because I was continuously changing roles which meant different objectives and
strategies. I realized in the mist of the interaction that I was thinking before I acted and
sometimes that can take away from the genuine act of playing with them which changes how
they interact with you too. I think to fully engulf ourselves in play, we need to be a child again
and just play.
After reflecting and analyzing there were a lot of things I would change and improve. One
of the things I would change was the location of the center, even though later in the week the
child themselves moved the material into the center of the room. The initial close quarters caused
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

there to be an unforeseen issue of the separation in genders. I realized this was an issue after
looking over my anecdotal notes. I didnt fully realize this distinction during the play itself.
However, as I reflected, I remember the boys werent very inviting towards the girls. One of the
girls asked what they were building and none of the boys responded. The girls, on the other hand,
were more inviting and actually dressed up one of the boys in their dramatic play. Ive learned to
take this separation as a daily routine though because as Levine and Munch explain, children
around the age of three are attracted to other children who enjoy the same kind of play as them
and this usually causes them to separate into the two different sexes (436). They go on to
describe that girls also have a different style of communication. They prefer play that is in a form
of suggestion and not command (473). This information allowed me to understand why they
would separate and gave me a new perspective on why my case study ended up shying away
from this center. The close quarters also caused the boys to quarrel about what they wanted to do
emphasizing the aspect of problem solving within dramatic play. As described in A Childs
Work, its another way that the child makes sense of the material they have and how to use that
material in a community. Its also a way to learn more about one self. As the video Where Do
Children Play mentions, play also helps develop a better vocabulary and negotiating skills. My
students had negotiated on not only what they shared, but also with the story they developed.
Another thing that I would change is how I introduced the play center. Whenever I
introduce an invitation, I introduce it during circle time after reading a book about the subject. I
usually ask my students what happened and why. I already know three specific students who will
raise their hands to answer the question and eloquently (for a three year old) respond to the
question. This is great for these students because these children have strength for language but
they arent given the opportunity to extend their knowledge (Harste, 4). Therefore, we usually
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

use the invitation during choice time to stretch their knowledge. Its always amazing that the
children who have a strength in language will immediately go play dress up and the students who
didnt answer during circle time will stay and create an amazing piece that depicts the story
during an arts rotation or other outlet. (At the age of three its sometimes hard to identify what
they drew but if you take the time to ask, theyll tell you). However, for my play center, I wanted
to change things up to allow for different strengths to explore in different ways. In fact, I think
one of my biggest strengths in this play center was incorporating different interests (dramatic
play, music, building and problem-solving) that allowed different scaffolds (teaching other
children what they knew) and extensions (learning more through their own play and guidance of
a teacher). It was a hit because it allowed all of them to participate in the levels they were most
comfortable participating in. Its truly interesting, as point 2 says that its so natural for our
students to translate something (Harste, 6). However, its my job as an educator to identify how
they express themselves and translate the information in the best way possible. As the Six Points
of Departure indicates, it just makes sense for them to use something they understand to grasp
the unfamiliar. However, I wish I could have involved a book after they initially interacted with
the play center to see how it changed their interaction with the center and what new knowledge
they accumulated. Unfortunately, we were very focused on other themes within the classroom
and it took time away from the play center and structured time that I could incorporate for it.
My students are constantly surprising me in their play. One thing that specifically
surprised me was that my students didnt want to create signs. I invited them to write a theater
sign, a safety sign and asked them if they had any ideas about what other signs we could create,
and there wasnt much interest. They were too busy building. Perhaps, if I did this again, I could
start the sign myself and see who joined in. As an afterthought, this is probably another way that
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

I could have engaged the girls in the building aspect of the stage. However, I think I did a good
job of incorporating literacy in subtle ways like writing the names of songs on the CDs and
talking about the numbers on the CD player and what it stood for. This brought in the aspect of
symbolism and using the sign systems from the reading Six Points of Departure at the beginning
of the semester. Symbolism can be a hard concept to grasp but it was nice that I was able to use it
in a real life application for them. I was also surprised that they found the new CDs so fast and
immediately played the cultural CD. I also had Disney songs because they are very popular
among the girls but the songs never got played. One reason behind this could be that the boys
were the ones managing the CDs so the girls didnt get a chance to explore. I tried to move the
CD player to help this dilemma but then nobody was interested in playing the CDs which I
found very interesting. Lastly, I was intrigued by the fact that there was no dialogue amongst the
boys while they were building. Perhaps it wasnt challenging enough to participate in private
speech, or maybe it was too challenging.
I learned a lot from the center about my students but I was still left with one question. I
targeted a lot of my case studys interests and funds of knowledge and yet she didnt go to the
play center. Ive observed in the past that she has mostly done solitary play. However, in the past
weeks she has been doing better at communicating her words and asking others to play with her
so I assumed she would interact more. My hypothesis as to why she didnt interact was because
it was too chaotic. There were a lot of sharing conflicts that I had to mediate with very strong
personalities and my case study strays away from these interactions. Im curious as to how I
could have accommodated for her and made a quieter working space for her. I wish I had more
time to look into this. Ultimately, Im excited about how the play center turned out and what I
learned because of it.
Laura Soto
April 28
th
, 2014
TTE 309: Benchmark Project: Part 2

Note (two weeks after I introduced the play center): On the last day of my placement, my
students found the Frozen CD and loved it!!! One of the boys said, I havent heard this one yet.
Then they put it in and everyone had shocked smiles. They all sang to Let It Go. In fact, my
case study finally showed interest in the center and danced the whole time! This is a picture of
her at the center. She wanted everyone to be quiet so she could hear the words. When this didnt
work she walked over to where we moved the CD player and listened and danced.