Play Stories

Book excerpt: Inform your teaching using your own play history. Play Stories invites early childhood educators to reflect deeply on their own childhood experiences and adult play and build their understanding of how their own identities shape their perspectives on children’s play. Katelyn Clark’s model for uncovering and telling play stories is revealed through four educators’ personal play narratives: the Puzzler, the Character, the Explorer, and the Maker. Writing the stories of their own play provides a new platform for educators to understand their play pedagogy from a more holistic perspective and to identify where they really playfully shine in their classrooms, thus becoming more invested in the play of their students.