Looking Beyond Books and Blocks: Peers Playing Around with Concepts

Abstract

Traditional notions view children’s development occurring through activities such as games, dramatic play, sand and water play. In essence, these views foreground the activity which then leads to children’s development. In this chapter we offer an alternative view: that young children interact with their peers during activities to engage playfully with concepts and ideas that promote development. This chapter utilises vignettes involving 3 and 4-year-old children playing around with concepts. We argue that teachers’ roles include the facilitation of rich conceptual and contextual situations that provoke children’s thinking. These situations provide a context for children to play together with concepts that may lead to new understandings and thinking.