DAP ALL THE TIME! – During Center/Choice Time, as we do in ALL aspects of Early Education, try to use a developmentally appropriate approach when you interact with the children.

We know that offering language as the children play is important, but remember the rule of the Hokey Pokey and know when to put your whole self in and your whole self out.   The teacher’s job at Center Time is to float & facilitate – like a lovely cloud of knowledge – so that you ‘rain’ at the right times on those seeds of learning growing down there.For Babies, who need concrete information, we say, “Oh! You’re playing with the brown monkey! He says ‘OOH, OOH, OOH’! and we gesture with our hands scratching at our armpits in the traditional monkey manner (bringing smiles and laughter).

With Toddlers, who need less concrete and more ownership of the learning, we say, “What is that you’re playing with? Is that a brown monkey? What does he say?”, hoping the child will say ‘monkey’ and possibly do the gesture with you.

With Twos, who need to have choices and make decisions, we say, “Is that a monkey or at cow?, hoping for ‘monkey’ as a response, honoring that response with a ‘Yes it is’, and taking it further with, “What does he say?” and again doing the physical gesture together.

For Threes, who need open-ended questions and a request for more detailed thought, we say, “Where do you think that animal might live? Do you like any of the same foods he does? Can you show me how he moves?”

With Fours and Fives, who need open-ended questions and expansion and expression of their knowledge, we say, “Are there any other animals like the brown monkey? Can you show me on the map where they might live? What would happen if we ran out of bananas? Can you tell a story, draw a picture or write any words about this animal?

And for ALL ages – there should be lots of monkey books in EVERY CENTER of the room so the children can refer to pictures and words about their work and reinforce the vital literacy connection of language-action-idea to print.