How can different forms of
emergent writing be integrated
into various dramatic play
activities in my prekindergarten classroom?
Inquiry by
Shante Brown-Merced
June 2nd, 2012
Background:
 18 pre-kindergarten students, 9 boys, 9 girls
 Majority of students are 4 years of age
 African American and Hispanic population
 Socioeconomic status of families in neighborhood is
very low
 Students reside in various household situations (single
parent households, one parent in jail or not around,
extended families)
How did I begin my research?
 I asked myself “how can I make a connection
between play and writing for my students”?
 I decided to use three types of play that we do in
my classroom
 Free play (what children naturally do on their own
without any prompting from me)
 Story play (using the books we read and acting out
the story)
 Theme based play (encouraging the children to
use the materials and ideas surrounded around
themes I teach)
The Research Says
play allows teachers to respond to children’s
ideas, to help them elaborate on their
thinking, and to help them see the world of
literacy through many lenses.
-Gretchen Owocki, Literacy through Play
[Children] need to see stuff, then they can
think about it
-Alison Porcelli, Workshop Help Desk: A Quick Guide
to Boosting English Acquisition in Choice
Time
Writing creates a template for talk. Retelling,
answering questions about their [written texts],
sequencing, topic maintenance, extending
conversation, and vocabulary development are all
key language goals for young children; and each
of them can be supported during thoughtful
conversations about their writing between teachers
and children.
-Katie Wood Ray and matt glover, Already
Ready: nurturing writers in Preschool and
Kindergarten
What does writing look like in
pre-kindergarten?
 In pre-k, I teach kids to write using pictures
(drawing/sketching)
 I teach kids to write by talking about their
pictures (dictation)
 I teach kids to write using letters and sounds
they are learning (writing using beginning
sounds)
What did I do?
 I observed my students during center time
 I encouraged my students to use writing
materials when they were in centers
 I used writing materials to model what writing
can look like during center time
 I played with my students during center time
 I used the common core learning standards
and curriculum maps to align some of my
centers with our themes
Pre- K in action
Free Play
Birthday cards made by a student in
the play dough center to accompany
the cake she made.
Two students work with blocks to create their own structures. With some
encouragement, they were able to bring their hands on work to life on paper.
After a discussion with a student about how he likes to go to McDonalds
with his mother, the student created his own happy meals in the lego
center. Afterwards, he wrote about his work.
Theme-based Play
One student used blocks to recreate the sky scrapers he made on his
blueprint.
An airplane created in one of the manipulative centers during a
transportation study. Alongside is the writing that was created with
the model.
This is a “super car” created by a student. First
he used legos to build it, then he was able to use
his emergent writing skills to create a replica on
paper.
Story-based play
During a theme study of the three bears, students created character
masks to use as props in the dramatic play center.
students recreated the foods that the caterpillar
ate in Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar
during our butterfly study, They labeled using
their initial sounds.
I noticed…
 Students were engaged in writing about their play
(making a model then drawing it)
 Students had some difficulty planning their play
(illustrating a model then making it)
 Students became more excited about writing during
center time, particularly when it was encouraged
 Though students were able to write with some
prompting, they usually did not write in the centers
with complete independence
 The writing center has become more popular during
center time. The children draw, color and cut props
and pictures.
Challenges/Limitations
 Student attendance
 Student discussion of role distribution during storybased play
 Student independence
 Lack of resources
 My own inconsistency to continue to encourage
writing in the centers
 Writing materials were limited to the writing center;
this made it difficult for students in other centers to
utilize it more frequently
Next steps:
 Start thinking about next year: create plans for my
dramatic play centers over the summer
 Encourage more story play
 Create a system to switch between free play, story
play and theme based play
 Plan out how I will “teach” each center
 Incorporate more opportunities for writing in each
center starting in the beginning of the school year
 Make writing supplies accessible to students
within each center
Resources