Preprimary Teachers should:

1. Give countless opportunities.
2. Do not expect the child to produce a finish product.
3. Move along with the child’s imaginative ideas e.g. provide materials that for the child to play with.
4. Reinforce the child’s production of ideas

Structured materials such as puzzle cannot give the child freedom to express themselve because there is only one outcome from the puzzle.

Provide non-structural/freeform/expressive materials such as blocks or play dough which can contribute to emotional health and increase divergent creative responses to problem solving.

Benefits of non-structural/freeform/expressive materials:

• A child can make no mistake as there is no right or wrong answer.
• Allow them to express themselves and come to terms with themselves.
• Involve in cooperative play and improve social interaction.
• Opportunities for rich sensory growth
• Contribute to intelleactual growth

Ways to encourage creativity using non-structural/freeform/expressive materials:

• Intervene only when needed.
• Never provide model for children to copy.
• Understand and respect the child’s developmental level.
• Understand the process not the end product.
• Give ample time for the child to express himself.
• Give comments that can enhance the child’s creative.
• Grant the child who is dubious the right to refuse.

Importance of creativity in play:

• Personality characteristic – For the child well-being by improving their self-esteem and self-worth. When they express their creativity, they express their emotions.
• Intellectual process – To develop intellectual growth as creativity allows children to explore ways to solve problems because a problem can have various ways to solve. They learn to grow and face the world with experiences they got.
• Creative product – There will always be a creative product produced at the end of the creative activity but the process is more important than the end result.

Stages of creative development in children

• Early stage – Cannot differentiate what is toy and non-toy, spend hours in exploring, manipulating and investigating the things that they manage to got hold of. For example, squeezing the sponge in the paint bucket.
• Nonrepresentational stage – Whatever they created will only For example, in painting, it seems to have more design and intention behind them but not recognizable by anyone but the children.
• Representational stage – The creative product can be recognised by other people. Fro example, they can draw a human that look more like a human now with proper eyes, mouth, nose, ears, fingers and so on.

Toddlers play:

• Solitary play
  Toddler play on their own, independently of others
• Parallel play
  Become more aware of one another, begin to play side by side without interacting
• Associated play
  Involve social interaction, interested in each other play but without an agree-upon plan
• Cooperative play
  Children join force in an active way, they must work together to ensure the play can be done.

Types of play & play materials:

• Socio-dramatic play requires props and settings. For example, hats, stroller, medical kit, kitchen utensils and etc.
• Social play requires interaction among children. For example, rubber ducky, spades, buckets, containers, mud, earth, sand
• Physical play requires contacts such as friendy tickling, touching, stroking, cuddle and etc. to extend the affectionate bond between toddlers and adult
• Games with rules is for older children that can understand rules of a game such as football

Toddlers need friendly voice that encourage, reassure, approve, and a physical presence that can be relied to be aware of safety and the their undeveloped sense of caution, and lack of coordination.

Caregivers & Teachers should not interrupt the children’s concentration but only intervene during appropraite time such as matters concerning safety of the children. E.g. The child want to throw the block to another child, the Caregivers & Teachers must stop the child from doing so.

Caregivers & Teachers should stimulate the children curiosity, encourage involvement, promote self esteme and support the children such as seeking to move with and support the play as it develops.

Caregivers & Teachers should also observe the children so that appropriate actions can be taken to help the children achieve their best and encourage the children to value their own and others’ efforts.

How to get involve with the children’s play:

1. Taking supportive role when the child is engaging in pretend play
2. Join in the play using the exact same meterials used by the child when the child is engaging in exploratory play
3. Join the children on their physical level e.g. lower yourself down to the height of the children when playing with them
4. Playing as a partner in pretend play and games. You must adjust to their speech and actions to the pace and theme of the play and follow rules established by the children

Often people will think that play is just play. The child just play and won’t learn anything. The fact is that the child learn when he/she plays. A child only know what is play as this is a spontaneous act. A child doesn’t need to be taught on how to play but they must be guided when they play to achieve the learning objective.

During playing, the child will explore with his/her senses that helps them in solving problems. For example, he/she tries to fit a round block to the square hole but couldn’t fit it in. This will prompt him/her to find other hole that can fit the round block. Once he/she found it, they will know that only round hole can fit a round block. With the guidance from the teachers and parents by telling the child the colour of the block and the shape of the block will also help the child in learning about shapes and colour besides solving problems.

Not only that, when playing, the child can accquire fine and gross motor skills. It will also help them concentrate, enhance their imagination, and socialise with other children.

The thoeries below will help in creating understanding about play:

• Classical theory is trying to justify the reasons of playing.
  - Surplus energy theory: To release the energy from the body.
  - Relaxation theory: To restore energy to the body.
  - Recapitulation theory: To enhance/mature the skills that were learnt previously.
  - Pre-exercise theory: To learn new skills for the future.
• Dynamic theory
  - Psycho dynamic theory: To eliminate fear, as a therapy and to communicate. Pretend play will allow children to cope with their lives when they have trouble managing directly.
  - Constructivist theory: There are 3 levels:-
  >> Level 1 – Sensory stage(infants)
  They will modify one’s concept or behaviour known as accommodation. For example, the infant imitate an adult painting with a paintbrush.
  >> Level 2 – Pre-shcool to kindergarten children(4-6 years old)
  Accquire knowledge from their environment through experiences. Dramatic or pretend play whereby assimilation is dominating accommodation. For example, moulding clay into a pie or pretend to be a doctor.
  >> Level 3 – Children 6 years old and above
  Game with rules such as playing football, basketball, boardgames etc.
• Contemporary theory: The teacher will provide the environment for the children to nurture children’s play by setting up various corners in school such as mathematics corner, kitchen corner, shop corner etc.