In this episode, we explore the evolving landscape of early childhood education, with a focus on developmentally informed practice and the role of playful learning in today’s transitional kindergarten (TK) and kindergarten classrooms. As California expands access to TK for all, public schools are experiencing a significant developmental shift—bringing younger learners into more formal educational settings. What does high-quality early learning truly look like in this new context? We unpack how educators can thoughtfully balance academic content standards with play-based approaches that support whole-child development. Join us as we discuss practical strategies, emerging challenges, and the opportunities this transformation presents for teachers, students, and families alike.
Episode Contributors:
Rachelle Bacong
With 29 years of dedicated service in early elementary education, Rachelle is a passionate Transitional Kindergarten teacher in San Diego County. She spent the last 12 years nurturing young minds in TK. Rachelle is committed to creating a supporting, engaging, and inclusive environment, where she emphasizes play-based learning and social emotional development. Her experience and warmth creates a love of learning in a classroom community where every child feels welcomed, safe, and honored.
Dr. E'Leva Gibson
Teaching Credentials and Innovation Center for Excellence in ECE, Sac State University and former Assistant Superintendent for Sac City USD and San Francisco USD.
Kristina Brower
Kristina Brower holds a B.A. in Child and Adolescent Development from San Francisco State University and an M.A. in Educational Leadership from California State University, East Bay. She has dedicated more than 25 years to the San Mateo County Community College District, where she currently serves as faculty and faculty coordinator of the Education and Human Development Program at Cañada College. Kristina’s work is grounded in the belief that education is a transformative tool for both individuals and communities. She continues to focus on building programs that support student success, equity, and workforce readiness in the field of education.
Co-Chairs
Hilary Seitz
Hilary Seitz, PhD, (she/her) supports statewide efforts related to early learning and the new PK-3 Early Childhood Education credential. Dr. Seitz is also a Professor Emerita in Early Childhood Education from the University of Alaska Anchorage, where she held various positions, including Professor, Chair of Teaching and Learning, and Associate Dean of the College. She worked closely with the Alaska Department of Education, School Districts, and Early Childhood Stakeholders to develop the P-3rd grade Early Childhood Teaching License/Credential (delivered statewide via distance technologies) and other pathways for early educators and students. She taught various courses, including Early Literacy Foundations, STEAM Methods, Observation and Documentation, and Culturally Responsive Family and Community Engagement, to name a few of her favorites. Before her university work, she was an early childhood teacher in public Pre-K and primary grades for 17+ years. Her research areas have focused on curriculum and assessment, making learning visible, family and community engagement, STEAM practices for young children, and integrating culturally relevant early literacy practices into the classroom.
Lindsay Meeker
Dr. Lindsay Meeker (She/Her/Hers) is an Assistant Professor of Early Childhood and Literacy at California State University, Fresno. Her expertise includes early literacy, multilingual education, bilingual programming in birth-to-five settings, play-based learning, equity, and educator workforce development. She is a contributing author of the CSU Early Childhood COLLAB, Illinois State Literacy Framework. She has served as a workgroup invited member on statewide early childhood standards development and redesign of prior learning assessments for the early childhood workforce, including integrating virtual reality experiences. Nationally, Dr. Meeker collaborates with the Migration Policy Institute and the Latino Policy Forum (IL); locally, she serves on Fresno County’s Early Stars Committee and the EL-WIN Work Group. Over the past five years, she has secured over $15 million in competitive grants, leading projects that expand dual language preschool, build diverse teacher pipelines, strengthen community-based training, and develop parent mentor initiatives. A former teacher and Early Childhood, Special Education, and EL/Bilingual director, she bridges research, practice, and policy to advance equitable outcomes for children and families and contribute to a highly qualified and passionate Early Childhood teacher workforce.
[00:00:00] Hello everyone and welcome to the Spark EC Voices podcast, the place where knowledge meets action and early childhood education. We're so glad you're here. This show is brought to you by the Spark EC Hub, and that's the California State University system-wide partnership for advancing research and knowledge in early childhood education.
[00:00:31] Well, welcome back to the podcast. I am Hilary. And I'm Lindsay. Today we're diving into developmentally informed practice, playful learning, and what this all means in today's transitional kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. With TK for all expanding across California, we're seeing a real developmental shift in public schools.
[00:00:54] So what does high quality early learning actually look like and how do we balance content [00:01:00] standards with play? We're joined by three incredible educators. Rachelle Bacong, a TK teacher from San Diego County, Dr. E’Leva Gibson, CSU, early childhood faculty member from Sacramento State, and former assistant superintendent for Sac City Unified School District and San Francisco Unified School District.
[00:01:17] And Professor Kristina Brower, a community college child development professor at Canada College, and a dual enrollment in structure with local high schools. Welcome everyone. Before we dive in, we'd love to start with a quick icebreaker. Let's all think back to your earliest memories of school, maybe preschool, tk, kindergarten, somewhere in there.
[00:01:41] What do you remember most and what does that memory tell you about how young children learn? We'll start with Rachelle.
Hi everyone. My name is Rachelle Bacong and my earliest memory is when I was going to go to preschool and [00:02:00] my mom told me that I was going to get to go, and I was very excited. Uh, however, she mentioned to me that when she dropped me off, I cried and they, the teachers just didn't see I was ready.[00:02:12] So she took me back home and we tried again. And I was a lot happier, uh, the second round. And I think that memory tells me how young children learn is when they feel safe within those spaces.
Aw, thank you. Rochelle, how about Kristina?
I. So I, it's not my earliest, but one that stands out for me a lot that I've told my students about is I had a kindergarten teacher and I remember my, it was the first day of school, my lunch pail leaked and the kindergarten teacher got really mad at me and she actually kept me in from recess and yelled at me and I remember I was.[00:02:52] I just, after that I was like, I don't wanna go back to school. And I think it, it really was really hard and I, I think that's one of the [00:03:00] reasons why I got into early childhood because I just remember that being like a devastating, and I think so many of our students either have amazing teachers that they want to be just like, or some of 'em had experiences where they had a teacher that they just thought, I don't ever want to be like this person and I want to do better.[00:03:18] So I kind of think that's kind of where I went.
Well, I can definitely relate with that. Kristina, we'll talk later. How about Dr. Gibson?
Yeah, nice to go down memory lane. I remember over 45 years ago, my pre-K teacher, Mr. Kimo, he used to expose us to different experiences, so if you can believe it, he brought in a pet snake.
[00:03:43] He had us going on a hot balloon ride. Well, it was really low, not too high. And he, um, showed us fencing, all those things that I probably typically wouldn't have been exposed to in my everyday life. But my pre-K teacher introduced that to us and I can [00:04:00] remember it.
[00:04:00] Let's jump into our conversation, Dr. Gibson. Let's start with the foundation. What is developmentally informed practice also often referred to as DAP or developmentally appropriate practice? And how is that understanding built for PK three teachers beginning in your early childhood programs as Sacramento state?
[00:04:18] Developmentally appropriate practice or informed practice is definitely the foundation of all learning. And when we think about it, it's really a, a whole child approach to learning.
[00:04:31] We think about the cognitive, the social emotional, and the physical development of children. And when we really think about our youngest children, we take into account human development. As we try to build a deeper understanding for our pre-K three teachers, we want them to have that mindset around what is developmentally appropriate or informed.
[00:04:53] And so many times when we're talking about teaching and learning, we talk about the foundations of learning. All [00:05:00] of that informs developmentally appropriate practices. So when we're thinking about the ages and stages of children as they learn on the continuum, it helps us as educators to think about how might we make these activities and learning experiences built off where children are at and making sure that we don't push them too far, but it's just right for.
[00:05:23] Their current stage in life.
No, that's great, E’leva. And I have one question how do you make that connection for your students between this is research and theory and this is what it looks like in practice in the every day. If you had to have one piece of advice about how you do that, what would that be?
[00:05:41] Definitely thinking about, observing a child, right? Because it's naturally, when we think of. Play, and I know play is gonna come up later. , There's a saying, and I don't know who actually said it, but play is a child's work, right? And so we want our educators to be able to observe children, to think about how they [00:06:00] set up the conditions for learning, which they will look at the learning environment and how they put the materials and set up the designated areas for a child to learn.
[00:06:08] And then also creating, opportunities for hands-on learning. So when we have these theories, they help us to inform and make us think about a child's human development or human development in general. And then about the conditions that we put forth in the classroom that align to that. And so, DAP reminds us of, um, the ages and stages and phases that we all go through, especially our, our youngest learners.
[00:06:34] And so as educators and professionals, we really wanna be intentional around how we set up. The environment and the conditions for learning and being informed by dap.
[00:06:46] All right, Rachelle, what does developmentally informed practices or DAP look like in your TK classroom? Can you describe what a day-to-day looks like?
Yes, I'd be happy to. I love every [00:07:00] day. I probably wanna say it starts with a lot of smiles and a lot of love every day. And when the kids come in and we're there, it's such a happy place to be.
[00:07:10] Um, when you think about the classroom that I am teaching currently, there's a lot of different moving. Parts to it. And kind of like that goldilock zone, like Dr. Gibson had just , mentioned. It's just right, right where we are going to meet the child, where they're at. Um, so if you think about the learning centers that I have in my classroom, they are, uh, aligned to the standards in the content that we teach through the.
[00:07:38] The nine domains of the preschool TK Learning Foundations. So some of those examples would be child led. Uh, perhaps, let's see. If we look at the block center, they are working in the block center with the intention of the teacher, myself or my instructional assistant. Looking at specific areas with [00:08:00] mathematics.
[00:08:00] Science, uh, the language, the social, emotional, it's all integrated within, um, the centers. There's dramatic play. There are independent centers, there's collaborative centers. When you look at the entire day, I have blocks of time where most of the time they're playing throughout the day.
[00:08:21] There might be a, a time between 45 minutes to 60 minutes where they're, having free choice. Within the play and within the centers. Um, and then we're going into some whole group activities and small group activities as well. The morning routine is very heavy with, you know, language rich, um, routines.
[00:08:43] One of the morning routines that I do, even when they come into the line and. We're saying, okay, what is our pattern for when, when we're arriving and the, the children know we have put away our backpacks. We get our name tag, we check the job chart, and we check [00:09:00] the schedule. And that pattern goes every day.
[00:09:02] And it's funny when we're talking about that pattern, 'cause sometimes it might change and they will know it and they'll say, wait, you changed the pattern in our routine of the day. And I'll say, oh, what? What was different? So some of those parts of the routine is very, heavy with the language and with the knowledge of what they know of our, uh.
[00:09:20] Routine and the schedule of the day. And moving into, when I talk about choice and how that fits into the classroom, uh, a lot of questions I get is how do the children move about within the centers? And a lot of those are kind of structured with. Necklaces where maybe in the dramatic play, there's three children can, can go into there, but they move freely.
[00:09:46] So they just kind of go and if there's a necklace they can go in and they can interact in the dramatic play area. And then when they're finished, they put it away and go choose something else. They really enjoy that. And I think a lot of the times the [00:10:00] popular centers, we do give them some time limits there in case.
[00:10:04] So everyone has a turn and lists of names for everyone to, to join in too.
So Rachelle, what I'm hearing is you have very intentional play with, rules, but maybe it's not rules that you are saying, no, you can't do this or you have to do it this way. But the children know the routine, which are the rules, which are the expectations of the classroom.[00:10:28] So. Tell us more how you set up those routines with children. So you mentioned a little bit about the line, and they have a pattern when they get there. So if you have three children in a dramatic play center, and you mentioned there are three necklaces, so that means three children can play there because there is one for each child.
[00:10:48] How do they know that? How do they know how long they can stay there? How do the children know when they can go to something else or the rules of the area? So if they're playing with blocks, how do they know not to throw blocks or how high to build them or not to take other children's? How do you help them understand those rules?
[00:11:05] Yeah, that's a great question, Hilary. In the beginning. When we first start school, everything is a soft start and little by little we are introducing what those centers are so all the centers aren't out all at one time where it's just a free for. If I take the dramatic play center.
[00:11:23] The example that is the lesson. And so we're all in there together. We're modeling. I'm modeling with my instructional assistant, we're modeling with the students. We talk about how many can be in there, how, and when you're finished you can go. So a lot of it is really teacher modeling in the beginning, and as we see the children using it, then.
[00:11:44] We'll add another center, uh, the, the blocks, perhaps we'll add more centers, the manipulatives. So each time we see that the routine has been established and modeled by us and by the students, and we're reinforcing all of the social emotional part parts of the centers, then we can move on and add even more.
[00:12:03] And, and they get just used to the routine. We're praising them for, you know, how they're. Working in the, in the areas. Oh, look at the way, look at the way that Nicholas had put all of the groceries away he sorted them. Come look. And so we are always reinforcing their, their behaviors in there with them.
[00:12:22] Mm-hmm. Great. Thank you very much.
Kristina. From a community college and dual enrollment perspective, why is a deep understanding of developmentally informed practices essential for working with young children?
I like this question because it's kind of like, why wouldn't it be right? I mean, we're gonna be working with children and it's funny how people actually, everybody thinks they , know children and how they develop because they either were one or they, they babysit a couple times or they have children.
[00:12:53] But I can see in my classes with my early childhood students when we talk about developmental domains and we talk about play-based learning, I see like the light bulbs go off in their head, right? There's like this aha, like, wait. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I remember being an early childhood student and learning this and thinking like.
[00:13:15] Everybody has, everybody should know this. Like, this is important, right? And like, feeling guilty for what I didn't know before and really thinking about how that informed where I wanted to work and what I wanted to do with children and the way I wanted my classrooms to look and how I wanted my classroom to feel.
[00:13:32] And I remember I always wanted to be a community college instructor teaching early childhood because of that. Because I just think it's so important. Um, and not everybody does know it. I do go into some classrooms or I can tell it's not the norm and um, you know, the children are okay, but there's not as much a joy.
[00:13:53] And we want children to love learning, right? We don't want them to just learn. We want them to love learning and we know that historically. Classrooms have been set up, so that children are like all learning at the same pace and children are not all the same, right? They all are learning different.
[00:14:08] They come from different backgrounds, different families, and it's so important that we're. Observing children. We are creating curriculum based on their interest, and this is what developmentally appropriate practice is. And I know as they get older and they start going to the older grades, there's, well, even, even some of our preschools, there's a lot of standards, there's a lot of things, a lot of assessments that children need to know.
[00:14:30] But we can still make it enjoyable. We can still actually assess children. By just being present and understanding what they, enjoy and bringing that part to the curriculum, being a facilitator as we, we talked about before, the podcast of their learning.
[00:14:48] Kristina, I love that you talked about joy, and I think if we carry that into everything we're doing right for children and educators, we might see a different, kind of education, bloom here in California in those PK three classrooms and maybe a space where teachers wanna feel like they wanna stay.Right. So I appreciate that you brought that joy piece in.
Yeah. I was thinking, I think about that a lot and about teacher burnout, and I think teacher burnout comes from not. Being joyful with the children, right? Like that's when that happens. So it's really important that the children, , and the teachers are both bringing joy into the classroom.
[00:15:24] Thanks, Kristina. I love that. I once went into a classroom and over the front door it said, do nothing without joy. And I've always remembered that and I, I feel like I should put that over my office now, but
I love that. Yeah. I had a mentor she was my director at the time and I remember asking her like, what do you want for children? And she said, I just want all their lives to be filled with joy. And I remember my heart almost exploded. Mm-hmm. And so I just kind of keep that with me.
Dr. Gibson, how does Playful learning fit within the PK three credential framework? Mm-hmm. Is play explicitly addressed in the preparation program at Sacramento State?
[00:16:06] Yeah, thank you for the question. Just as it was previously mentioned, this idea of joyful learning is it sets the stage and so play promotes joyful learning and, uh, discovery, and we wanna lower the stress of our young children. And there's so much out there in our world today. What we want is to promote lifelong learning, and so definitely as a part of our pre-K three credential framework.
[00:16:34] Play full learning is a part of it and explicitly, shared. Um, guided play is an instructional strategy. , Play is a child's work. It is integrated in the learning, and we also, , prepare our educators to be very intentional. Play can be structured, but as well as free play for exploration. And we want our educators to know the difference.
[00:16:59] As we prepare our educators to go into the field in, in the classrooms from pre-K to third grade, we want them to think about developmentally appropriate practices, the conditions for learning, creating the stage and space for children to play, being intentional about how we may set up the learning environment.
[00:17:21] But we do have those types of conversations so that people can feel comfortable to take risks and kind of make sure they have student centered experiences for the children and not so much teacher led and that, and that takes time. Because many of our traditional teacher education programs was all about making sure that you provided explicit instruction, direct instruction, and that you did. I do. We do. And you do. And so this whole idea in the upper grades of having children play, we have to have a real true conversation about what that really looks like in the classroom.
So I know, uh, Dr. Gibson, that you have a lot of, um, past school administration experiences. What did you say to maybe a teacher or a parent who said, I want.Traditional instruction. I want homework. I wanna see them learning their letters, and I don't want them playing all day. So how do you help, your school staff, how do you help your families that you're working with? How do you help them understand that?
Well, you know what's interesting is when we talk about ages and stages and we talk about developmentally appropriate practices and we talk about developmental milestones, that really does pique people's interest.
[00:18:38] And I think when we take the time to sit with our families, ask partners in this work, and we explain. Some of the expectations as well as where children typically grow and develop, they're more open to hearing, the conversation. So in my experience, when typically there was like a parent teacher conference, you would have the report card, and so that would be aligned to the content standards and what have you.
[00:19:05] But then also you can integrate and share information about the desired results developmental profile, the DRDP. Which talks about the developmental domains. And so it's just information sharing, , helping, um, both parents and teachers who may not have been used to working with younger children, have a better understanding and revisit that and remember that children are still growing and learning.
[00:19:31] Even with, my kindergarten colleagues, reminding them those children are 60 months years old. And I think the more we have dialogue and discussions like this, the more we can have a, a better understanding and we all can serve children
[00:19:46] All right. Well, thank you. Rachelle, maybe you can help us understand what a content standard lesson looks like through playful learning, you explained a little bit about your classroom and how you have centers. Um, and you even mentioned a little bit about language and patterning in the beginning, which does.
[00:20:04] Connect with some of the content standards, but how do you have an intentional, you said you do some small group kind of intentional learning and and lessons, so maybe you could share a little bit more about that.
Sure. When we think about one of the. Areas I most recently did this past week or last week.
[00:20:23] Let's take a look at the, the play home area. We switched it over to a grocery store, and if you look at what that looks like as a lesson, we had, , all of the, the food the vegetables, the prices, the cashier, , all of that is actually was an example of a teacher led. Play-based lesson. And I had four students.
[00:20:50] And we went in and we signed in as employees. So I had a little, uh, dry erase board where they had to sign their name, and we did also write the day of the week because [00:21:00] we were switching over each day. And then they had a list of the groceries they would like to purchase. So it was a picture of them and they had to circle five items, bringing in all of the math and the language
[00:21:13] for actually what's produce, what's considered produce, what's considered meat, dairy, , what's in the bakery. And these are all experiences they also have in the real world. Now it's brought into the classroom. They circled at the five items they wanted to purchase and then they got to shop. And as they were shopping , they were selecting the items, but they were all helping each other. So they were watching each other, but also helping one another. Oh, this is where you can find the grapes. It's on this shelf. They then checked out their groceries and we had a cashier there, and they then paid for their groceries as each one of the items were listed.
[00:21:49] Instead they had, uh, the price also. So there was a dollar for each item, and they got five items. So they knew it was $5 and they were all given a $5 bill to hand over to, to the cashier and all of those role playing. That we did in there was. So much fun. It was just great for them to see what it was like to play in their, a little bit more structured, um, you know, with me leading them through how much they needed to purchase or how much each item was adding it all together.
[00:22:23] So kind of the earliest. Stages of joining groups and then also paying for it and seeing if they had enough money. So that's one, one example of how, one of the lessons would look like that's teacher, led and play-based. And then this week. I left it open to them. So then I no longer was, you know, directing them.
[00:22:43] Now it was more child led and I kind of popped back in just to kind of listen to see what they were doing. And they were modeling exactly what we were learning. Okay, now everyone, you're gonna sit down. So somebody's always kind of the teacher in there, and they were signing in. They said, oh no, remember today's Tuesday.
[00:23:00] It's not Wednesday. Let's write Tuesday. It had a lot of pieces of,, our content and what we are learning, and it was just a lot of fun for them and I think for them to then kind of take the reign and it became more child led from teacher led and teacher guided, and now they're the ones kind of leading the play and others are kind of coming in and out of that area.
[00:23:22] And, and that'll stay for a while. So they'll have a turn in there, , independently.
So, Rachelle, that sounds like so much fun. Like I could just imagine my own children when they were little. Loving that, and then probably trying to set it up in my kitchen or somewhere.
[00:23:35] How did you learn to create a dramatic play space like that? Was that part of your teacher preparation program or just intuitive as a mom or, what was your preparation to learn how to be a TK teacher?
Oh, uh, lots of trial and error. , You know, I came into the TK space back in when it was in its early development in 2013.
[00:24:00] And, as Dr. Gibson had mentioned earlier, it was a hard shift. It was a hard shift. I started to learn what the children were, where they were, and. Really thinking about when my sons were in preschool, what did their preschool teachers do? So I kind of learned through, , my own son's experiences.
[00:24:19] And then as I went through, uh, the Pathways program, the TK Pathways program through our own county office of Ed. In San Diego I learned a lot about the learning environment as the third teacher and started to kind of read a lot more about refining that practice within these play-based spaces to align into,
[00:24:41] , where I knew exactly what the intention was behind the content and what I wanted them to, to learn. And I just kind of, I think a lot of it was trial and error also. And then learning from other, uh, mentors within the space, within the early ed space. And yeah, I think a lot of watching others and folks as yourselves, learning along the way.
[00:25:03] A lot of reading. And trying and seeing what the kids really took to. And I think I've, I did recognize that once I went to a more play-based space, how much happier they were, how much, how much happier I was. So when we talk about joy, like Kristina had mentioned, I love to play and teach with them all day.
[00:25:24] It just, it just kind of lowered that feeling. It just, there's a calmness. And I had a little bit of anxiety thinking, oh gosh, are they gonna learn? , Just as much are they gonna know their letters and numbers where, you know, we were kind of in that head space and f from what I've heard from my kindergarten colleagues, that they've been more ready than in the years past.
[00:25:45] And I really truly believe that's because , it became more of a play-based learning environment where I could meet them where they were. So I have one more kind of follow up, I guess. TK in California in a public school setting, requires a teacher [00:26:00] to have a credential either in, , PK three, which has a, a subject matter content of at least 24 credits or an, the major in that, um, or to.
[00:26:13] Have a multiple subjects credential and add on 24 credits. So what was your preparation then? So my preparation, I ha I hold a multiple subject teaching credential. I came in so early into the tk, world,, it wasn't a, an actual requirement for me. 'cause I had come in so early.
[00:26:34] However, I knew that it was the wave of where we were moving. When we went universal and taking all four year olds. I decided to go forward and take all 24 units, uh, because I felt that the preparation was going to be something that I knew I really needed my district is year round, so I have students that are coming in as three, three quarters, which is not something I, um, have ex.
[00:27:00] Experienced before, and I knew I needed that. I needed to understand the early childhood development part, the, you know, the brain development, the importance of an integrated, curriculum, the universal design, all the different parts of it, and it refined my practice to really be that observer and the facilitator within that.
[00:27:20] Space. Um, so I took those units and I'm still ongoing. I log into a lot of different trainings, um, parts of different projects that, uh, are part of early learning spaces. Um, it just has really prepared me in such a way that I, I didn't have before. Um, so yeah.
Well, thank you. I, I appreciate your honesty and, and your passion. Um, for those 44 month olds, so the 48 month olds, I like that new way of thinking about it does make you kind of think differently about children and
[00:28:00] Dr. Gibson with the TK for all expanding. What developmental shifts must PK three programs prepare teachers to address? So we heard Rochelle's approach and, her natural way that she navigated early childhood.
[00:28:14] And now that we look at TK, expanding, um, what do we need to make sure that our programs are doing?
Us as educators and those who are be, being prepared to go into the classroom, it's really looking at teaching and learning as a whole and the ages and stages and phases that learners go through and keeping that at the forefront.
[00:28:37] Um. So when we're thinking about TK and the developmental shifts, we, you know, sometimes, and I've, I would say this in my experience, that some, um, were a little frightened of the little ones. Coming into an elementary space, and then even now with some of our TKs, um, who may have gone to pre kindergarten or preschool, um, settings and may not, or some who, um, may have been toilet trained or not, it's a huge shift to say, you know what?
[00:29:11] I see this child. Holistically as a whole child, even if I have to support them, you know, with, with issues such as that. Um, and so that's one of the major, um, mind shifts, right? Another one is looking at a child's social emotional development and self-regulation and executive functions. Being mindful of that and being patient with our youngest learners.
[00:29:40] many times we do have the pressure of making sure that children master the skills and meet the standards, and rightfully so, right? Because we are charged with the responsibility of ensuring that children learn. And many times in our classrooms, we have lots of children, right? So we gotta move them along.
[00:30:00] But we also know. That not all children develop at the same pace. And we know that children have different lived experiences, have a variety of exposure, and also come from different culturally linguistically and socioeconomic backgrounds. And so we try to prepare. Our educators to see the whole child when they're thinking about not just all children, but especially some of our youngest children, which will be tk.
[00:30:32] So they're coming in young with all those varying backgrounds. We also, another shift is the environment. Many times you may have, um, tables and chairs and maybe a library with books in the classroom, but we wanna encourage our pre-K, third grade teachers to think about the learning environment as the third teacher.
[00:30:54] So whether that's setting up a dramatic play area, right? And you can have that in first grade, or whether it is sensory. Children learn with sensory, so why not have a space where they can, uh, a child can regulate when they're having big emotions.
[00:31:10] And we've seen that in classrooms. A second grader, a tk or who's having big emotions, can't sit on the rug, but they wanna go to the wellness room or somewhere in the classroom where they can, you know, put their hands in sand or water or what have you. So thinking about how do we set up the classroom where it's not just table chairs and a couple of books.
[00:31:31] Another one is when we think about our youngest learners, there's a lot of communication. With families, right? And, and families being involved. The older children get, sometimes it, it, it doesn't, it's, it's not as normal as it is with our youngest learners. So what we can take from that is that, we encourage that partnership and communication with our families and we want to sustain it.
[00:31:57] Um, going from pre-K to TK to K and beyond.
[00:32:02] They see it as one continued experience. And so TK has been phenomenal and bridging. Bridging that communication, bridging that experience. And so we as educators and, and those who are preparing, um, incoming educators, is to think about what is that continued experience for our children when they enter into the educational system and how can we sustain it and align foundations and standards, curriculum and instruction assessments.
[00:32:32] Learning environments, supports and interventions. And so it definitely has to be a developmental shift, not only for our tk, but also our pre-K aligned to our elementary and our elementary aligned to our early childhood departments.
Oh, thanks Dr. Gibson. I love how you're calling out that alignment and how you prep, you know, how what we need to do to make sure our PK three credential, um, attainment is matching what we need.
[00:32:57] So thank you for offering those very keen [00:33:00] examples. Kristina, how does the PK three truly begin at the community college level?
The community colleges in California have, and I'm sure we were, but in California especially, have done a wonderful job of aligning the coursework so that students can seamlessly transfer.
[00:33:20] Um, we have what we call our eight cap courses that are part of our, um, transfer degree. And that those are foundational courses that are really necessary, like child development, you know, what's typical for children at different ages, so that educators know what to expect. Child, family, community, understanding how the child is, they don't just come to us as.
[00:33:40] Just one little being. They're part of something, right? They're part of their families, they're part of their community and how, how that all influences the child and, and how the child develops. Um, and then we have the practicum courses, which is really important. It's where our students are able to get.
[00:33:56] Um, experiences in early learning classrooms [00:34:00] while with an instructor that's overseeing them and having seminars in the class. And I think anytime that we can get students to have early experiences in any field, but especially in education, is beneficial because, you know, we wanna make sure that they're, they're going down the right path, right?
[00:34:17] Um, and we also know it's, it's way cheaper to go to community college, but that's an opportunity to really explore. I also think that we do a lot in the community colleges of, um, helping students reflect, right? Like you have to understand yourself and your experiences before you can go out and start thinking about, you know, how you're going to teach this, right?
[00:34:38] So we do a lot of reflection in our classes. Um, and then talking about play. Um, I know they're still gonna learn play once they go into the CSU, I'm sure, but we've, it's really, really ingrained through all of our courses and so it's, it's something that we really want the, uh, our students to really be passionate about.
[00:34:58] Right. To be able to explain that. I, um, I, I teach practicum and I went to a school the other day and it was a group of three year olds, and the teacher said, the parents are really, really worried because. They want me to teach more academics 'cause they're worried their kids aren't gonna be ready for tk.
[00:35:16] And I was like, okay, let's think about this. Right? Like it reminded me, Bev Boss had said in one of her videos one time that it's not our job to get students children ready for the next step. It's our job to meet them right where they are. And so really grounding that into our students before they go into the, uh, their next step.
[00:35:39] Um. So I think that, yeah, I just think that overall the community college is a great way for students to explore what kind of a teacher they wanna be. A lot of our students wanna go in into special ed tk, they wanna be child, early childhood directors, but it really helps 'em understand where they wanna be and where they should go.
[00:36:00] We love that Christina. And we're seeing great partnerships develop here in Fresno. And, and I know the other CSUs as well, our students are coming in from community colleges already saying Play is the work. Right? And and the moment I hear that, I'm like, yes, we're doing something right. Um, so thank you for breaking that down for us, Kristina, and talking about, you know, how can we have that conversation of developmentally informed and play base and keep moving.
[00:36:27] All right, so let's close this conversation. I've loved hearing about the joyful learning experiences in a classroom, how we're helping our students understand those playful learning experiences and the types of coursework they're getting. So what would be one takeaway each of you can share with our listeners, um, to help our listeners understand the, the value, the importance, the connections, um, of playful learning and developmentally informed practices, um, in tk.
[00:37:01] Let's start with Rachelle.
I think that, uh, a takeaway I would say is that the, the preschool or the PK three credential, the developmentally informed practices, the playful learning, that it's all aligned and it, it kind of moves us away from. Asking, is the child ready for school? Kind of this whole readiness for school, kind of more towards is the school or classroom designed in the way the child actually can learn?
[00:37:35] So that's one takeaway I'd say.
Awesome. I love that. Is the child ready or is the school ready? Something really, really important? We need to make our schools ready. How about Kristina, what's your one piece of advice or one takeaway for listeners?
I guess I, which think like, what does readiness mean for TK and kindergarten? Right? It is. Doesn't mean that they already know how. Yes, they should write their, they can write their name. It's great to teach children, but like. Are they ready socially? Are they ready to be able to be independent? Are they able to undress themselves when they need to go to the bathroom on their, like these skills?
[00:38:22] Like that is readiness, right? And so, um, to me, I think helping children socially and emotionally, uh, the teaching part and helping them love to learn, that's just gonna come. They're gonna, they're gonna grasp it. If you make it exciting and you make it fun.
Dr. Gibson, what's one takeaway you have?
When I think of developmentally appropriate practices or informed practices, playful learning, and pre-K through third grade alignment, I think of us all working together to build a stronger foundation for our youngest learners.Early learning matters.
This has been such a rich conversation. Thank you, um, Rachelle, Dr. Gibson and Kristina for sharing your expertise and perspective. And thank you. To our listeners, if you found this episode helpful, please share it with colleagues. We'll see you next time. If you'd like to learn more, be sure to check out our video preparing PK three educators for tomorrow and our PK three ECE Playbook.
[00:39:32] Both are available on our website. And join the movement to transform early learning through collaboration and innovation. Because every great idea begins with a SPARK!