Using DAP

Using developmentally appropriate practices in the classroom

  • Children learn through play. A good teacher can observe children’s play, engage children in play, and extend learning through play.
  • Learning requires interaction, observation, experimentation, and active exploration of real objects and relationships in the environment.
  • Children have an essential role in development of an emergent curriculum based on their interests and needs.
  • Capabilities develop in predictable stages/sequences throughout life and at each developmental stage children will be able to do new things.
  • Children are encouraged to work at their own pace and work on an activity for as long as they choose.
  • Adults trust in and support a child’s ability to choose what they need to do within the environment at any given time.
  • Children’s play is their work. Their work is taken seriously and respected by teachers and peers.

Marli shows us her emergent writing{A student has been working in the dramatic play area, and used the white board to write the menu for the restaurant that she opened with a friend}