Play as a pedagogical practice in early childhood education

The nursery school teacher must take on the role of mediator of teaching-learning-development, which will occur naturally in the actions present in play and interactions. It’s worth emphasising that play in Early Childhood Physical Education is both the means and the end of pedagogical practice, based on the appropriation of play as content to be taught. It’s not up to us in Physical Education classes in Early Childhood Education to propose activities whose main objective is to develop knowledge of colours, numbers or letters. Nor should we plan lessons aimed at improving children’s balance, motor coordination or sense of space and time. In Early Childhood Physical Education, children play in order to learn how to play, they reproduce the play they have been taught, imitate it, internalise the play they have been taught and at the same time create and recreate their own form of play. The child then produces their own culture of play, influencing and being influenced by the culture present in the community in which they live. Body learning related to motor, cognitive and affective development will come naturally in this play, so there is no need to direct the lessons in this direction.