Play Fosters Open-Minded Learning

As the children grow older, play continues to have a place at C&C: in the Yard, in Rhythms, and as the children create their end-of-year Social Studies plays. Most importantly, the children’s habits that come from their many years of play in the Lower School manifest as a playfulness of mind in all subjects. With openness and flexibility, children interact with concepts in context, comfortably manipulate data, experiment, create art, perform music, and consistently seek to understand various perspectives and ideas from the inside out through research and dramatic play.

“Dramatic play helps integrate children's learning, not only at the youngest ages but throughout the entire age range from three to thirteen and perhaps beyond.”
- Jean Murray, former Principal of C&C

“There is a powerful desire in any group of children to take up an idea, pass it around, and give everyone a chance to influence the outcome. This can happen in music and dance, in art and poetry, and extend into math, science and philosophy. But the phenomenon appears first in fantasy play.”