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Three two year old girls are designing a house for their pretend play. Two of the girls, Audrey and Pixie, have different ideas about where to locate the kitchen. Audrey points to a large wooden chest and says, “Right there”. Pixie walks up to the section of house they have already built and says, “Leave it here”. Audrey counters by saying, “No, put it over here. The kitchen.” Notice how the teacher, Diane, works to help the children solve their problem.

Luke, Sally, and Jack are learning from their teacher, Michelle, about how to make paper airplanes. To create an airplane, the children must carry out a sequence of folds using a single sheet of paper. Notice what strategies the teacher uses within the context of group instruction to help the children learn the paper airplane folding technique. She accompanies the verbal directions that she offers to the children with a demonstration.

Laurel and Jenna are meeting for the first time. In this video we see how the girls establish a relationship through a series of leading and following actions. As Laurel dances on the mat, she turns her body toward Jenna, falls to her knees, and then looks at Jenna as if to say, “Did you see what I did?” Jenna responds by falling to the floor in imitation. Just as Jenna reaches the floor, Laurel stands up to begin a new series of movements. Jenna observes Laurel and quickly stands up to imitate her turning action.

Fours boys create a way to experience the joy of doing something together by inventing an activity in which they can participate simultaneously. To do so, they gather drumsticks and use sections of tree trunk to symbolize drums. Notice that near the beginning of the video one boy says, “Let’s go somewhere else,” and the children move to different location in the classroom. Consider why the children may decide to include these relocations as a feature of their play.

Caleb observes his classmate riding on a tire swing and he wants to join in the fun. He sits on the back of the couch with his arm outstretched toward an available tire but it does not swing close enough for him to grasp. Caleb says, “I can’t,” and looks over his shoulder as if to request help from the camera person. The off camera teacher encourages Caleb to use more descriptive language by asking, “Well, what do you need?” Caleb makes an instrumental gesture by grasping with his hand in the air.

Cole has stacked four blocks of identical shape and size together. He now decides to add a rectangular, red block to his stack. Notice that he positions the block horizontally by placing it on its side. Cole may understand that this placement lends stability to the growing stack. His classmate, Livy, comes over and observes. He adds a thin, rectangular block to the top of his stack. Notice that Cole does not lay the block face down but rather, stands it on one edge. He may now be thinking about adding height to his stack.

The six children in this video have just finished creating a sculpture on the playground. They turn their attention to making a pathway that will lead to their sculpture. One boy begins to move a large patio block, then realizes that he can lift only one side. He asks, “Can anybody help me?” and a girl quickly volunteers. The boy sets the sculpture as the starting point for laying their path while the girl says, “We need to go from the door”. Another boy invents a different strategy to move a large block; he drags it to a new location.

Three girls use dolls to enact a pretend play script about a doctor and her patients. Emma takes the lead role as doctor and skillfully negotiates the flow of play to include Brenna and Julia as patients. Observe what world knowledge about medical treatment and the doctor-patient relationship the children represent in their play. Study how the girls invent symbols through both sounds and actions to enact and clarify the script.

Three children work with their teacher to assign prices to cartons of eggs from the pretend store in their classroom. The children begin by thinking about how they can use the size of the cartons to calculate prices. Then they open the egg cartons and discover the holes inside. The rows of identical holes encourage the children to shift from thinking about size to considering how quantity relates to price. Observe what knowledge about numbers the children demonstrate. Notice what strategies they use to help them count and learn about what problems the children encounter.

As Chaislyn writes the names of her teachers and peers, we discover how a young child’s writing reveals her understanding of text conventions and what she believes is the function and purpose of writing. Observe the symbols she invents to represent writing and notice what sounds Chaislyn associates with her invented letters. Learn about the meanings Chaislyn assigns to her symbols. Notice what strategy she uses to denote words. Observe the formal characteristics of conventional letters she includes in her invented letters. Notice how Chaislyn’s writing is supported by her social context.