ABSTRACT
In this chapter we want to explore in more detail why play and literacy work so well together and to consider how the relationships we have examined so far can be extended.
We know that play is a highly motivating experience for young children. It has a sense of authenticity and attracts a degree of commitment unmatched by most other school experiences. In play, children involve themselves with aspects of life that often demand that they think and behave like people acting upon the world outside school. The 'real world' is a very complex place and engaging with that world demands involvement in a rich variety of experiences. Handling the 'real' world in play demands a degree of reality within the play itself and yet the 'real' in play has a flexible relationship with the 'unreal' . As Heath (1983: 164-5) pointed out:
The constraints of reality enter into the play which accompanies these socia-dramas in yet other ways. Once the children have announced a suspension of reality by declaring a sandbox a city, a rock, a little girl, or a playroom corner a kitchen, they paradoxically more often than not insist on a strict adherence to certain details of real-life behaviour. In playing with doll babies, girls insist they are not dressed unless a diaper is pinned about them. Children in a play kitchen will break their routine of washing dishes by reaching over to stir the contents of a pot on the stove. When asked why they do this, they reply 'Hit'll burn.'
