摘要：In their early years, children's understanding of the world is often developed through a combination of social and construction play experiences, where children learn not only from assembling objects and taking them apart, but also from creating and recreating through interactions with peers and adults within their home and school environments. Musical experiences for children can be designed with a similar play perspective, where an emphasis on "how music works" encourages children to apply thinking and reasoning skills about musical sounds and musical patterns they sing, hear, and play on instruments. Identifying solutions to simple "musical problems" can occur individually, in small groups, and in large-group settings, as children play with each other and with familiar (teachers) and unfamiliar (guest artists) adults in their classrooms. Recognizing the importance of this type of learning in early childhood, a music program designed with a core of developmentally appropriate and playful experiences (Copple & Bredekamp 2006) can support children's social, cognitive, and emotional development. This paper presents a theoretical context for play as a learning medium, and offers examples from early childhood music lessons that illustrate how these types of play are naturally imbedded in music learning. To address the role of musical play in early learning, we first establish this idea with brief comments on theories of play and development, and then offer examples to illustrate "what musical play looks like" inside the early childhood classroom
