The traditional role for teachers in children's play was to structure it, setting rules and interrupting if things got "out of hand." However, for children ages 3 to 5, sociodramatic play is a way to invent and make familiar the rhythms and actions of everyday life. This book describes why play is a fundamentally important part of children's development, and shows how adults can support and promote play. Integrating cognitive and psychodynamic theory, the book offers systematic descriptions and analyses of the different roles a teacher adopts toward this end--and describes both highly interactive and inhibited children from different economic backgrounds. The chapters are: (1) "Understanding and Supporting Children's Play"; (2) "Teacher as Stage Manager"; (3) "Teacher as Mediator"; (4) "Teacher as Player"; (5) "Teacher Behavior that Interrupts Play"; (6) "Teacher as Scribe"; (7) "Teacher as Assessor and Communicator"; (8) "Teacher as Planner"; (9) "Paying Attention to Play"; and (10) "A Sense of the Past and the Future." Contains 104 references. (HTH)