This second edition of "The Excellence of Play" encapsulates all of the many changes that have taken place in early childhood in the last decade. It examines the vital importance of play as a tool for learning and teaching for children and practitioners, supporting all those who work in early childhood education and care in developing and implementing the highest quality play experiences for young children. All the contributors are experts in their fields and all are passionate about the excellence of play. While the importance of curriculum and assessment is retained and extended, this edition features many new contributions, including: Children as social and active agents in their own play; More background to current research on play theory and practice; Practitioners' roles in play and adults' enabling of play; Links with the Foundation Stage (including legislation and policy); Links with the first years of school and beyond Outdoor and physical play, including rough and tumble; Gender differences; Play and observation/assessment; Special Educational Needs and play. This book provides a powerful argument that a curriculum which sanctions and utilizes play is more likely to provide well-balanced citizens of the future, as well as happier and more learned children in the present. Following a foreword by Iram Siraj-Blatchford; and an introduction by Janet Moyles this book is divided into four parts. Part One, Setting the Play Context, contains the following chapters: (1) Play and Legislated Curriculum: Back to Basics--An Alternative View (Angela Anning); (2) Learning to Play, Playing to Learn--Babies and Young Children Birth to Three (Ann Langston and Lesley Abbott); and (3) Play and Special Needs (Theodora Papatheodorou). Part Two, Play, Language, and Literacy Development, continues with the following chapters: (4) Play, Storytelling and Creative Writing (David Whitebread and Helen Jameson); (5) Open-Ended Role Play: Supporting Creativity and Developing Identity (Pat Broadhead and Carey English); (6) Play, Literacy and Situated Learning (Nigel Hall); (7) Story-Making, Play and Gender (Jane Hislam); and (8) Fantasy Play and the Case for Adult Intervention (Neil Kitson). Part Three, Play and the Curriculum, presents the next six chapters: (9) Play Activity and Rough and Tumble Play (Peter K. Smith); (10) Outdoor Play and the Pedagogic Garden (Stephanie Harding); (11) Science and Play (Alan Howe and Dan Davies); (12) Mathematics and Play (Rose Craven Griffiths); (13) Art in the Early Years (Bernadette Duffy); and (14) Playing Music (Linda Pound). Part Four, Play Culture and Playful Practitioners, presents the final chapters: (15) Practitioners and Play: Reflecting in a Different Way (Sian Adams); (16) The Importance of Play in the Transition to School (Hilary Fabian and Aline-Wendy Dunlop); (17) Play in the Early Years: The Influence of Cultural Difference (Tricia David and Sacha Powell); and (18) Play, the Universe and Everything! (Tina Bruce). The book concludes with an afterword by Janet Moyles; and a list of references. [For the first edition of this book, see ED377984.]