Dominique Brunelle Guides Educators through Play

Shorecrest Experiential School Teaching Assistant Dominique Brunelle co-facilitated a session last month at the 2024 Early Childcare Education Conference on the topic of “To Play is to Learn.”

Dominique is a student at St. Petersburg College and was invited to present by the college and the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children. Facilitating alongside Dominique were two other early childhood educators from SPC, Ulas Butler and Susan Weber. Participants explored an open-ended play space to re-discover play. The session examined how children learn writing and math as they play, and how adults may inadvertently interrupt play. The session also included time for participants to reflect on the importance of play. 

The conference was hosted by Early Learning Coalition of Pinellas County as well as FLAEYC (Florida Association for the Education of Young Children), for which Dominique serves on the Board as a student representative. 

“I loved the conference,” Dominique reported. “This was the first conference I attended where every session was about PLAY.”

Participants in her session commented that the presenters were knowledgeable, they felt inspired, and they learned to make play more intentional and child-led.

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