SLUG: ME-PLAY DATE: November 12, 2009 PLACE: Arlington, VA PHOTOGRAPHER: jahi chikwendiu/twp Clockwise from left, Zaneta Kocourkova, Alessa Martinez, and Yasmine Moreno Giron clean up after playtime during preschool at Oakridge Elem School in Arlington, VA. Increasingly, researchers are recognizing play as crucial to children's social/emotional development and preschools are incorporating structured play into their programs. Oakridge Elementary has 3 subsidized preschool classrooms for 3- and 4-year-olds with low-income parents. They'll be playing with blocks, playing house, playing board games. The idea is that they learn self-control and how to follow rules by playing with each other and by playing make-believe. They learn self-discipline in part by thinking about what they're going to do and how they're going to do it.