Darryl Edwards -Active Play: what role did it have in our evolutionary past and how vital is it[...]
Dramatic Play- Fitness Center
Dramatic Play- Grocery Store/Bakery
Dramatic Play- Veterinarian Office
Dream it, Build It, Launch It!
https://www.oercommons.org/authoring/46583-dramatic-play-overview/1/view
https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/genius-sensory-activities-for-kids/
https://youtu.be/fa-7SZo90YY
Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education
Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education
Puppet Play
Story Play
What is cooperative play
What’s for Dinner?
Inquiry Project: Play as Learning
Overview
Play as Learning is important to incorporate into the daily lives of children of all ages. Included in this resource are ideas, definitions, and videos that educators can include for activities. Play is essential and needed for child development.
Introduction
Play as learning introduces the idea of incorporating play in the classroom to encourage excitement and engagement in learning. Although there are ten types of play, each type of play intertwines with another, and one type of play does not stand alone. Throughout this OER, we will discuss five of the ten types of play, what these types of play involve, the purpose of these types of play, and what they look like in the classroom across grade levels. You will see in our example activities how multiple types of play are involved in a single activity and how they enhance learning in the classroom.
It is extremely important to understand that the resources, materials, and activities provided for play will change throughout the school year depending on your students' interests and development. Each of these play areas will target multiple objectives and will involve cross-curricular experiences.
The 10 Essential Areas of A Play Based Classroom
The purpose of this OER is to highlight the essential nature of incorporating play into a child’s everyday life. Not only should a child be playing at home, but play should be incorporated into the classroom. There are many types of play, and we have chosen to focus on Dramatic Play, Active Play, Sensory Play, Cooperative Play, and Constructive Play. As you explore the sections of this OER, you will learn how crucial play is for children’s development.
While involved in play, children are challenged to meet the language, problem-solving, and social competencies of their peers. When play is interesting and important to children, they are eager to learn new vocabulary, new physical skills, and new social behaviors that will allow them to stay engaged in play. This is not only helpful in a classroom setting but vital to keep children engaged and excited about learning.
"Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education" by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, and Clint Springer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Resources
"An Introduction to Play as Learning" by Hannah Edwards is in the Public Domain
Janelle. (2022, January 19). The 10 essential areas of a play based classroom. My Teaching Cupboard. Retrieved February 4, 2023, from https://www.myteachingcupboard.com/blog/investigations/the-10-areas-of-a-play-based-classroom
Dramatic Play
Description
The dramatic play center provides opportunities for students to collaborate, engage in learning, and build language skills through conversations. Children have the opportunity to role play real-life experiences by taking on many roles in imaginative play.
"Dramatic Play- Grocery Store/Bakery" by MSDE Admin, Cheri Helmstetter, Amy Toms, Kristen Johnson, Bob Wagner is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Purpose
- expression of feelings and emotions
- creativity, imagination, abstract thinking
- oral communication, vocabulary
- cooperation, sharing, taking turns
- fine motor development through role playing life skills (ex. buttoning, zipping)
"Dramatic Play Overview" by MSDE Admin, Cheri Helmstetter, Amy Toms, Kristen Johnson, Bob Wagner is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
How does it look across different grade levels?
Pre-K/ Kindergarten- Veterinarian Office
Students use their imagination to fill different spots to create a running vets office. The children have different opportunities to be what they want from a pet to a veterinarian. This allows children to role play and have their own imagination be acted upon. The students must think and act upon what is wrong with the animals, communicate with others, they can even figure out how much the visit will be, and if they animal needs to come back for another visit.
"Dramatic Play- Veterinarian Office" by MSDE Admin, Cheri Helmstetter, Amy Toms, Kristen Johnson, Bob Wagner is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
3rd- 6th Create a Show
Let the kids create a show of any sort (musical, YouTube video, puppet show, etc.) over what is being taught in class. With the idea of letting the students’ thoughts and creativity be the light of the assignment it really lets their imagination run. Instead of giving the students a script and having them read it or act it out, they have full creative choice on script, parts, and how they portray the material that is being taught.
Active Play
Definition:
Active play includes any type of activity that involves moderate to vigorous bursts of high energy.
Purpose:
- Active play is essential to the optimal physical development and overall health of young children. Physical activity embedded throughout the preschool day promotes children’s ability to attend to, learn, and regulate their emotional responses. Active physical play not only enhances the body’s physiological functions (i.e., physical fitness), it promotes optimal brain chemistry for self-regulation and enhances learning readiness. As such, it should be fully integrated into the regular preschool day.
- Active physical play contributes markedly to enhancing children’s fundamental movement skills in three principal areas: balance, locomotion, and both gross and fine motor manipulation.
"Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education" by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, and Clint Springer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
By incorporating Active Play in a classroom setting, it will enhance:
- Gross motor skills while moving to music and performing exercises
- Spacial awareness of others and the environment
- Fine motor skills when handling equipment
- Math skills with the counting of repetitions of each exercise, use of timers, or following steps for a movement
- Writing opportunities to write names of exercises
- Expression of artistic ability through drawing an exercise routine for others to follow
- Print exposure to different sports names and movement/exercise tasks with labels
- Reading opportunities with exposure to a variety of sports and exercise-related books in the center
- Expression of feelings and emotions
- Creativity, imagination, abstract thinking
- Oral communication, vocabulary
- Cooperation, sharing, taking turns
"Dramatic Play- Fitness Center" by MSDE Admin, Cheri Helmstetter, Amy Toms, Kristen Johnson, Bob Wagner is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
How does it look across grade levels:
- Pre-K and Kindergartenen: Freeze Dance
- This activity, similar to freeze tag, allows children to express their creativity in their dance moves while the music is playing. When the music stops, the children must control their bodies to freeze. This allows children to be aware of their movements and their surroundings while gaining confidence and building their gross motor skills. This is a good classroom activity when there is space for children to move freely without obstacles.
- 3rd grade: Vocabulary Relay Race
- In this activity, students will be split into groups. They will start at the end of one side of the classroom, then one person from each group will race to the other side of the room to complete their vocab word. On their way, the student must jump, avoid, and crawl to get to the other side. When they get to the other side, they will place the vocab word in the correct pile. The students will have four categories that their word could fall under, and they must acceratly sort the word.
- Middle School: Minute to Win it
- This activity will be like the popular game show, Minute to Win it. In the classroom, students will participate in active challenges that pertain to the subject they are learning that week or incentives for the work they are completing. For example, the students are doing a math lesson about square roots and squares. The students would work out the problems individually but then come together as a team to complete the challenges. They would get their score from accuracy on their math problems and time to complete the challenges. The children in the classroom would be up and moving, working as a team to continue to build muscle control and gross and fine motor skills.
Video:
I have attached a video from Darryl Edwards. He speaks about the importance of play in all ages and how it impacts social and emotional development, he talks about the history of play and how it is important for our future. Please reference the time between 15:30 to 18:55. This section of the video mentions how our play affects how we perceive our environment and how it affects our hormones. If you would like to watch the whole video, please feel free.
"Darryl Edwards -Active Play: what role did it have in our evolutionary past and how vital is it[...]" by AncestryFoundation is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Sensory Play
Sensory Play
Definition: Sensory play is an activity or type of play that engages the child’s senses. It can stimulate the child’s touch, smell, taste, sound, sight. It also engages movement and balance within the play.
Purpose: To encourage learning through exploration, curiosity, and problem solving. Sensory activitiy strengthens brain functions
Keeping in mind the senses that help activate the brain:
- Vision
- Sight
- Smell
- Taste
- Touch
- Proprioceptive (sensations from muscles and joints)
- Interoception (senses from internal organs)
How does this look across grade levels in elementary?
-Preschool : Shaving cream on tables, flour bins, oobleck, music, different smell activities
Lower elementary: Sensory bins, playdough, slime, ninja movements (allows the students to move), musical chairs
- Upper elementary: Slime volcanoes, Baking bread, Sunflower playdough, bath bombs, glow lava lamps
For more activities check out this website: Brewer, S. (2022, June 20). Genius sensory activity ideas that explore all eight sensory systems. STEAM Powered Family. Retrieved February 7, 2023, from https://www.steampoweredfamily.com/genius-sensory-activities-for-kids/
Cooperative Play
Definition: Cooperative play involves children interacting and playing together to reach a common goal. Children may take on different roles within their play in order to reach this goal.
Purpose:
Children learn cooperation, communication, and conflict resolution skills through cooperative play. This play allows children to negotiate and problem solve together in order to reach their common goal.
Children build trust with each other while participating in cooperative play learning to value their strengths and contributions within their role. In addition children build empathy learning to make sure each person's role is fair to the game.
Children have mastered cooperative play when they are able to collaborate with others assigning distinct roles and play effectively to reach their common goal.
Pelly, J. (2020, April 23). What is cooperative play? definition, examples, and benefits. Healthline. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/cooperative-play#timing
How does it look across grade levels:
- Pre-K and Kindergarten: Puppet Play
- Children will each choose a different puppet and play together from the point of view of their puppets. Children will be able to identify the feelings and needs of their puppet as they play and express their characters feelings and needs to others. Puppet play allows children to explore, express their feelings, ideas, and concerns with each other.
"Puppet Play" by Fareeda Taha is licensed under CC BY 4.0
- 3rd Grade - 5th Grade: Story Play
- Children will split into small groups after reading a story working together they will retell their story from beginning, middle, and end. For this activity children will divide roles and tasks among themselves. Using their communication and problem solving skills they would decide who is incharge of the script, costumes, and props. Then performing their play effectively so they’re audience remains engaged and has a clear understanding of their story.
"Story Play" by Arts ESU2 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
Constructive Play
Definition: Constructive play involves experimenting with objects to create or build things and learning concepts that were previously unknown with hands-on manipulations of materials.
"Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education" by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, and Clint Springer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Purpose: Constructive play allows children to show evidence of emerging education concepts such as social studies, physical science, mathematics, reading and writing, and drawing. This type of play also allows children to practice cooperation, planning, problem solving, and decision making skills.
Additional skills children practice through constructive play:
- gross and fine motor skills
- special awareness of others and the environment
- expression of artistic ability throuhg drawing and creating things
- expression of feelings an emotions
- creativity, imagination, abstract thinking
- oral communication, vocabulary
- sharing, taking turns
How does it look across grade levels?
Kindergarten: Construction Site - Students use basic building blocks to build their very own construction site. Students practice their writing and drawing skills by making a construction sign for their site, their math and science skills by figuring out how to make the blocks stack, as well as their gross and fine motor skills.
"Construction Site" by Amy Toms is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
4th-8th: Dream it, Build it, Launch it! - Students create a plan for a catapult, build a catapult, and test its ability to launch an object. This is an advanced idea of the constructive play seen in kindergarten’s construction site build using building blocks. Instead of stacking blocks, students are asked to build a catapult that can actually launch an object. Students practice writing, drawing, math, science, fine, and gross motor skills by writing/drawing a plan, measuring and configuring how to make the catapult stand and launch and object, and by using tools to put the catapult together.
"Dream It, Build It, Launch It!" by Maj Hutchinson and Anna Shea is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
5th: What's for Dinner? - Students come up with a family meal to prepare and have a family member help them cook it. This allows students to experiment with mixtures by mixing different ingredients, practice math skills by measuring out ingredients, and practice writing skills by writing out the recipe. This is a unique way for students to use constructive play, because it looks different than the typical construction seen in constructive play. Instead of building something or creating an object, the student is creating a meal by putting all of the ingredients together in the same way they would put pieces together to build an object.
"What's for Dinner?" by Pranjali Upadhyay and Renae Skar is licensed under CC BY 4.0
Conclusion
Play as learning is vital for children. It is important we incorporate play into our lessons, into free time in the classroom, and allow students to explore what play means to them.
We have learned that play:
- Inspires imagination
- Facilitates creativity
- Fosters problem solving
- Promotes the development of new skills
- Builds confidence and higher levels of self-esteem
- Allows free exploration of the environment
- Fosters learning through hands-on and sensory exploration
"Introduction to Curriculum for Early Childhood Education" by Jennifer Paris, Kristin Beeve, and Clint Springer is licensed under CC BY 4.0
There are many different types of play for children to explore. Each type of play is imperative to a child's development.