If you have ever wandered into the children’s classroom,
stepped over toys and art supplies to find the children’s teacher and her
class in what looks like it might be total chaos, stop and take a second look. There might be some very valuable learning
going on. A more traditional classroom scene—where you might see all of the children sitting at a table or desk, working
quietly on a worksheet or listening politely to the teacher—might mean that the children are not in fact getting what
they need to learn best. Consider the following:
-
Children who spend 50-60 minutes of a 2.5
hour program engaged in sociodramatic play scored higher on literacy skills than children in control classrooms (Bodrova and
Leong, 2001)
-
Oral language in pretend play episodes has
been found to predict reading achievement (Roskos & Numan, 1998)
-
Marcon (1999, 2002) found that by the end
of 4th grade children in play-based programs earned better grades than children who had attended academically-directed
preschool programs.
-
Active play is related to large muscle development,
fine motor development, increased metabolism and energy consumption, decreased weight and heart-related problems, and reduced
levels of chronic stress (Stegelin, 2005).
WhWhy we should play more at RIFLI:
- Including opportunities for play in our
program is particularly important because we are an out-of-school program and children may be in structured environments at
other times during their day.
- We have a great opportunity to encourage
parents to play with their children and to teach families about the importance of play and the link to learning success.
WhWhat does play
look like in the classroom?
- Open ended activities set up to follow theme
of the day/week/month or in response to group interest in a particular topic. Play might also be inspired by the book read
during story time, by a child’s journal entry or recent trip, etc.
- Fun props to support thematic play. The
craft for the day could be the creation of a prop to use during play (like creating signs and other materials for a doctor’s
office (when you’re discussing health) or grocery store (when you’re discussing nutrition).
- More guidance at the beginning, less as
kids become more able to take charge of their own sociodramatic play. Your goal is to become more of an observer or co-player
and less of a leader over time.
- Parents should be invited in to engage in
play. If the children have created props and taken on the roles in an imaginary grocery store, the parents can join in at
the end of class to play their customers.
- The teacher serves as facilitator, asking
questions and providing gentle guidance to keep children physically and intellectually active. The teacher asks productive
questions to support learning.
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