The school year is coming to a close but the days are as busy as ever. I strive to provide many opportunities for playful learning throughout our kindergarten day. Sometimes the learning takes place in the way I had predicted it would with the materials provided and other times the type of learning surprises me.
This week’s blog contains photos from our week. The majority of these photos are taken while the children were engaging with the materials, others were taken prior to the children arriving for the day.
Playful Learning Photos
“Play is the Highest Form of Research” – Albert Einstein
I am blessed to have a classroom full of researchers!
Happy Teaching and Learning,
Lynda
2 Responses
I would love to hear more about how you incorporate play in your school day (how often, how long, free-choice or assigned centers, open-tasks or assignment based), and how you set up and manage the class during play. I want to incorporate more play but need to make sure it is peaceful and not chaotic.
I have a play-based Kindergarten classroom so we have several play opportunities throughout our day. When students arrive they make a choice from our “smart jobs’ – these are literacy and numeracy focused activities. We play these games for approx. 20ish minutes depending on engagement. During this time, I am touching base with children and playing with individuals or small groups. Throughout the remainder of our day we alternate between focused group lesson times, follow up task and then free-choice play. During free-choice they can still select the numeracy / literacy activities but all other areas are available. Other areas include dramatic play, building, painting or another process art activity, small world play – these areas change often depending on what I see the children gravitating towards. As for management – we spend the first few weeks of school working on routines and procedures for all parts of our day. We practice sharing, cleaning up, self-regulating ourselves and making wise decisions. Some friends need a little more guidance than others and after longer school breaks we review, review, review these routines and procedures. As for peaceful and not chaotic – we are typically more relaxed and quieter in the mornings and in the afternoon, I sometimes think of it as organized chaos. My current school has many English language learners so I promote conversations during play so there is a lot of talking happening during play. At the end of the day – we end as we started we focused literacy / numeracy play. I make sure we have 2 larger blocks of open-ended play along with our 2 focused literacy / numeracy play slots – we also have outside recess play built into our day. I hope this helps. My advice – start with small time blocks with consistent expectations and procedures. Take time to problem solve for situations that may arise – what if someone is using what I want…. Best wishes on incorporating play into your classroom.
– lynda.