The Possibilities of Play

Imaginative Learning Centers for Children Ages 3-6

Dr. Jean Feldman, Carolyn Kisloski

• Publisher: Gryphon House Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780876599372
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

Thoughtfully created learning centers are bubbling with opportunities for active learning. Dr. Jean, beloved author of dozens of books and songs, and coauthor Carolyn Kisloski bring you a collection of practical ideas and tips to inspire engagment and spark learning in your classroom centers—and, importantly, keep children coming back for more. Children learn best through play. Discover how you can help them thrive in your learning centers. The Possibilities of Play brings expert tips for selecting and managing materials, facilitating explorations, and challenging children to:

• explore on their own time and at their own level,
• engage in hands-on discovery,
• solve problems and use critical-thinking skills,
• practice emerging skills across domains,
• share and get along with others,
• develop language, and
• realize their own sense of creativity.

Chapter 1
What Is Play?

“Play is the highest form of research.”

—Albert Einstein, physicist

Play: 1. noun. Activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, esp. by children.

2. verb. Engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

Stages and Types of Play

Play is natural and instinctive for all human beings. Researcher Mildred Parten (1932) identified six stages of play that children pass through as they develop and grow: unoccupied, solitary, onlooker, parallel, associative, and cooperative. Note that when children have mastered a stage of play, they will still return to it as they grow and develop. The age ranges listed are approximate; each child develops at his or her own pace (Rymanowicz, 2015).

• Unoccupied play (birth to three months): Babies observe the area around them or explore movements and materials with no organization as they begin to master their bodies.
• Solitary play (birth to two years): Children at this stage are busy exploring and discovering their world and are generally not interested in playing with other children.
• Onlooker play (two years): Children are interested in the play of other children, but they do not engage in that play. They learn about social rules and relationships by watching.
• Parallel play (two to four years): Children at this stage play next to each other because they are in the same area, but they don’t interact.
• Associative play (three to four years): Children in this stage still play independently, but they begin to talk to other children, and borrow and take turns with toys.
• Cooperative play (four years and up): At this stage, children begin speaking, listening, communicating, and interacting with each other through play.

The ages and stages of the children you teach will significantly affect which materials and activities you choose. Within these stages of play are many different types of play. The National Institute for Play has identified these seven basic types.

• Attunement—This type establishes a connection, such as between a newborn and mother.
• Body play and movement—The infant explores the ways in which her body works and interacts with the world.
• Object—This type involves playing with toys and handling physical things out of curiosity.
• Social—This type of play involves another child or group of children.
• Imaginative and pretend—The child invents scenarios and acts within them.
• Storytelling-narrative—This is the play of learning and language, such as listening to a child retell a story.
• Creative—The child plays with imagination to transcend what is known to create a higher state.

All play is purposeful. There’s not a rhyme, song, scribble, block structure, sandcastle, swing, laugh, dance, or hug that is wasted. It all integrates into the beautiful mosaic called childhood. In free play, children have the time, space, and materials to explore safely and engage with materials and peers in any way they choose. Structured play, in contrast, is often adult guided and supervised. There are rules and expectations and taking turns is involved. Purposeful play focuses on the learning opportunities that children develop as they engage in hands-on explorations. Purposeful play suggests taking skills children have to learn and turning them into something that they want to learn through games and engaging materials. Teachers add the magic to turn play into a learning adventure.

The Importance of Play

Play is disappearing. There are a multitude of social and cultural reasons for why children no longer have the freedom to play and to use their imaginations. Many researchers, including Joan Almon and Edward Miller, have addressed the issue. In their 2011 article “The Crisis in Early Education: A Research-Based Case for More Play and Less Pressure,” Almon and Miller point out that no research supports the idea that children who read at age five do better in the long run than those who learn at six or seven; instead, they emphasize push-down academics at the cost of time for open-ended play negatively affects social-emotional development, curiosity, and language development. “Well-prepared early educators,” Almon and Miller state, “need appropriate guidelines they can apply with flexibility.”

Brain researchers, pediatricians, educators, child psychologists, and theorists agree that we must protect and preserve play. Study after study reports that children from play-based classes excel in reading, math, and social and emotional adjustments (See, for example, Almon and Miller, 2011; Broadhead, Howard, and Wood, 2010; Nicolopoulou, 2010.) They also seemed to fare better as adults in work (Miller and Almon, 2009).

Social-Emotional Development

When children play in pairs or groups, they learn to share, communicate, empathize, cooperate, and collaborate. Play is essential for building relationships. Children can learn to solve their own problems through play. They learn to negotiate, listen, and compromise. In her book Planning for Play: Strategies for Guiding Preschool Learning, Kristen Kemple asserts that play not only helps children learn to negotiate conflicts in peaceful ways but also helps them learn to show awareness of others’ rights, feelings, and well-being. Children learn to identify and name their own emotions and those of others when they play together (Kemple, 2017).

Play, especially vigorous outdoor play, is a great stress reliever and helps improve children’s focus in the classroom (Taylor and Kuo, 2009; Kemple, 2017). Play develops executive function—understanding limits and being able to stop when necessary. Without play, there are more behavior problems in the classroom. Research supports the assertion that children with higher social and emotional competence will be more successful in school (Shonkoff and Phillips, 2000; Raver, 2002).

Play releases dopamine, a chemical that makes children feel happy and want to continue the play (Wang and Aamodt, 2012). Stuart Brown, founder of the National Institute for Play, put it this way in his 2008 TED Talk, “Play Is More Than Just Fun”:

The opposite of play is not work, it’s depression. And I think if you think about life without play—no humor, no flirtation, no movies, no games, no fantasy, and, and, and. Try to imagine a culture or a life, adult or otherwise, without play. And the thing that’s so unique about our species is that we’re really designed to play through our whole lifetime.

Physical Development

In his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008), John Ratey argues that more physical fitness will lower obesity and improve academic performance. “Exercise stimulates the gray matter to produce Miracle-Gro for the brain . . . Dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine are elevated after exercise.” These neurotransmitters can help with focus, calming down, and impulsivity.

Brown defines body play—jumping, rolling, swinging, running, climbing, and so on—as “a spontaneous desire to get ourselves out of gravity” (2008). When playing, children learn to experiment and take risks, which builds self-confidence. Children can develop self-help skills and independence, as well as large- and small-motor skills, when they play (Wang and Aamodt, 2012; Carlson, 2011). Play provides children with the opportunity to master their world and is closely linked with cognitive development.

Cognitive Development

Information gets to the brain through the senses. The more pathways you activate, the more likely the message will get to the brain and stay there. When children play, their whole brains are stimulated. Gwen Dewar, author of “The Cognitive Benefits of Play: Effects on the Learning Brain” (2014), reports the followin...

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Chapter 1 What Is Play?
• Chapter 2 Center Management
• Chapter 3 Small-Motor Center
• Chapter 4 Literacy Center
• Chapter 5 Writing Center
• Chapter 6 Math Center
• Chapter 7 Science Center
• Chapter 8 Block Center
• Chapter 9 Sensory Explorations Center
• Chapter 10 Dramatic Play Center
• Chapter 11 Art Center
• Chapter 12 Library Center
• Chapter 13 Listening & Technology Center
• Chapter 14 Outdoor Adventures