Playing to Learn

Activities and Experiences that Build Learning Connections

Carol Seefeldt

• Publisher: Gryphon House Inc.
• Year: 2001
• ISBN:
  9780876595855
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Éducation de la petite enfance

Create meaningful experiences and engage children in learning through play. Playing to Learn gives you hundreds of activities to make learning fun through games, small group activities, stories, and more. These games and activities promote learning every day of the week, every week of the year. Sure to become a classroom favorite, Playing to Learn has everything you need to create wonderful learning experiences for young children.

Chapter 1

Playing to Learn
on a Wet and Rainy Day

 

 

“Rain, rain, go away. We want to go outside to play,” sing the children on a wet and rainy day. Playing outside is where children want to be.

After all, when they’re outside, they’re free to run, jump, yell, and really be children.

 

But rainy days, or any other day that children must stay inside, can still be fun-filled, enjoyable, learning days. That is, if you’ve planned ahead and are ready with challenging, engaging learning experiences that include:

• Physical activity

• Time to study, think, and learn

• Art and music

• Plenty of literature

• Quiet times for rest, reflection, and contemplation

 

This chapter includes many play activities and experiences.

(Far too many to use on any given day, rainy or not!) Read over the ideas and select those that best meet the needs of the children you teach. Some of the ideas require advance planning.

You can plan ahead by collecting the materials needed for a given activity and placing them in a discarded shoebox or other container. Label the container and pull it out on a rainy day, or any other day.

 

Physical Activities for Active Children

Children are physically active. They can’t keep their rapidly growing energetic bodies still for very long.

They simply must be able to wiggle, jiggle, move, jump, and run—and they’ll do so whether you want them to or not! So on a rainy day, plan all kinds of physical activities.

When the noise level starts to rise in the room, and the children’s voices start to sound whiney, anxious, and tense, and you can see and feel their frustration mounting, stop the children and tell them it’s time for the following activities.

Jacks and Jill’s in Boxes

Materials

Jack-in-the-Box toy

Gather the children together on the story or music rug.

Show them a Jack-in-the-Box.

Chant:

Jack is quiet down in his box

Until someone opens the lid.

Pause for a while, with suspense, and then say loudly,

“POP!”

Repeat the chant, substituting the name Jill in place of Jack. Now ask the children to find a space in the room that’s all their own.(Show them how to do this by standing still and holding out their arms. If their...

Table of contents

• Copyright © 2001 Carol Seefeldt
• Introduction
• Chapter 1
• Physical Activities for Active Children
• Moving All Around
• Thinking Children: Time to Study, Think, and Learn
• Artistic Children
• Literate Children
• Quiet Children
• Chapter 2
• Planning and Reflecting Children
• Artistic Children
• Children Are Physical Scientists
• Children Experience Language
• Chapter 3
• Observing Children
• Listening Children
• Chapter 4
• Types of Play
• Exploring Children
• Constructive Children
• Dramatic and Cooperative Children
• Children Play Games With Rules
• Children Play With Language to End a Perfectly Beautiful Day
• What Did You Do on This Perfectly Beautiful Day of Play?
• Chapter 5
• Literate Children
• Mathematical Children
• Laughing, Joyous Children
• What Did You Do When You Had to Wait?
• Chapter 6
• Children Make Transitions
• Children Make and Keep Friends
• Guiding Children’s Behaviors When Groups Get Out of Hand
• Guiding Children’s Behavior When Children Need Help
• Children Cope With Life Events
• What Did You Do When Things Went Wrong?
• Chapter 7
• Observing Children
• Broadening Children’s Horizons
• Children’s Social and Physical World
• What Did You Do When You Took a Walk?
• Chapter 8
• Literate Children
• Growing Children
• Musical Children
• Birthday Fun and Games
• What Did You Do Learn on a Birthday?
• References