My Connections to Play- Ready, Set, Go!!!!

“Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury, play is a necessity.’

–Kay Redfield Jamison

“Play keeps us vital and alive. It gives us enthusiasm for life that is irreplaceable. Without it, life just doesn’t taste good.”

-Lucia Capocchione

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing. “

-Charles Shaefer

                                            

When I was a little girl, my mother had to threaten my life in order for me to come in from outside for dinner and a bath. This usually happened during my summer break. I can recall helping my mother fill up a recycled milk jug full of water every night and putting it in the freezer so that me, my friends, and siblings could have a drink of water while outside. That was not as fun as turning on the water hose and drinking the water as it shot up in the air! Our neighbors would tattle on us for doing it, but it was worth it.

Play was very important to me as a child. From kickball to dodge ball, to baseball- we made up the rules and had a great time. Sure we had arguments, cuts and scrapes from playing those games, but it was all in good fun. I also enjoyed indoor games. We played school, or monopoly, or operation or Go Fish. There was never a dull moment. My mother also gave us an Atari game for Christmas. She had to put us on a schedule in order to ensure that we continued to play outside. Now that I look back, I think the schedule was for her sanity. She was a house wife. and I'm sure that we would've gotten on her nerves if we stayed in the house all day. Besides, we were loud and rowdy when it came to play. It didn't matter if we were outside or not! :-) I loved my childhood. It was so carefree. I really enjoyed the moments when mommy came outside and played hide-and-seek, or monitored us as we ran through the sprinklers in bathing suits and swimming trunks. With all that going on, who needed a swimming pool?

I thought that once I began school, playtime was going to be over. Luckily for me it wasn’t. We worked and played in the classroom. We worked and played outside. I incorporate the same tactics in my classroom today. I work with kindergartners. It is almost impossible for me to keep my sanity if I don’t allow them playtime. Sure we work in groups doing hands on activities in centers. However, I believe that they deserve an unstructured break just as I do. We are studying rocks. For our outside time, the students took magnifying glasses from our science kit and searched for rocks. The project was a success. They even made up a game to see who could find the biggest, shiniest rocks. The person who did was simply ‘the winner’. I thought it was so cute. I just walked around observing and taking it all in. The whole time I was thinking to myself that they really listened in class and they’re applying what they’ve learned without much direction from me.

I have always been in favor of play. I believe that’s because I was given the freedom to learn and play at the same time. Kids deserve an opportunity to think for themselves without having an adult tell them what to do and how to do it. Hands on activities are an awesome asset to the classroom. It helps the children focus on what they’ve learned and apply it without having to use pencil and paper.  I hope that as I continue teaching I can stay with the Pre-K/K age group. They are the ones that have less paperwork while learning and can still enjoy the freedom of hands on engagement.

(Investigating rocks...ROCKS!)