What You Need To Know About Play-Based Learning
Hey there fellow teacher!
As educators, we understand that our littlest of learners need time throughout the day to play. But, how do we allow our children to play when we have to teach to standards and standardized tests? What happens when an evaluator walks into the classroom and my students are playing in a bin of rice? How do I keep everyone on both sides of the fence happy? Implementing play-based learning in the classroom is struggle for so many of us!
One of my largest tasks as an educator and creator is trying to find ways to integrate play into the standards. My goal is to help educators incorporate more developmentally appropriate practices for their students into the school day. In this post I will be explaining the what, the why and the how of play-based learning.
What is play-based learning?
Intentional play
Self-active play
Open-ended play
Hands-on play
Self-initiated play…
Although the names are different, they are all names for play-based learning.
Play-based learning is exactly what it sounds like, playing to learn! Play is the natural way that we all learn, even as adults. That is pretty crazy to think about, right? Play-based activities should be hands-on and left open-ended, and the most fun part is seeing what the children come up with! You will be AMAZINGLY surprised, I promise!
Children are naturally curious and motivated to play. They also have the most fun imaginations, just think of what a cardboard box could be for a kid!
One of the biggest misconceptions is that when an adult observes a group of children playing with blocks or table of sand, they are just “playing” and not learning. It is our job to educate our parents and co-workers to understand the importance of play in the early grades and what is actually going on “behind the scenes”. Children are not just playing, they are learning and making sense of the world.
Why is play-based learning important?
Play-based learning is important for children for SO MANY reasons. Some of the benefits of play-based learning are:
- Language skills
- Social and emotional skills
- Math concepts
- Literacy skills
- Life-skills
- Creativity and imagination
- Problem-solving
- Emotion and empathy
Learning through play is the most effective way for children to learn and make sense of the world around them. It is also fun and helps to create a motivated, life-long learner.
Play-based activities can be “pre-planned” or left “open-ended”. When activities are pre-planned, a teacher has a specific learning objective or goal in mind for the use of the bin. An example of this is below.
In this sensory bin activity, children search for cards and record the quantities they find on the recording sheet. This is pre-planned by the teacher to focus on a number sense objective.
When bins are left open-ended, the teacher is allowing the children to come up with how they will use the bin. By doing this, students are learning to work together, communicate, share materials, and use their imaginations to construct something. In my opinion, this is the most fun way to use a sensory bin because it is always interesting to how the students think and construct something.
Reasons why play has been on the decline in classrooms
The following is merely my opinion based on my experience and education.
Educators of early elementary can unitedly agree that there has been a significant change in the way primary grades are “run”.
Starting with No Child Left Behind and the implementation of the Common Core standards, districts and administration feel an increasing pressure to teach to the standards and to perform well on standardized tests. The easiest way to do this is by teaching with more direct instruction, worksheets and ready-made curriculums.
Districts feel comfortable handing teachers a complete, “done-for-you” curriculum to teach standards. Districts can control and guarantee the standards being taught and know when they are being taught.
Most school districts have moved to an all-day kindergarten structure, with the plan to give time for children to play and develop socially. BUT the day isn’t necessarily being used for that purpose. Subjects are being stretched out rather than crammed and more curriculum is being added into the schedule to meet end-of-year goals.`
In our district, our kindergartners get 30 minutes of recess and 30 minutes of “structured” social play, which is more like 20 minutes with the way it fits into our schedule. Do I think this is enough, definitely not! Is this more than other districts, yes!
Curriculum, Common Core, and the stress to constantly push for more is not going to go away anytime soon. This is the exact reason why as educators we need to be creative with how we are implementing curriculum and activities in our classroom. It is our job to take a district-provided curriculum and turn it into a play-based learning opportunity.
How do you promote learning through play?
The number one way to promote play-based learning in your classroom is to provide materials! By designing your classroom in play-based centers, and having materials readily available is super important in creating a play-based learning environment.
A play-based classroom should be created in a fashion that is assessable to students when needed. This is the tricky part. This can also be distracting to students. For example, if you have your blocks on a shelf that is visible to students during a working-time, simply use a sheet or blanket to cover them when not in use. Most of the time when things are not visible, they tend to be forgotten. I have also seen curtain rods on shelves that just shut when center time is over.
Research on Play-Based Learning
There has been a lot of play-based learning research. A famous Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget (you probably remember this name from your college years), studied the development of children for the purpose of understanding how children cognitively develop and think. During his time, people also thought that children were less intelligent than adults, but Piaget proved that children are not less intelligent, they just think differently.
His research is important because it helps us to understand how children learn and how we can help them to achieve their highest potential. Developing knowledge and intelligence in children is an ACTIVE process, not a passive one. Children need to investigate, create, and experiment to construct their understanding of the world and how it works. Hence, play!
Play-Based Learning Activities
With a child’s imagination, the simplest of materials can become a “world-renowned” project!
One of my student’s favorite indoor recess toys was not the classroom computers or iPads, but the bin of Unifix cubes. SERIOUSLY! With classmates working together, they cooperatively built a cube stack stretching across the entire classroom! It was amazing teamwork and the creativity of the kiddos that did this. I could guarantee, that if I had instructed them to do this same activity, there would have been some sort of disagreement between the children and a teacher would have had to intervene at some point. But they did it all on their own and did not need a teacher to direct them. They learned how to work together to build the massive cube tower ON THEIR OWN. I could not have been more proud!
In our classroom kitchen, a small group of children decided that they were going to have a birthday party with the stuffed animals in the room. These creative kids set up an entire table like a birthday and pretended to have a birthday party for the animals! Seriously, it was adorable.
Below, my friend Tina, from Teach the TK Way shows what happened when she gave her student an Expo marker and the whiteboard, and left it up to her student come up with the activity!
This little learner decided to write the name of everyone in the class totally on their own! Children, their imaginations, and how they think continue to amaze me!
Learning Through Play Amazon Finds
If you are looking for some simple, easy-to-implement, play-based activities for your students, here are some examples on Amazon below!
There are so many more than the toys I have listed! All can be aligned a Common Core standard. Also, as a teacher you already purchase so much for your classroom, so be sure to see if your school can look into purchase some play-based activities for you. Our school PTO is fantastic with providing teachers with things they need and sometimes there is money set aside for purchasing items like this. Also, we are able to order some items for our classroom at the end of the school year for the following year, so this would be a great post to “pin” to save for later! Grab the image below to “pin it”!
FREE Sensory Bin Implementation Guide
Standards-Aligned Sensory Bin Kits
Due to the gap that I have seen in curriculum development, an increase in the amount of things on a teacher’s plate, and the cries for help from fellow educators, I developed the Ultimate Sensory Box!
The Ultimate Sensory Box (USB) is the complete sensory bin kit that helps preschool and kindergarten teachers teach state standards while remaining developmentally appropriate and adding more opportunities for students to learn through play. Each box contains 16 intentionally-planned and creative activities along with everything that is needed! The only item not included is the sensory bin itself.
Play-Based Learning
Join my Facebook community to receive inspiration, tips, and freebies. Just use the button below!
You May Also Like:
Quick & Easy Dollar Store Sensory Bins
How To Make Sensory Bins Work For Your Classroom
The Sensory Bin Master Guide and Freebie
The Sensory Bin Kit For Kindergarten & Preschool