Here is a short article I wrote up for the B.ed Spread about play based learning in Kindergarten. With schools in BC and Ontario making the switch I’ve been pretty interested in the full day kindergarten program and how play factors in to that plan. After learning more about play based learning in a course I’m taking on Kindergarten Curriculum from UBC I wanted to share with my peers on campus. I’m always surprised at how reluctant some people are to learn about kindergarten or consider teaching it for themselves. My article is called “Play Based Learning: My Response to Kindergarten Haters”
But Don’t You Just Play All Day? My Response to Kindergarten Haters
Play based learning- by Mahima Lamba
Sometimes I overhear people making comments that kindergarten students just play all day. I would like to shift the conversation from away from play being viewed as something students do when they are not learning instead to play AS learning. In this perspective we would look at play as an explicit goal of learning within it’s own right, instead of merely something that fills a day, or as the vehicle of more superior learning goals. An important facet to this discussion is thinking about what children consider to be play and what they consider to be ‘work’. Think about the things you did today- maybe you went to the grocery store, cooked dinner, and wrote a paper. If you watch any group of children playing make believe you will find that they are almost always engaging in dramatic play about something that adults consider to be ‘work’ such as going to the grocery store, gardening, talking on the telephone or typing away on the computer. Consider the perspective that a five year old might think that YOU are actually the one who gets to play all day. Playing pretend and ‘making believe’ is learning because it provides an arena to practice social interactions by taking on different roles, as well as helping children develop the cognitive flexibility they will need for abstract thinking later on in their development. Children do not see it as ‘work’ to engage with or inquire about the environment around them. Playing helps children make sense of everyday situations and objects. Thus if students are playing you can bet that they are learning! One of the most positive aspects of play based learning is that it is student-centred instead of teacher focused. The teacher is a facilitator of learning instead of a director. This is a departure from the ‘stand and deliver’ method a lot of us are used to from when we were young students. The teacher stands in front of the board and delivers a lesson which we later proved that we knew through of variety of tests and worksheets! Play based learning is important for developing skills that are preliminary to reading, writing and arithmetic goals. Play based learning really focuses on skills that are far more useful in the developmental context of kindergarten and early primary. These skills are known as the three ‘i’s: interactions, imagination and integration. All of the three “i’s” children can achieve through play!