The other day I sat and watched for about 45 minutes while my 6 year old son took apart a pen, and then put it back together. His intense interest is what drew me to watch closely as he repeated this action. He sat and looked at all of the pieces closely and reassembled, then disassembled again. He then put the pen together without the spring, and tried to work it like that. It didn't work well, so he put it together with all of the pieces again. Eventually he discovered that by using the tip section of the pen, the spring, and the ink barrel, he could shoot the ink barrel across the room. He excitedly ran to tell his brothers about his discovery, and once they were all armed with pens - a new game began altogether.
All of this time he spent I would call play. In addition, none of the time was "structured play." nobody told him to try to figure out the pen, and nobody tried to lead him to his very awesome final discovery. However, he learned about the working parts of a pen (a simple machine), he learned about springs, and he learned about force applied and movement created. He was highly interested in this activity, and he was rewarded - not by stickers or grades - but by discovery.
Another recent incidence of learning through play involved my 12 year old son. We were at Morton Arboretum (a wonderful place for children http://www.mortonarb.org/) There is a river in the childrens garden with stoneds that children can use to change and block the flow of water. My son was trying to build a dam in front of a waterfall - which caused water to spray into the air like a fountain. He found this to be very exciting, and repeated his experament on another waterfall with the same result. He pointed out what he had done to anyone walking past. again - he learned about properties of water and probably some physics while playing.
So - what does it mean when we say that children learn through play? It means that if they are trusted and allowed to explore and play - they will learn. It can't be avoided. From the outside it may look like a waste of time - ar at times even dangerous - but children are wired to learn, so no matter what their experiences are - they are learning from those experiences.
I wonder how it would be if schools were like children's museums, and children were allowed to play and explore at their own pace. I imagine we would create a much more intelligent, interested, thoughtful group of students.
http://daycare.suite101.com/article.cfm/cognitive_learning_through_play
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/columncc/cc010309.html
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=591
It is amazing just how much children can learn through play. I feel children learn a great deal from what they do naturally-play. Children do not have to have structured learning in order to learn many of the skills that are relevant in their lives. It is important as parents and educators, we remember children need time to play.
ReplyDelete"I wonder how it would be if schools were like children's museums, and children were allowed to play and explore at their own pace."
ReplyDeleteThat would be my ideal school. Students love to participate in various forms of learning and learning through play is one of those things. In my opinion, "play" shouldn't even be used to describe what they are doing. They are learning through experience. Although the boys invented a new game the little one still learned how a pen works and discovered what he could do with a spring and the contents of a pen.
Last year when I taught preschool- my classroom schedule was set up so the students had two different blocks of free play time. In this time they were allowed to choose any activity they wanted- some would lay down and read a book in the book corners, others drawn to the art table, some were in the dramatic play area everyday. But no matter where they were they would be self engaged in learning and exploring.
ReplyDeletePeople see a preschool room and believe its fine for preschoolers to have play time but then once they are in kindergarten or 1st grade- play time is considered wasting precious learning time.
"I wonder how it would be if schools were like children's museums, and children were allowed to play and explore at their own pace. I imagine we would create a much more intelligent, interested, thoughtful group of students."
I also think students might be more interested and thoughtful if they had the opportunity to do more discovery based learning.