Intentional Play in Early Childhood Education
Intentional play in early childhood education is far more than keeping children busy. Play is one of the most effective ways to foster creativity, problem-solving, independence, and a lifelong love of learning.
We are all so familiar with Jean Piaget’s quote, “Play is the work of childhood”. So often the world outside looking in sees early childhood education as babysitting. While happy and healthy is a goal, there’s so much more than that to a day of play in preschool. How can we nurture play to the best of our abilities?
Let Children Lead Through Play
Set them up for success, and let them lead the way! Are they using materials in an unintended way? Great! They are building creativity, independence and confidence in mastering their environment. This doesn’t mean ignoring all boundaries, but boundaries shouldn’t include conventional thinking. It does however mean eliminating the phrase, “That’s not how you use those!” Encourage thinking outside the box.
Encourage Exploration with Open-Ended Play
Fostering discovery means being as open as possible in play. Use open ended toys as well as ask open ended questions. “What do you think would happen if we…..?” is a fantastic start to early science and experimentation. Do they know what a hypothesis is yet? Maybe not, but they can still perform the scientific method long before they can name the steps. This explorative method allows for facilitation over direction.
Balance Familiar and New Learning Materials
Prepare classrooms and centers with a mixture of toys, materials and activities that are both new and ones that have been in the classroom all year. Children play with toys that are familiar to them in increasingly complex ways. This allows them to scaffold new information about the objects on top of previously processed data. New exposures are always great and allow for new information input. The way I think of it is, keep the favorites and rotate the themes or novelties. This can mean what is kept vs rotated each year can change depending on each class’s unique interests.
Match Play Activities to Children's Development
How many exposures to similar but lower on the scaffolding ladder materials have they had? Keeping this in mind will help design building areas, sensory bins and all other sorts of play. For example, are they ready to play with beads in a sensory bin or are they still at a play where everything should be edible just in case? Is this the end of the year or are these children new to me and me to them? Teachers with a watchful eye see what and when children are responsibly mature enough to play more complex materials and toys.
Why Intentional Play Matters
Play is never just about passing time. It is the core methodology through which children develop their foundational understanding of the world. Allowing children to lead, keeping an open mind, scaffolding materials and activities while keeping in mind what children have already been exposed to will help play times be set up for the best success possible!
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