This week in class was spent focusing on people who have played a large role in education's history. While I learned new information about many significant people, the one person who I found myself most interested in was Friedrich Froebel. Froebel changed the way we think about early childhood education. He designed balls, wooden blocks, tiles, sticks and rings to demonstrate that children learn by playing.
Being a kindergarten teacher myself, I sometimes find myself feeling torn between making sure all of the expected objectives are being met and making sure that my students are growing socially and emotionally, as well. Kindergarten used to focus more on the social growth of children, but lately I feel as though there is much less focus on social/emotional growth and much more stress on a child growing academically. There is not much time for play in a day filled with writers' workshop, reading lesson, literacy centers, guided reading groups, math lesson, math centers, math groups and a science/social studies lesson. I find myself having to incorporate "play" into our center blocks. While I would love to allow the children more free choice time and more time to role-play, our strict schedule does not allow it.
Luckily, others are starting to realize how important play is in the elementary classroom. A recent New York Times article focuses on just that: "During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions. A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day." (2010). Thank goodness people are remembering how important play is in children's growth and development. Teachers should not be forced to squeeze play in throughout the day; children are actually learning through play. Froebel is probably thinking "finally!"
"Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul." Friedrich Froebel
Engel, S. (2010). Playing to learn. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/opinion/02engel.html
Froebel's philosophy stuck out in my mind as well and I've been coming across a few more articles and books about the importance of play. One study, The Kindergarten Report, published in March of 2009 outlines a lot of practical information that you might find useful as a kindergarten teacher. One of the things that this article mentions is the growth of language skills in young children who are given time to play with their peers. I see a deep connection here with what Vygotsky says about the value of social interaction in language development and Froebel's argument for more play in kindergarten.
ReplyDeleteThe report can be found on the Playworks website here (the last one on the page)
http://www.playworks.org/why-play-matters/studies?page=1
Playworks is a great organization that's worth a look too. They advocate for recess and physical activity for all children during the school day.