Observation

I observed at the Wayne Elementary School Kindergarten classroom.

I spoke with the teacher of that classroom asking her how she feels about the children having time to play in her classroom. She feels that play is important to her students ability to learn. She says that if you make a child especailly children at this age sit at a desk the whole time and not allow them time to play you are not going to get much out of them. She said that she sometimes makes her lessons into a playtime or makes them more fun for the children and she gave me an example of what she had done during one of her reading lessons. It was guided reading time and they were working on poems. The children did not seem to interested and she even thought to herself that she was not excited with this either. So she made a game out of it. She said if you guys can beat me or trick me on the words that are in this poem then I will get on the floor and do push ups. She told them that if she beat them then they had to do push ups. This students loved this idea. She wanted to see if they were actually understanding the words in the peom. She said they actually beat her and she did have to do push ups. Was this appropriate for her to do? Maybe or maybe not but she got the lesson done and the kids had fun. This teacher allows time for play for her kids. You can tell when you are loosing your kids when teaching them.

What I noticed in this classroom is the children were playing and getting along at the time when I was there. Does this always happen?  No, children are not always going to get along when they play, there will be conflict. I asked the teacher when the children are having thier free play time does she just jump right in to help fix or solve a problem. She said no, I wait to see if they can work it out themselves and if it seems that it may be getting out of hand I will intervene.

A quote that I would like to share from my observation would be "Play is learning".
An sight that I gained from this observation is that children need to time to interact with each other not only while doing school work but also during play time. Play time allows the children to socialize, if that time is not given to them they are going to socialize during your instructive time and that is going to be stressful for everyone.

Questions for Collages

My question to my collages: What types of play do you think is most important for children to engage in?
How much time for play do you think should be allotted for a child during the school day?

Teacher Interview

What I learned from interviewing two Early Childhood teachers is that they are concerned with children not getting much time to play anymore. They feel that children having the time to play is very important because it builds on their social/emotional, cognitive, and language skills. They feel with all the state mandated standards that they have to follow it pushes them to make the children work harder therefore not allowing as much time to play. They have to ensure that each child is meeting the benchmarks that they are required to meet.

The Importance of Play

Do Early Childhood teachers feel that play is important for preschool aged children?

How can Early Childhood teachers be an advocate for children about them playing to learn?