My class, Ms. Hughes, and I had so much fun during Global School Play Day (GSPD) this past Wednesday! GSPD has been promoted by Psychology Today and is celebrated in schools around the world. You can learn more about the benefits of unstructured play by visiting the official GSPD website: www.globalschoolplayday.com.
Throughout the day on Wednesday there were opportunities for unstructured play that was supervised by teachers. It was so nice to have the opportunity to play with the children and to see their imaginations come alive. They worked well together, problem solved, and amazed me with their creativity!
During the morning, we had fun creating with magna tiles and foam shapes, making up stories about our classmates, and Mrs. Levasseur, our speech and language pathologist joined us and played a few games with the kids. Five balloons was a class favorite!
After a directed craft activity to celebrate Groundhog Day, we got up and moved during Fundations as we segmented CVC words into their individual sounds.
Mrs. Stevens joined us during math and made learning fun! Students took turns rolling pretend snow balls with the goal of trying to get them in the circles. After everyone in the group had a turn, kids had to decide if there were "more" or "fewer" snowballs in the hoops or out of the hoops and then compared the number of snowballs in each hoop. She also brought huge playing cards and some students chose to play "Go Fish". Children also had the option to build with wooden and foam shapes during math time.
We ended the day with arts and crafts time. Thank you to those who donated paper towel and toilet paper rolls over the last couple of months! We had binoculars, puppets, handmade gifts for friends and family, and so much more created with cardboard, tissue paper, pipe cleaners, and random odds and ends I've saved.
Everyone agreed it was a fun day of learning and playing together! It was wonderful that students had time to learn new games, explore new play materials, and be creative during arts and crafts time.
It is amazing that play helps with brain development, increases children's imaginations, develops their self-control, problem solving, and critical thinking skills in the areas of math and science as well as enhances self-esteem and language skills. My goal is to encourage more unstructured play here at school. I hope you will consider doing the same at home.
