Global School Play Day 2019

My class and I had so much fun during Global School Play Day 2019! This was a day of 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 playing in the gym with Ms. Teixeira's class.  We played tunnel tag and then the first graders taught us Sphere Ball!

The students were supposed to have computers during specialist time, but Mrs. Haines invited them into the gym for some station fun with Mrs. Newton's class!  The kids loved all the different gym stations Mrs. Haines created!

After lunch and specialist, we visited Mrs. Thomson's first graders for games and crafts!

Mrs. Bailey donated large boxes for the children to play with and they LOVED them!  These boxes were the highlight of the day!  The kids enjoyed playing with them so much, they begged me to keep them in the classroom.  We continue to still play with them at the end of many school days.  I love how much joy simple cardboard boxes have brought to the classroom.

Mr. Sam was kind enough to cut out windows and other openings in the boxes.   We even decided to apply our new learning of pushes and pulls and use the boxes as rides down the hallway ramp!

The kids' creativity also shined through with random paper rolls and other odds and ends I've been collecting.    

I think everyone would agree it was such a fun day of learning and playing together!  It was great to get to play with other classes.

It's 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.