Going to Sea and Other Adventures in Learning:

Play is the exultation of the possible.
-- Martin Buber

As a kindergarten teacher, I often talk with parents and teachers who draw a distinction between children's play and "real" learning, such as counting, naming letters and printing. In an effort to convince them of the value of play in a kindergarten program, I can share my experience gained from 10 years as a kindergarten teacher and my background knowledge in early childhood development. But I remain convinced that the best way to understand the profound importance of play in the classroom is to watch it in action. Let me share with you a "snapshot" from our classroom.

Several children have spent nearly 45 minutes building a boat from large hollow blocks. Cameron has figured out that water could get in the holes on the side and is carefully laying planks all along the boat to block any leaks. Melissa and Kurt are using empty paint cans and large brushes from the dramatic play centre to "paint" their vessel, and have taped "Wet Paint" signs all over the deck. Allan and Kory have made their own signs; although these might look like mere scribbles to someone else, I am informed that they say "Our Big Boat" and "Lifejackets." Since the children have decided to sail from Africa to New York, they have brought over a bin of maps for a little guidance. Tanya and Adam are piling up toy food from the house corner and adding two cookbooks, in case they're needed. No fewer than three children have declared themselves ship's captain, and there is much heated discussion as each child tries to negotiate the position for him/herself. Finally, our crew is ready to cast off. And it's a wonderful trip! There is excitement as they are attacked by sharks (some pieces of the boat have to be rearranged when the sharks chew off a few blocks). There is an impromptu treasure hunt on "Monster Island." There is much talk and laughter. There is give-and-take. There is, above all, joy, fierceness, exuberance and power -- the power of play. I would no more interrupt this for a lesson on geometric shapes or initial consonant sounds than try to stop the ocean tide.

Most people who work with young children would readily see the learning that is taking place here. They would understand that problem-solving skills are used in building the boat, preventing leaks and planning for the needs of the voyage. Early literacy skills are developing through the use of maps, signs, "scribble" writing and cookbooks. Social skills are in use through the entire process, as children negotiate their roles and contribute their ideas to the play.

The confusion for some parents and teachers about the value of play in a kindergarten program arises from concerns about whether children are acquiring certain skills required to support later academic learning. Adults readily accept that young children need to play, that play is intrinsically motivated and supremely satisfying for children. But formal school learning is often seen as something to impose on children, because certain knowledge and skills can best be learned if they are transferred from teacher to student through didactic teaching. Play, on the other hand, is seen as a pleasurable, but otherwise non-productive activity.

However, research in early childhood development does not support the idea that play is something to do instead of learning. The way that young children learn is part and parcel of the way they act naturally in the world -- through play. Skills develop as children build their own knowledge through interaction with the things and people they encounter as they play.

Educator Maria Montessori maintained that we can trust children to want to learn, and that they will do so in an environment that has been properly prepared for them. The kindergarten teacher's task is to prepare that environment, and then to help the children develop what child psychologist Otto Weininger calls "a disposition for learning" -- the joy of exploring and making discoveries as they build their store of knowledge about the world.

This certainly doesn't mean that a kindergarten teacher can simply say to the children, "Go play!" and then hope for the best. The classroom must be designed with the developmental stages and needs of young children in mind. Play is not channelled or controlled: it is guided by the teacher as decisions are made about how to arrange the room, what materials should be available, the length of time the children are able to play and the routines that provide the structure for them to make their own choices. The children's social and emotional development, their language development, fine motor skills and gross motor skills are considered as important as and inseparable from their intellectual development.

The teacher chooses materials carefully and places them strategically to encourage exploration, problem-solving and the development of early literacy and numeracy skills. At the playdough table, providing a scale may lead a child to place a lump of playdough in one pan of a scale and try to balance it by finding objects around the room to put in the other pan. A recipe book might encourage another child to make a playdough cake, using measuring spoons and cups to portion out his imaginary ingredients. At the sand table, where small pieces of clear plastic have been left out, children shape mounds with hilltop depressions which they cover with the plastic. These they fill with water to make lakes, so they can float the boats they've made at the woodwork centre. In the book corner, two children build a bridge of toy blocks, then use the set of toy goats to tell the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff. At the water table, children are pouring water through sieves they've made by hammering holes in tinfoil pie plates and styrofoam meat trays. Their voices are animated as they compare how the results are affected by the size and number of holes and discover that you can make a bigger splash by holding the sieve higher as water is poured through it. Such examples of play-based learning are endless, just as the children's creativity and capacity for exploration are endless.

For these children, it is the process in which they're engaged that is important, rather than the final product. The finished playdough cake is not nearly as interesting as was mixing the ingredients and shaping the dough; the collage no longer engages interest once all the interesting bits of "junk" have been chosen, arranged and glued; and no member of our ship's crew is really concerned about making it to New York, as the real fun happens during the preparation and voyage.

It is important for the teacher to choose carefully when to insert him/herself into children's activity. Too often, well-meaning adults interfere with children's learning by trying to shape the play or by asking a string of questions that serve to discourage thinking (What shape did you use? Which of these things is your favourite? Why?). A more appropriate way to guide learning is to join the play, to provide modelling that can lead to richer use of the materials. Engaging the children in conversation and questions that arise naturally from what they're doing will encourage vocabulary development and the use of more sophisticated sentences, as well as strengthening the ability to reason. The teacher monitors use of materials so that items no longer needed or in use can be put away, and new materials put out. This might mean the addition of animal families to the block centre to encourage more block play by girls, who will respond to the family relationships represented by the animals and build animal homes and play spaces. Materials that pose a challenge and require higher order thinking are added to or replace more basic materials. For example, the floating and sinking items at the water table that had earlier encouraged free exploration are now supplemented by fishing weights, corks, stones, string, tape and pieces of styrofoam, and the children are challenged to make floating things sink and sinking things float.

I'd like to share a final "snapshot" from our classroom. Playtime is nearly over and at the moment the crew of the hollow-block ship has fought off pirates and is munching on imaginary pizza which one enterprising member managed to order and have delivered mid-ocean.

I am struck, as always, by the freewheeling and quicksilver nature of play. When everything comes together, it seems both to flow and soar, and the children's joy is contagious. Even though I know all too well how much preparation, educational and developmental theory and reflection have gone into this moment, what stays with me is the joy. The children are always ready for another voyage, and I am privileged to be a fellow adventurer.

Catherine Maulsby is a Senior Kindergarten teacher with the Carleton Board of Education who has also taught Junior Kindergarten and Special Education. She has given workshops on developmentally appropriate play activities to teachers, ECEs and ECE students.

References

Villiers, Una (1994). "Understanding Educational Play: An Interview with Otto Weininger," Orbit, Volume 25, No. 1. Toronto, Ontario: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and Nelson Educational Services.

This article appeared in Interaction (Spring 1997), published by the Canadian Child Care Federation.

Posted by the Canadian Child Care Federation, August 1997.

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