The Value of Play in the Classroom

Some of my fondest childhood memories include playing freely at the cottage. We would get up in the morning, get on our bikes and head up to “The Pier” for swimming lessons; after that, the day was ours. As long as we showed up for meals and were home by dark, we pretty much had free rein of the neighbourhood. We would go for bike rides, swim at the beach, go to the park after dinner, play organized field sports (sometimes we’d play disorganized field sports too…) Even when it rained we would spend hours playing intense games of Risk, spoons, even Monopoly! The freedom of a play filled childhood was glorious. 

I’d all but forgotten this sense of freedom, what with the hustle and bustle of adulthood- not that I don’t have fun as an adult- I enjoy a lot of fun things, but they aren’t playing  necessarily. Then I went to a conference about play based learning and the necessity of re-claiming play as adults and teaching our young adults how to play as well. What a fun way to spend a weekend!

Yet this seemed like such a novel idea. Making time in our over-scheduled, time crunched, curriculum driven lives for play? Is that even possible?

It is, in fact, possible.

According to Albert Einstein, “Play is the highest form of research”.  Now I’m not an expert on how to play by any stretch of the imagination, but I am a committed lifelong learner, so figuring out how to integrate play into my intermediate secondary school classrooms this spring was a fun challenge. There is indeed time and room for play all around us. I found out I can steal little moments in my lessons and reclaim them for play. It took me some time to critically examine my teaching practices, but once I did, it felt pretty awesome to include “playfulness” into my classrooms.

Here are some ways I included play into my classroom practices.

1. Play Doh- seriously, this stuff is great. Students can squish it in their hands during a lessons (replaces the stress ball) and it is good for fidgety learners and ones who need sensory stimulation during a lesson. You can even use it in lessons to create visual representations of concepts or ideas you’re discussing in class. This could be especially useful in middle school science classes. You could even integrate it into mindfulness practices and social skills lessons. The possibilities are endless!

2.  Playing cards- I love using playing cards to partner up students or select presentation orders. I hand out playing cards to students and ask them to mill about the room to find the person with the same suit (groups) or number (partners). It gets the students up and moving momentarily and is a great way to randomly assign partners/small groups. When selecting presentation orders, I place the cards face down on students’ desks and then have them flip them up; sometimes we go in order, sometimes, reverse order, sometimes I let them pick based on their numbers. (This is not a good strategy if you have anxious presenters in the classroom- so I wouldn’t recommend trying this until you know the students well).

 3.         Using Lego as a hands-on learning tool. When teaching graphic texts in literacy courses, it’s hard to come up with a fun and creative lessons to teach students how to interpret picture instructions. I initially came up with two ideas, IKEA furniture and Lego. Building furniture didn’t seem like a great option, so I bought some Lego sets and the students had to team up, follow the instructions and created some cool final products.

4.   Create a break-out room (sometimes called an escape room). These are modeled after those adult problem solving rooms where you solve clues to “escape” the room. I created one for my learning strategies class this year to promote team work and problem solving skills. I included riddles, activities and puzzles where they needed to use their academic and critical thinking skills to figure them out. This took some time, but they worked cooperatively and escaped “impending doom” before time ran out. It was a fun way to consolidate a bunch of important skills.

5. Team Work Challenges- I like to take 15 minutes on Fridays (especially with my learning strategies class) to complete a team work challenge. These can be solving ‘match stick’ riddles, playing minute to win it games, or the classic spaghetti and marshmallow challenge type of activity. It’s a good way to start (or end) a class on a Friday and gives them the opportunity to practice team work and positive communication skills.

I have experienced some success in my classrooms with these forms of “play”. These simple little elements can help create a positive atmosphere for students and are fun for the teacher too.

I’m excited to see where else I can integrate them come the fall and am looking forward to discovering new ways to use play to challenge my students in the classroom.

Play on Teachers!