"Play is foundational for bonding relationships and fostering tolerance. It's where we learn to trust and where we learn about the rules of the game. Play increases creativity and resilience, and it’s all about the generation of diversity—diversity of interactions, diversity of behaviours, diversity of connections."
Isabel Behncke
Field ethologist and primatologist
We offer a play-based programme in K1 at UWCSEA. You might ask, "Why?" or "What does this mean?"
Play provides teachers with a tool for responding to children’s developmental needs, choices and interests and to introduce content to achieve curriculum goals. Children’s freely chosen play and activities can be the sources for curriculum planning, informed by their interests and inquiries. At the same time, curriculum goals can be the source for planning ‘educational play’, that is, learning activities that develop and extend children’s interests. Simply put, play is the vehicle through which children explore and engage with our concept-based curriculum.
Children Learn Through Play
Peter Gray - The Decline of Play
Through pretend play, children invent scenes and stories, solve problems and negotiate social roadblocks. Because their motivation to play is intrinsic, they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Children who engage in complex forms of pretend play have greater language skills that nonplayers, better social skills, more empathy and more imagination. They are less aggressive, show more self control and higher levels of thinking. They are likely to be equally good or better at reading and other intellectual skills, and more likely to be well-adjusted people.
Pretend play is one of the richest forms of play that young children engage in, for a variety of reasons. Pretend play is also referred to as imaginary play, socio-dramatic play, or role play. Regardless of how you choose to label it, pretend play is when children imagine they are another character or person, or imagine themselves in a story or scenario of their own creation. These characters, stories and scenarios often have elements that are based in real life, combined with large components of fantasy. Through pretend play, children experiment with new ideas and behaviours. They can explore the elements of a new identity, and then be themselves again when they are ready. They practice using words and phrases they may not normally use. Simply put, children engage in deep learning through play.
There is no one definition of “play”
One of the challenges in understanding play as learning is that the word play is difficult to define, and means different things to different people. Parents around the world have remarkably broad definitions of play. In addition, there are close connections between play, learning and culture. This cultural element poses unique challenges for educators working in international schools where there can be families from many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds found in the same school, resulting in many different culturally-influenced definitions of play and how it applies to learning. When reviewing research on play, there is no one definition of what play is but there are some agreements on characteristics of play:
1. Play is self-directed and self-chosen. Players are free to quit when they want.
Practicing piano is not play. Attending an art lesson is not play. Playing a math game might be a playful activity, but it is not play if the child is required to take part.
In pretend play, children often come together to create the game or the scenario. They negotiate rules as they go along. If a child no longer likes the game or is no longer having fun, they can leave and choose to do something else.
2. Play is an activity in which the means are more valued than the ends.
In pretend play, the children might have the agreed goal of running a pet shop. Whether or not their pet shop is a success is actually irrelevant to them. It is the process, or the means, of trying to figure out how to run the pet shop that is so engaging. As the mind is focused on the means, and the ends are understood as being secondary, children feel free to incorporate new sources of information and to experiment with new ways of doing things. Play nurtures creativity in ways that are engaging, authentic and meaningful to the child with no risk of failure.
3. Play has structure, or rules, that emerge from the minds of the players.
In pretend play, children’s role play can involve complex roles or scenarios -- and there is little about it that is chaotic. Players must abide by the group’s shared understandings of the roles that are being played. If you are playing the role of Superman, and you and your playmates believe that Superman never cries, then you might refrain from crying even when you fall down and hurt yourself.
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky wrote about two sisters -- ages 7 and 5 -- who sometimes played that they were sisters. When they were moving through their day as actual sisters, they had no consistent ways of behaving toward one another. Sometimes they ignored one another, sometimes they argued and sometimes they had fun. But, when they played sisters, they always behaved according to their stereotype of how sisters should behave. They dressed alike, talked alike, always loved each other, and talked about the differences between themselves and everyone else. Much more self-control, mental effort and rule following was involved in playing sisters than in actually being sisters.
A child's desire to play, and to be included in the play, is strong and becomes a motivating force for learning self-control. The child must learn to resist impulses and temptations that would run counter to the rules because they want to remain in the game. Through pretend play, children practice the art of being human.
4. Play is imaginative, non-literal, mentally removed in some way from “real” or “serious” life.
In pretend play, children enter a realm that is physically located in the real world, makes use of props in the real world, is often about the real world, is said by the players to be real....and yet in some ways is mentally removed from the real world. Pretend play is one of the ways in which children "practice" being in the real world, and process how they are interpreting and learning from the world around them in safe and non-threatening ways.
5. Play involves an active, alert, but non-stressed frame of mind.
Play requires children to be in conscious control of their behaviour, paying attention to process and rules. As a result, play requires an active, alert mind. Children do not just passively absorb information from their learning environment. Rather, they are actively engaged with it. As a large degree of choice is involved, children are relatively free from pressure or stress when playing. And because the child’s attention is focused on process more than outcome, the child’s mind is not distracted by fear of failure. The mind at play is active and alert, but not stressed. Children become absorbed in what they are doing and can play for long, sustained periods of time showing impressive levels of concentration. The mental state of play is what some researchers call “flow.”
The alert but unstressed condition of the playful mind is precisely the condition that has been shown repeatedly, in many psychological experiments, to be ideal for creativity and the learning of new skills. Simply put, play helps to set the stage for deep and powerful learning.
Benefits of Pretend Play
Cooperation: Children must work together, share materials and take turns when engaging in pretend play.
Problem Solving: Children begin their play by negotiating shared understandings and the "rules" of engagement: Who is going to play what role? How many people do they need to play? What materials are they going to use? What happens when we don’t have enough materials for each person?
Self Control: Children need to remain "in character" for the play to work and to remain welcome in the game. If they cannot share or abide by the group’s rules, they may be unwelcome to play.
Creativity: How will the story progress? What challenges might arise for the players? What might they play today? How will they adapt the game to make it more fun? How will they respond when a player adds a new element to the plot?
Empathy: Children practice taking another person's perspective, imagining how that person might feel or respond in certain situations.
Vocabulary Development: When playing out stories and scenarios, and taking on new roles, children experiment and engage with language that they might not normally use in their everyday life (language can be very specific to a given context). Children may also engage with others in their mother tongue, reinforcing strong Home Language connections.
Reduced Anxiety and Stress: Children are able to process stressful feelings through pretend play -- they process understandings of conflict, feelings connected to scary experiences, and sort through other negative emotions in a space that feels safe and non-threatening.
There is no one definition of “play”
One of the challenges in understanding play as learning is that the word play is difficult to define, and means different things to different people. Parents around the world have remarkably broad definitions of play. In addition, there are close connections between play, learning and culture. This cultural element poses unique challenges for educators working in international schools where there can be families from many different nationalities and cultural backgrounds found in the same school, resulting in many different culturally-influenced definitions of play and how it applies to learning. When reviewing research on play, there is no one definition of what play is but there are some agreements on characteristics of play:
1. Play is self-directed and self-chosen. Players are free to quit when they want.
Practicing piano is not play. Attending an art lesson is not play. Playing a math game might be a playful activity, but it is not play if the child is required to take part.
In pretend play, children often come together to create the game or the scenario. They negotiate rules as they go along. If a child no longer likes the game or is no longer having fun, they can leave and choose to do something else.
2. Play is an activity in which the means are more valued than the ends.
In pretend play, the children might have the agreed goal of running a pet shop. Whether or not their pet shop is a success is actually irrelevant to them. It is the process, or the means, of trying to figure out how to run the pet shop that is so engaging. As the mind is focused on the means, and the ends are understood as being secondary, children feel free to incorporate new sources of information and to experiment with new ways of doing things. Play nurtures creativity in ways that are engaging, authentic and meaningful to the child with no risk of failure.
3. Play has structure, or rules, that emerge from the minds of the players.
In pretend play, children’s role play can involve complex roles or scenarios -- and there is little about it that is chaotic. Players must abide by the group’s shared understandings of the roles that are being played. If you are playing the role of Superman, and you and your playmates believe that Superman never cries, then you might refrain from crying even when you fall down and hurt yourself.
Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky wrote about two sisters -- ages 7 and 5 -- who sometimes played that they were sisters. When they were moving through their day as actual sisters, they had no consistent ways of behaving toward one another. Sometimes they ignored one another, sometimes they argued and sometimes they had fun. But, when they played sisters, they always behaved according to their stereotype of how sisters should behave. They dressed alike, talked alike, always loved each other, and talked about the differences between themselves and everyone else. Much more self-control, mental effort and rule following was involved in playing sisters than in actually being sisters.
A child's desire to play, and to be included in the play, is strong and becomes a motivating force for learning self-control. The child must learn to resist impulses and temptations that would run counter to the rules because they want to remain in the game. Through pretend play, children practice the art of being human.
4. Play is imaginative, non-literal, mentally removed in some way from “real” or “serious” life.
In pretend play, children enter a realm that is physically located in the real world, makes use of props in the real world, is often about the real world, is said by the players to be real....and yet in some ways is mentally removed from the real world. Pretend play is one of the ways in which children "practice" being in the real world, and process how they are interpreting and learning from the world around them in safe and non-threatening ways.
5. Play involves an active, alert, but non-stressed frame of mind.
Play requires children to be in conscious control of their behaviour, paying attention to process and rules. As a result, play requires an active, alert mind. Children do not just passively absorb information from their learning environment. Rather, they are actively engaged with it. As a large degree of choice is involved, children are relatively free from pressure or stress when playing. And because the child’s attention is focused on process more than outcome, the child’s mind is not distracted by fear of failure. The mind at play is active and alert, but not stressed. Children become absorbed in what they are doing and can play for long, sustained periods of time showing impressive levels of concentration. The mental state of play is what some researchers call “flow.”
The alert but unstressed condition of the playful mind is precisely the condition that has been shown repeatedly, in many psychological experiments, to be ideal for creativity and the learning of new skills. Simply put, play helps to set the stage for deep and powerful learning.
Benefits of Pretend Play
Cooperation: Children must work together, share materials and take turns when engaging in pretend play.
Problem Solving: Children begin their play by negotiating shared understandings and the "rules" of engagement: Who is going to play what role? How many people do they need to play? What materials are they going to use? What happens when we don’t have enough materials for each person?
Self Control: Children need to remain "in character" for the play to work and to remain welcome in the game. If they cannot share or abide by the group’s rules, they may be unwelcome to play.
Creativity: How will the story progress? What challenges might arise for the players? What might they play today? How will they adapt the game to make it more fun? How will they respond when a player adds a new element to the plot?
Empathy: Children practice taking another person's perspective, imagining how that person might feel or respond in certain situations.
Vocabulary Development: When playing out stories and scenarios, and taking on new roles, children experiment and engage with language that they might not normally use in their everyday life (language can be very specific to a given context). Children may also engage with others in their mother tongue, reinforcing strong Home Language connections.
Reduced Anxiety and Stress: Children are able to process stressful feelings through pretend play -- they process understandings of conflict, feelings connected to scary experiences, and sort through other negative emotions in a space that feels safe and non-threatening.
Play and Covid19: Within the context of the Covid19 pandemic, the need for children to play has never been more urgent. For children who have had traumatic covid experiences, play is helping them to process their thoughts, supporting their social and emotional well-being. Children’s play can be deeply reflective of their covid experiences, involving mask-wearing play, not touching games, and loss/bereavement play.
Children's schooling has been interrupted as a result of the pandemic. Play provides opportunities for children to explore subjects, revise various strands, and integrate subjects across the curriculum in order to get as much learning as possible done in a day. Play provides opportunities for teachers to observe and assess students in order to ascertain the support children may need -- socially, emotionally and educationally.
Here is a fascinating Ted Talk led by play-researcher and psychologist, Peter Gray, on the decline of play in the lives of children (and just how important play is):
Children's schooling has been interrupted as a result of the pandemic. Play provides opportunities for children to explore subjects, revise various strands, and integrate subjects across the curriculum in order to get as much learning as possible done in a day. Play provides opportunities for teachers to observe and assess students in order to ascertain the support children may need -- socially, emotionally and educationally.
Here is a fascinating Ted Talk led by play-researcher and psychologist, Peter Gray, on the decline of play in the lives of children (and just how important play is):
Peter Gray - The Decline of Play
Through pretend play, children invent scenes and stories, solve problems and negotiate social roadblocks. Because their motivation to play is intrinsic, they learn the powerful lesson of pursuing their own ideas to a successful conclusion. Children who engage in complex forms of pretend play have greater language skills that nonplayers, better social skills, more empathy and more imagination. They are less aggressive, show more self control and higher levels of thinking. They are likely to be equally good or better at reading and other intellectual skills, and more likely to be well-adjusted people.
Ms. Wanda Morgan, our K1 Support Teacher, engages regularly with our students in pretend play to nurture imagination, critical thinking skills and strong social skills as part of our Discovery Time programme.
We invite you to engage in pretend play with your child at home!
What will you play today?
The K1 Team
We invite you to engage in pretend play with your child at home!
What will you play today?
The K1 Team
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