Tracie Kimm

Play. The word itself creates images of carefree joy. Unstructured, unhurried, and judgment-free. Open-ended. Creative. Expressive. Learning. Yes, learning! Acquisition of standards-based skills and concepts is the main focus in education. Striving to maintain balance to ensure students enjoy learning requires intentionally creating opportunities to explore, interact, share, resolve conflicts, solve problems, collaborate, strategize, and create. This builds mental, emotional, social, and physical skills in students, and adults, too. People of all ages benefit from engaging in some form of daily play. It’s important to maintain a balance of technology and concrete play. Word games, puzzles, and brain teasers are good options, too. 

Keystone and Atkins Elementaries recently participated in a Global Day of Play. All students had the opportunity to choose the activities they wanted to do throughout the school building for two hours. Opportunities for play included art supplies in makerspace, balls and hula hoops in the gym, a variety of board games, toy animals, transportation, building materials, and so much more. Each teacher hosted a themed classroom for students to explore. Students moved freely from room to room at their own pace. Staff played with students, too! It was a great morning for all. Joy abounded and the boost in morale was tangible.

In my third grade classroom at Keystone Elementary, students have the opportunity to build, collaborate, and create at one of their daily math stations. They rotate among activities in small flexible groups. The student helper chooses the materials students will explore that day. Board and card games, legos, lincoln logs, geoboards, play-doh, puzzles, dominoes, tinker toys, and magna tiles are popular choices. Students take photos and videos of their creations to post on SeeSaw so parents can share in their learning. This daily investment of 15 minutes of unstructured play and collaboration pays huge dividends in student development and engagement.