We early childhood educators often say that children learn best through play - but do we really mean it?
If we're serious about children learning through play, we will prioritize the opportunities for them to play - both indoors and out!  In the classroom, the best way to prioritize playtime is through learning centers - special areas devoted to free choice play.

Play is the most powerful learning tool there is!  It supports all areas of development:

• Play builds language and thinking skills (cognitive development)
• Play contributes to physical health and development (fine- and gross-motor development)
• Play helps children learn about themselves and one another (social-emotional development)

​But don't just take our word for it.  Here is an excerpt on play from the position statement on developmentally appropriate practice from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC):

You can download the complete position statement here:

-When planning the number of centers to have in your classroom, a good rule  is 1 ½  choices per child –if you have 20 students, you should have 30 possible choices available – that is, places to play in centers. (For example, have 10 center areas where 3 children can play in each area.)

Yes, that's a lot of play places!  But try to find the largest number of centers that works for your settting, allowing as much child-led choice as possible that still allows for a positive environment for learning and exploration. Easily seen dots on center signs is one way to show how many can play in that center at one time. 

-Allow children to move freely from one center to another during center time. Simple rules like cleaning up what you took out before you leave an area (unless someone else is still playing with it) and following the rule of how many in a center can make this manageable.  

It may seem like allowing free-choice movement between centers would be more difficult to manage or cause more challenging behaviors, but the opposite is true.  When we let children decide where and when they want to play in a center, they get more immersed in their play and act out less.  Also, you are avoiding too many transitions, which many children find challenging.
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-Provide shelves or containers that are easy for children to use on their own. Label shelves and containers with a picture or visual cue showing where things go. Easy storage and clean-up can help children develop self-help skills as well as a positive self-worth and a sense of belonging.

-Signal when it is near time to clean-up and have a designated song or clean-up signal when it is time to end centers. You can change the song or signal when the routine needs to be refreshed. In Marjorie’s kindergarten classroom, children were encouraged to bring something they made or did during centers to share (either with a partner or whole group). This sharing time was a great time to practice speaking and listening skills and encourage peer support!

-Change centers and materials as children’s interests and abilities change or you want to move to a new theme.  Involving children in the set-up leads to more meaningful play in the centers!

Social development is the gradual gaining of the skills, attitudes, relationships, and behavior that enable children to interact with others.  Social play happens when children are playing together (or with adults).

By definition, social skills develop slowly over time - children need lots and lots of practice to learn how to get along with others!  In early childhood, play gradually gets more social and more complex.  By about age four, children begin to engage in sociodramatic play, cooperating to take on different roles and creating their own rules for how they will play. 

Sociodramatic play is an especially valuable type of play. Besides having fun (which has value in itself!), children learn social skills that include: communication, cooperation, problem-solving and perspective taking.  Research shows that these social skills help children succeed in school and in life, too. 

For children to best learn social skills through play, they need lots of opportunities to play with other children, of course. But they also need support from sensitive adults.  Here’s why:
-Young children often do not know what is expected in different social situations
-They lack experience and knowledge of appropriate ways to solve conflicts
-They are naturally egocentric, so it is hard for them to understand others’ intentions and feelings 

​We can support children’s social skill development by playing with our children and by modeling the positive social behaviors we want them to use.  We can also teach them social skills using a technique called “scaffolding” - giving just enough help at first to build new skills, then letting them do more and more on their own.  
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For more on ways to support young children’s development of social skills, see our other blog post:

This month, we want to share some ideas for activities you can use in your classroom and home this summer - or any time of the year!  We hope you enjoy these ideas for outdoor play, early literacy, art, science, and gender-neutral environments and toys.  Please comment to share your own favorite teaching tips or activity ideas - there are so many wonderful ways for children to learn through play!

Summer is the perfect time to give children the chance to read or be read to for fun and information. Visit your library to find books about a topic your children enjoy or that features their favorite characters. Check out a book that is beyond your children’s ability to read on their own and read it to them. Set aside time during your summer schedule for “read to me time”. Attend library programs, or read a book at naptime or bedtime. Reading to your child instills a love of language and the understanding that what we say can be written, what we write can then be read. It also builds connections between reader and child!
Public libraries across the country have summer reading programs and incentives for all ages, even grown-ups! Visit your local public library to find out more about what they offer, or you can provide your own reward at home when a reading goal has been met.​

​​Open-ended, creative art experiences emphasize process over product. Through these experiences, children explore materials instead of being told “how to do it” or what color something “should” be. 
​Some process-focused art materials and activities to explore with young children include:

• Sidewalk chalk
• Painting with a variety of objects or tools (paint rollers, dish scrubbers, whisk, or outdoor objects like a feather or small pine branch.)
• Mixing colors (use droppers of watercolor/diluted food coloring onto paper towels or coffee filters.)
• Clay and dough of different colors and textures, including natural clay, mud and sand sculptures.
• Weaving cloth, yarn or paper.

There are so many science activities you can enjoy both indoors and outdoors!  Besides the activities you provide in the science center in your classroom, you may want to provide these outdoor explorations as well:

Sun:

• Is it hotter in the sun than in the shade? Experiment on the playground, in the park or your backyard.
• Create and observe evaporation paintings: “Paint” with water on surfaces like a sidewalk or outside wall and watch as they dry, then “paint” again.
• Shadow art: Trace around someone's shadow with sidewalk chalk, move, then have children find and match their shadows again.
• Sun prints: Place a toy, flower or other found item on construction paper and leave it in the sun (outside or near a window) Observe after a few hours, how the sun will fade the paper to leave a print of the item.

While we as early childhood educators and parents may strive to make our classrooms and play areas places where boys and girls are equally encouraged to explore their own interests, we know that many social traditions as well as marketing and packaging are aimed at boys or girls. At ECS our team has always supported play that is child-led, not directed by an adult to be gender specific.  ​

Here are some ideas for fostering gender neutral play environments:

• Watch your language! Please don’t exclusively tell girls they are pretty and boys they are tough or smart.
• Use gender neutral terms such as firefighter, mail carrier, parents, and police officers. Be aware and make children aware of jobs held by men or women: soldiers, trash truck drivers, farmers, nurses, hair stylists, the list is endless! 

Play is the means through which children learn, and toys are the tools we give them to accomplish that job. What toys can best help?  To help answer that question related to gender roles, NAEYC asked a researcher about her work on gender-typed toys:
“In general the toys most associated with boys were related to fighting or aggression (wrestlers, soldiers, guns, etc.), and the toys most associated with girls were related to appearance (Barbie dolls and accessories, ballerina costumes, makeup, jewelry, etc.)."
"The toys rated as most likely to be educational and to develop children’s physical, cognitive, artistic, and other skills were typically categorized as neutral or moderately masculine. We concluded that strongly gender-typed toys appear to be less supportive of optimal development than neutral or moderately gender-typed toys.”

We hope you got some new ideas for activities to help children learn through play.  Let us know your favorites so we and others can learn from you!

Social development is the gradual gaining of the skills, attitudes, relationships, and behavior that enable children to interact with others.  Social play happens when children are playing with adults or with other kids. ​

For children to best learn social skills through play, they need lots of opportunities to play with other children, of course.  But they also need support from sensitive adults.  Here’s why:

• Young children often do not know what is expected in different social situations
• They lack experience and knowledge of appropriate ways to solve conflicts
• They are naturally egocentric, so it is hard for them to understand others’ intentions and feelings 

​We can support children’s social skill development by playing with our kids and modeling the positive social behaviors we want them to use.  We can also teach them social skills using a technique called “scaffolding” - giving just enough help at first to build new skills, then letting them do more and more on their own.  
​
Here are some ways to support young children’s development of social skills:

Explain what cooperation looks like in different play situations:

• Sharing: “Hold the book so Tim can see the pages.” “Roll the ball to Rachel, then she can roll it to you.”
• Taking turns:  Help kids negotiate who goes first and the time for each turn.
• Compromising:  Give children ideas about how each can get a little of what they want.

When children play together, conflicts are inevitable.  Help kids learn to solve problems collaboratively by teaching them to negotiate.  Here are the steps in successful problem-solving:

We can help children understand the perspective of others by pointing out:

• How others feel -  “Her face is saying ‘I’m sad.’”
• How the child’s behavior affects others - “When you insist on having your way, friends may not want to play with you.”
• How other children might see things differently​ -  “John may not like to be pulled that fast in the wagon.

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (n.d.) Serve and return.  https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/serve-and-return/
Bailey, B. A. (2001).  Easy to love, difficult to discipline: The 7 basic skills for turning conflict into cooperation.  New York:  Harper-Collins Publishers Inc.
Head Start Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center Archive.​ (n.d.). The importance of teacher-child relationships in Head Start.  https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/archive/policy/im/acf-im-hs-08-21-attachment
Forrester, M. M. & Albrecht, K. M. (2014).  Social emotional tools for life:  An early childhood teacher’s guide to supporting strong emotional foundations and successful social relationships.  Houston:  Innovations in ECE Press

Here are some teambuilding activities I've found for the different personality types.  Try one out at your next staff meeting or family gathering!  I've included ways to play that can be done virtually, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues.

Moving

• "Balloon Keep Up" (Torbet, 2005)

Have everyone blow up a balloon and form a circle.  The goal of this cooperative game is to keep the balloons from touching the floor.  You may choose to begin with one balloon then add more gradually, especially if you're playing this game with children.

• "Virtual Dance Party"  

Play some upbeat music that gets people on their feet!

Virtual Game:  “Name, Place, Animal, Thing” https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/entertainment/g32098665/best-games-to-play-on-zoom/  
​​​To play, pick a letter.  Each player lists a famous person's name, a place, an animal, and a thing that begins with that letter.  The first person to type them into the online chat wins.

"Virtual Simon Says"
"Simon" gives instructions on actions to do, saying “Simon says” before some actions and not others.  Participants do only the actions “Simon says.”
If they do the action not preceded by “Simon says” they are "out."  When only one player remains that person wins.

Collecting
​"Human Treasure Hunt" http://scavenger-hunt.org/25-human-scavenger-hunt-questions/
​Go around the room and identify people who meet the criteria on the list: 

Virtual "Show and/or Tell" (https://biz30.timedoctor.com/virtual-team-building/)
What do you collect?  Write it in the chat!  If you have a piece of your collection with you, show it, too!

Storytelling
"Add-A-Word Stories" ​adapted from: http://www.icebreakers.ws/small-group/connecting-stories.html

“Exciting Sponge”  https://museumhack.com/virtual-team-building-for-remote-teams/

To play, each team member grabs a random object in arms length and creates a story about it.  You can default to describing a sponge.
The goal is to make up something amazing about the object.   The more absurd the better!

Be kind to yourself, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, and put more play in your day.  Laugh and be playful every chance you get - you'll be helping yourself and sharing joy with others.  Everyone  will benefit!