Better late than never, but here are a few of my thoughts about Global School Play Day.
For those of you reading who don't know, Global School Play Day was an afternoon of unstructured play. Students were able to bring toys from home as long as they were not electronic. Things like Legos, board games, and dolls were encouraged. They were going to be able to play for the afternoon without intervention from the teacher. I supervised, but I did not intervene unless they doing something that was unsafe.
- In my core, I love this idea. I'm a firm believer that kids needs to play. In early education much of their learning comes from play. BUT- I'll admit I was nervous. No intervening unless students are in danger? I pictured chaos. The thought of allowing an extended amount of unstructured play was frightening.
- It turns out it wasn't as frightening as I thought it would be. It wasn't even as loud as I thought it would be.
- I heard things like "let's check the rules". Students were coming up with ways to solve disagreements.
- About half way through the afternoon, some students were "bored". They had to come up with different ways to keep themselves occupied. I enjoyed that they had enough time to switch activities. All day I'm in charge of signaling their transitions. It was interesting to observe students taking responsible for their own transition into different activities.
- Students created games.
- Students used their imaginations.
- I was asked 7 times by the same student if they could use the Chromebook.
- While one thing did break, most of the students were careful while playing.
As a follow up, I had my students write letters to the principal about whether or not we should participate in Global Play Day in the future. Obviously, the majority of my students were pro play day, but for thoughtful reasons. They had reasons such as, "we played nice together" and "we solved our own problems". They were reflective about the fact that without my intervention they were left to solve their own disagreements.
Where does this leave me?
I've always worked some play/ snack time in the day. This play time is good for them in so many ways. Mostly it gives them a chance to interact socially with one another. It also gives them a chances to practice making appropriate choices with peers. Global School Play Day reassured me that giving students time to "play" is OK.
And we need that every once in a while, right? What you are doing is ok. :)
