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I agree that the teacher's role is to demonstrate and support children to explore and engage with their pretend play spaces most effectively. The research says that for greatest outcomes the teacher needs to be the play partner and join in, I completely agree but often when doing this, something will come up that is inevitably urgent and I will have to make a prompt exit from the play. This makes it challenging to assess if the children are able to extend their narrative within the play and I wonder whether some of the positives are undermined by the exiting.

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We set up many small play space for children depends on what children's interest and strengths are. One example is we set up frog focus table for children as some children are arguing frogs are hatched from eggs while others agree on frogs give birth to little frogs. Learning frogs would also raise children's awareness for sustainbility and explore relationship among land, people and animals. 

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We set up many small play space for children depends on what children's interest and strengths are. One example is we set up frog focus table for children as some children are arguing frogs are hatched from eggs while others agree on frogs give birth to little frogs. Learning frogs would also raise children's awareness for sustainbility and explore relationship among land, people and animals. 

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Play-based learning is benefitial for children to make decision of who do they would like to play with and where to play. They are empowered to make choices and use any resources to explore ideas and meanwhile develop cognitive learning, social skills, language and numeracy. 

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Play-based learning is benefitial for children to make decision of who do they would like to play with and where to play. They are empowered to make choices and use any resources to explore ideas and meanwhile develop cognitive learning, social skills, language and numeracy. 

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Teachers role in play-based learning is to ensure children have opportunity to combine learning with play-based approach that enable them to make discoveries, engage their thinking and problem solving ability in a social context.

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For our Inquiry unit on History and learning about the past, we set up a play space with various stations centered around objects from the past. From this we were able to collect data for Inquiry, as well as assess literacy, numeracy and social and emotional capabilities.

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I believe that play-based learning is so important in a child's learning journey. I am quite new to this, and from two modules alone have learnt so much and have so many ideas that I would like to implement. I believe the role of the teacher is to structure activities that offer a variety of learning experiences and are accessible by all students. I like how one play activity/area can offer a variety of assessment possibilities.

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I love the concept of PBL and understand the benefits for students to incorporate this type of learning. I am interested in how other schools structure their week. How much of the week is PBL and how much is traditional lessons using their school's instructional model? We have so much expectation on following the instructional model, incorporating a set number of explicit Phonics, Reading, Writing and Maths lessons that I am finding it difficult to know when and how to structure PBL. So far, all we have managed to do this year is at most, one PBL session in the week and then a dedicated provocation table set up for early finishers to use. However, there is another issue because it is often the same children all the time, benefiting from these open-ended tasks. Some children never get the opportunity to explore these tables.
I think unless we can get all Principals to embrace the idea of PBL (my Principal does not like the concept at all!) it is going to continue to be a challenge for teachers to find ways to embrace this even when we fully understand that PBL is so beneficial in so many ways. Principals are far more concerned on the data collection and effects within the classrooms towards improving Naplan results. Without full training towards our Principals to show how PBL in the early years will benefit and not hinder Naplan results some of us are just going to have to continue to snatch small opportunities here and there where we can and be creative in the way we structure independent activities within our instructional models.

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There is no question that play based learning and inquiry have benefits from before primary school and in the early years. Over the years I've taught middle to upper years students and my thinking is around the use of play based learning for these students, particularly to support students working below the expected level.

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I think it is fabulous that educators, and more importantly, the heirarchy are starting to see the true benefits of play based learning. I love the idea of keeping things simple and not having to blow your small budget on resources. Using boxes and everyday things you find at home or around the school can really encourage students to demonstrate their creative sides while having fun AND learning at the same time.

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I liked how keeping it simple was spoken about, particularly coming from a school with very limited resources but wanting to run a PBL program, this is helpful.

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How can we get more principals and schools to understand the value of play-based learning, and in particular, outdoor learning spaces?

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How can we get more principals and schools to understand the value of play-based learning, and in particular, outdoor learning spaces?

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My school not only has Bush School, but also a well-resourced outdoor space and attached community garden with chickens. The opportunities for play and learning are endless. I nodded my head at all the benefits you listed of outdoor learning! It is so vital in this age where children's time for free outdoor play has decreased so significantly.

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My school not only has Bush School, but also a well-resourced outdoor space and attached community garden with chickens. The opportunities for play and learning are endless. I nodded my head at all the benefits you listed of outdoor learning! It is so vital in this age where children's time for free outdoor play has decreased so significantly.

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I'm fortunate to work in a school that values outdoor and play-based learning. We have a Montessori stream and a bush school for the Prep/1s (for which I am the teacher). It's been really great to observe the children being so engaged in playing in the outdoor environment, connecting to nature, developing their gross and fine motor skills, and building resilience and social relationships. I tend to try to step back where possible and only step in if the children need me to, but I am working on finding a balance with this. We are working with other schools to get a similar bush school program happening there - teachers and parents can all see how much it benefits children.  

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I'm fortunate to work in a school that values outdoor and play-based learning. We have a Montessori stream and a bush school for the Prep/1s (for which I am the teacher). It's been really great to observe the children being so engaged in playing in the outdoor environment, connecting to nature, developing their gross and fine motor skills, and building resilience and social relationships. I tend to try to step back where possible and only step in if the children need me to, but I am working on finding a balance with this. We are working with other schools to get a similar bush school program happening there - teachers and parents can all see how much it benefits children.  

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I'm the bug collector at school.  I show and tell, the children I work with, whatever I catch. They're fascinated and so interested at looking and learning about all sorts of creepy crawlies and love watching them be released. Its a beautiful way to show empathy too.

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I'm the bug collector at school.  I show and tell, the children I work with, whatever I catch. They're fascinated and so interested at looking and learning about all sorts of creepy crawlies and love watching them be released. Its a beautiful way to show empathy too.

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What is an IB school? I 've heard it referred to a few times but am unsure of what this refers to.

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I feel quite honoured to have experienced a bush kinder with my own children. These learning spaces would be so valuable to be seen/accessed more readily in primary schools.

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I appreciated how important it is to keep things simple, you only need to hook the imagination and the children will take on the learning, you don't need to have all the fanciest resources to start.

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I love conversations that arise with children through play. You can learn so much about them through the way that they play. I would love to find out more about how you can create meaningful play spaces for learning with what we already have in the school yard.

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Currently, I am not doing much in terms of play based learning in my classroom, but it is something I would definitely like to incorporate. I spent some time doing playroom therapy with a child with ASD. I found this a wonderful way to connect with him, understand him and teach/practice a lot of social skills and cues. I think a lot of children in my class would benefit from this aspect alone, especially after missing out on a lot of classroom time due to remote learning. I am still unsure how we are able to incorporate so much curriculum, or organise the curriculum areas into play. How do you decide what the play setup will be?

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We use outside classroom area for the messy play, science experiments e.g. rocket launching, erupting volcano, small group social skills activities.

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We've run PBL for a few years now in our Foundation classes and we're really trying hard to make sure that the students are gaining new learning. We have seen a big improvement in the way they interact during pretend play. Time-wise honestly I find it a challenge to make sure that each station is as rich as it could be but I think we're getting better. The checklist is lovely and simple - thank you. Has it been based around the Victorian curriculum at all? I'm interested in mapping it across to see if we can use it for our reporting as well.

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The teacher checklist is very helpful when observing the students .
Getting lost of different ideas and cannot wait to begin this journey with my students

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The checklist for play observations will be very worthwhile!

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The checklist for play observations will be very worthwhile!

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Planning for me has always been tricky and I have a large collumn that says "What really happened"!

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Our school is working towards revising our planning for play-based inquiry learning. Examples of planning docs would be great.

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Our school is working towards revising our planning for play-based inquiry learning. Examples of planning docs would be great.

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Learning about the key elements of implementing play based learning was very helpful. I am now also aware of the importance of a combination of guided play, adult led, and child directed play. I do not have much experience in planning and structuring play-based sessions yet so this has all been very helpful!

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I am getting so many great ideas to help me incorporate PBL into my classroom. I too would love to see some real life examples of planners and how play experiences are planned in line with the curriculum and learning intentions/outcomes.

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I am getting so many great ideas to help me incorporate PBL into my classroom. I too would love to see some real life examples of planners and how play experiences are planned in line with the curriculum and learning intentions/outcomes.

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In my room, my planner has 'game/provocation/warm up' it does not currently say PBL...

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In my room, my planner has 'game/provocation/warm up' it does not currently say PBL...

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Thanks you for sharing your insights. It would be great if you could share how play is recored on your planners please.
Thanks

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I'm gaining lots of new ideas for our play-based learning in Foundation. We have been struggling with students bringing in their own toys and creating their own games. I'm uncertain whether to foster this and direct it towards learning or whether to re-direct them back to what has been provided. I've tried both ways and I've even set up an area based on the toys they were playing with to support learning from this.

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How do teachers incorporate the thinking routines in play based inquiry learning?

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How do teachers incorporate ICT in play based inquiry learning? Are these integrated or separate?

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It would be great to see some examples of 'easy/low costing' play materials and resources and how teachers implement these in play-based inquiry play.

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I love PBL and have experience in the Early Years at previous schools. I'm thinking through how I can approach this in Upper Primary. Any suggestions?

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I love PBL and have experience in the Early Years at previous schools. I'm thinking through how I can approach this in Upper Primary. Any suggestions?

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This is new to me so ive learnt so much and excited to bring to students back at school

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This is new to me so ive learnt so much and excited to bring to students back at school

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I love the conversations I have with students while they play. I find it more beneficial to use open ended questions to really allow them to explore their own thoughts

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I'm happy to hear that other teachers also find it hard to direct students away from Lego. We have been giving them 'challenges' like can you build a house out of 10 blocks or build a tower out of red blocks.
I find it challenging to participate with the students without doing any assessments. I've found that the students tend to drift over to the home corner or making table rather than the literacy or maths table. How do you encourage your students who aren't confident in literacy or maths to investigate / play with that activities?

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As a part of my rotations, I put out 2, maybe 3 different building materials with a basic direction varying in specifics, e.g., 'make an animal that stands on 4 legs', or 'build the highest tower you can'. The children may work together, or individually. I can challenge them by asking 'how can you make it better?' and ask them to tell me about it.

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As a part of my rotations, I put out 2, maybe 3 different building materials with a basic direction varying in specifics, e.g., 'make an animal that stands on 4 legs', or 'build the highest tower you can'. The children may work together, or individually. I can challenge them by asking 'how can you make it better?' and ask them to tell me about it.

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I would love to get some examples of goals teachers have set for their sessions of Play Based Learning

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I would love to get some examples of goals teachers have set for their sessions of Play Based Learning

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I think one aspect of PBL which hasn't been mentioned is the student's perspective. I work in a PBL system and it is exciting to me as a teacher to see students enjoying their learning, choosing to involve themselves (rather than being pushed to join in), and being genuinely proud of what they are able to achieve and accomplish. I think all of these moments are encouraged by allowing students the opportunity to make choices in their learning and make tangible, real-life connections with the content through play.

PBL also allows students from all ability levels to engage with content. For example, the video above which spoke of having paper and pencils in the cafe corner, encouraged students who could write words to make shopping lists, students who were able to draw could make a pictorial list, and students who were still learning these skills still had the opportunity to hold the paper as a prop as they practiced their verbal communication instead. So many wonderful entry levels to the activity :) !

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I am really enjoying this module, particularly the videos with the Prep teachers from Wales street primary school. Hearing other teachers' successes and challenges is very motivating and inspiring! I am taking this one step at a time and slowly incorporating different ideas into my own classroom. My biggest achievement so far is actually participating with the students in play as opposed to just tidying up or doing a quick running record! It has been great reflecting on my role as a teacher, and not using play based learning time as my own kind of break time. I have loved posing questions to the students, seeing what amazing things they share with me, and doing formative assessment that is fun for the students, and enjoyable for me too. Keen to keep exploring this new approach with my students. :)

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Parents/families are a great resource for materials too. ie.boxes/containers.
We're doing past, present, future inquiry this term and the parents have brought in all manner of objects from the past.

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I agree that we need to have a balance of PBL and direct instruction. I am learning alot through this course and really look forward to learning more about how to assess against the curriculum during PBL.

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I am still not entirely convinced that PBL is more beneficial than direct instruction, but I am enjoying this course and keeping an open mind. I can certainly see the benefits in terms of Oral Language development, and I know that all educators are concerned about the overall decrease in OL skills in children entering Foundation. I guess my question is can PBL sit alongside direct instruction (in, for example, phonics)?

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I am still not entirely convinced that PBL is more beneficial than direct instruction, but I am enjoying this course and keeping an open mind. I can certainly see the benefits in terms of Oral Language development, and I know that all educators are concerned about the overall decrease in OL skills in children entering Foundation. I guess my question is can PBL sit alongside direct instruction (in, for example, phonics)?

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I am an advocator for play based learning for young children. But as an educator, we need to balance the children's interest, the resource, number of children and the space of the play too. We set up the play base learning experience for children then the next role is we observe their play, leaving time and space for them to explore. Educator can get invoved but not straight away. I would tend to be an observer first. 

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I am an advocator for play based learning for young children. But as an educator, we need to balance the children's interest, the resource, number of children and the space of the play too. We set up the play base learning experience for children then the next role is we observe their play, leaving time and space for them to explore. Educator can get invoved but not straight away. I would tend to be an observer first. 

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I am a strong advocate for Play Based Learning but I agree with some of the other educators comments about accessing and sourcing resources for the primary classroom is an issue -both in terms of time and finances. Reverse recycle places and op shops are great but often I end up spending more than I had planned to cater for the differentiated needs and interests of the students in my class.

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I am a strong advocate for Play Based Learning but I agree with some of the other educators comments about accessing and sourcing resources for the primary classroom is an issue -both in terms of time and finances. Reverse recycle places and op shops are great but often I end up spending more than I had planned to cater for the differentiated needs and interests of the students in my class.

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We were asked to implement a play based approach this year and that was the extent of the support. Little direction, no resources and I am really struggling. I found this course through my own research. It takes a lot of planning for things to look so effortless and meeting literacy curriculum goals. Providing interesting and engaging materials (from either my own time collecting them or paying for bits and bobs) for 24 students with varying interests is beyond my capacity at the moment.

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After reading some of the other posts, it appears that a common theme is how difficult it is sometimes to develop a whole school approach to PBL with everyone on board. If only more teachers were able to complete these Modules and gain insight! I am a big fan of this approach and have been for many years. I am wondering however, what the thinking is in relation to the recommended amount of time allocated to this type of learning and the benefits acquired. Some time allocation is better than none of course. We allocate time twice a week but I would ideally like to further develop this and more fully integrate the curriculum. I am aware that all schools are different in relation to how much value they place on this type of learning. The other thing I was thinking, and I'm not sure how this idea would work logistically - but wouldn't it be great if schools could share resources. If this were the case the cost could be shared and the resources varied not to mention we may be able to create a more equitable community of learners.
Kate

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My biggest hurdle has been convincing others in my school and team that play based learning is actually still meeting the curriculum goals. I feel like I have to constantly defend play based learning as an approach to teaching. Saying that, after having conversations with staff about PBL, it’s very motivating when others walked away convinced that maybe they should adopt some of these strategies too. ☺️

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Using play-based strategies in Foundation

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Using play-based strategies in Foundation

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We have a really small classroom so I often use microhabitats to support learning. Currently we have a tray set up as the Australian bush and another tray for the Murray River that runs through our town and the children having been really engaged in the science aspects of the river.
'The river is real muddy today cos' it rained' (The child was playing with the Lego figures in the tray who were camping by the river)