Creative play by Jamie Hamm

Why Playful Learning is Important

jamie61202 — 2024-03-06 21:19:24 UTC

In the section free play in this website, they talk a lot about play centers, this means the child decides where to play and what to play with. This helps with the development of all 5 domains which are social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language. A quote I liked from the website is "In fact, when researchers compared children's skill development during free play in comparison to guided play, they found that children learned more vocabulary (Toub et al. 2018) and spatial skills (Fisher et al. 2013) in guided play than in free play." This helped me because I think that it is important to let children play but keep them on track at the same time. While doing so it could be a good opportunity to use self-talk or reflection to add to what the child is thinking. Another quote I think supports creative play is "Free play, or self-directed play, is often heralded as the gold standard of play. It encourages children's initiative, independence, and problem solving and has been linked to benefits in social and emotional development (Singer and Singer 1990, Pagani et al. 2010, Romano et al, 2010, Gray 2013) and language and literacy (Neyman and Roskos 1992) Through play, children explore and make sense of their world, develop imaginative and symbolic thinking, and develop physical competence."

The five senses are important in young children's learning because this is how they learn about their environment and their surroundings. This goes right in with learning how to communicate. Creative play experiences help children's sensory development because they are using their touch, smell, taste, hearing, and sight. An example of this that is used in the website is giving students playful activities about birds, this could include songs, habitats, names, and texture. Although this does not include taste, an option could be to show the students what the birds eat.

Play Materials for the Domains

jamie61202 — 2024-03-06 21:23:19 UTC

This website is sectioned into parts based off ages of children. For each age group it offers what toys would be good for them and why.

The first domain I noticed is cognitive. This includes showing the child recordings with pictures or simple stories. The child develops this domain because showing them pictures or reading simple stories shows them something they have never seen before. Another example could be to build smaller puzzles or toys with parts that fit together. The second domain is physical and an example they mentioned for this is dress-up clothes. This could be on a doll or puppet. This helps them develop this domain because it increases their motor skills to put the clothes on. The third domain is language and an example of this is picture books with more words/detailed pictures. This increases their development because it encourages communication.

Play Materials for the Senses

jamie61202 — 2024-03-06 21:26:19 UTC

This website is about how important sensory play is for children and how they develop. They give many fantastic ideas on how to stimulate their senses and how it helps them to do this early on. It includes how sensory play helps with language skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, cognitive growth, fosters social interaction, and how it has a calming effect.

They mention a lot of senses in this website and good ways to stimulate children's senses. The first one is touch, they used a sensory bin which is a container filled with random objects. The bin could have cotton balls, peanuts, and buttons in it. This helps with the child getting used to different textures. The next sense is smell, the website mentions using bath time for this. You may add scent with bubbles or different body wash. The third sense is hearing, this could be as simple as listening to music. Another way to stimulate hearing for children is to use household items to make homemade music.

Supporting Children with Special Needs in Play

jamie61202 — 2024-03-06 21:37:26 UTC

This website offers why play is essential for children with disabilities. They go into detail about how children with disabilities develop social-emotional, physical and communication skills, and give resources to dive deeper into it. They also give some good insight on how to practice playing with the child, like being a role model, playing interactive or board games, and sharing toys. There is also a section on how to make playing with others easier for children with disabilities. This includes choosing toys/activities, setting up a play area, and helping out if the child needs it.

Maintaining a Safe and Accessible Environment (Inclusive Play)

jamie61202 — 2024-05-04 04:21:21 UTC

An inclusive playground is designed to be accessible to children with various abilities, this means children with physical disabilities or developmental conditions. This resource embarks on what an inclusive playground is, how it helps children, and how it supports their development through play. They allow children to gain confidence through building a new skill set and trying new things. These activities include wheelchair accessible/adaptive/saucer swings, imaginative play opportunities/themes, quiet spaces, tactile/musical elements, slides, and rockers. There are many other benefits listed in this resource, but these are just a few examples of what inclusive playgrounds have to offer. They allow children to be themselves and explore with what they are comfortable with.

Outdoor Experiences

jamie61202 — 2024-05-04 04:48:23 UTC

This is a great resource for describing how and why outdoor experiences support children’s learning and development. A quote I liked from this website is “They can release energy, use loud voices, play vigorously, and engage in messy project outdoors.” I think this perfectly describes why outdoor play is good for children. This is because it relieves stress, increases creativity, stronger verbal, and social skills, and these are just some of the benefits of outdoor play. Another benefit is that it gets children to take a break from being indoors, which is perfect for school environments. This resource goes into detail about guidance for when playing outdoors and how to stay organized, safe, what materials to use, accessibility, and about in-depth outdoor learning areas. It also has an organized table describing what types of outdoor experiences you can create for children and activities/materials to create a great environment. The outdoor learning areas include quiet, manipulative, physical, nature, social, dramatic, and sensory areas.

Games

jamie61202 — 2024-05-04 05:17:44 UTC

This resource gives an insight into how an integration of games into the school curriculum can be very beneficial for children’s development. Playing games helps children to think, understand, communicate, remember, imagine, and predict. Involving games into the curriculum increases children being able to problem solve, create, and experiment in a fun way. A couple ways the resource gives to introduce games in the classroom include playing board games, puzzles, and stacking items. Another good way games can impact children is competitive play, this way children can learn to lose and how to react if they win.