Think back for a moment to when you were a young child. What games did you play? What things did you play at school? Do you remember your parents telling you to "go play?" I remember riding my bicycle, roller skating, getting together with the neighbor kids to play hide-and-seek, and Barbie's of course were my favorite! Today if a parent were to say "go play," would children know how or what to play? Are we allowing children enough play time to develop appropriately? Is play really play anymore? This article discusses how physical, imaginative, and free-choice play is almost non-existent and how teachers can ensure play in their environments and in the child's home.
In an era of high-stakes testing and teacher accountability, play—the cornerstone of child development—is slowly becoming extinct. As more and more schools are doing away with physical education, recess, and curriculum that allows for children to engage in play activities, teachers find themselves relying on more teacher-directed instruction (Van Hoorn, Nourot, Scales, & Alward, 2011). Teacher-directed instruction includes activities and lessons planned by the teacher. The teacher guides the entire daily schedule and this type of instruction is the most structured teacher-centered form of planning (Kostelnik, Soderman, and Whiren, 2011). In schools and homes today, free-choice play, imaginative play, and physical play are almost gone in a child's daily schedule.
In my first teacher meeting my first year of teaching, my principal stood in front of the library and said there isno fun. We will no longer have thematic units; there should be no fun activities in the classroom that do not
2-18-14 THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG - Throughout February and March: Building School Morale
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