Learning Through Play

1. Learning Through Play • Supporting the Journey • 2012 After School Training Conference

2. Cooperation Strategies & Skills

3. Tell A story about your childhood and play • Who did you play with? • What did you do? • What did you play with? • Where did you spend most of your time playing? • How supervised were you?

4. Qualities of Play

5. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING… • Happens all the time • Is a natural way to learn • Experimentation • Exploration • Example • Empathy INFORMAL

6. EXPERIENTIAL EDUCATION • Harnesses the natural power of EL • Is a formal way to support learning • Can be a playful way to address learning standards and skill building FORMAL

7. Unstructured Free Play = Experiential Learning • Child-led (can have adult participation) • Independent and non-screen • Promotes intellectual, physical, and emotional well-being • Helps children learn how to: negotiate, resolve conflicts, regulate emotions & behavior, and speak up for themselves • Builds active, healthy bodies • Fosters empathy and creativity • Provide toys & materials that stimulate imagination • Recognized by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 31: “recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child...”

8. Unstructured Free Play Examples • Climbing, running, jumping, tumbling, exploring, biking, walking, tag, skipping • Looking at and “reading” books, playing with puzzles, blocks, musical instruments • Creating make-believe worlds, with dress-up clothes, pots and pans, toy cars, and art materials • Indoors or outside • Alone or with others

9. Guided Play = Experiential Education • Is voluntary and frequently involves choice • Involves everyone without elimination • Tends to be cooperative rather than competitive • Offers opportunities at each person’s skill level • Adult facilitated • Contributes to child’s development • Can have a point or lesson • Allows children to learn and practice skills • Creates shared Experiences

10. Examples of Guided Play • Musical Games • Games such as “follow the leader” or “Simon says” • Ice Breakers • Skill builders • Problem solving activities • Scavenger hunts • Square or line dancing • Cooking

11. Blue Jellybeans • Eager • Ecstatic • Embarrassed • Energetic • Enraged • Envious • Excited • Exhausted • Shocked • Shy • Silly • Smart • Smug • Strong • Surprised • Suspicious

12. What does [word] mean? • How does it feel to be [word]? • What happens to make you feel [word]? • How can you tell someone might be feeling [word] by looking at them?

13. Summary • Unstructured free play allows children to learn experientially • Supports social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development • The main adult role is to keep children safe

14. Summary • Guided play is a form of experiential education that taps into a natural way to learn • Can be used to teach skills and content. • The main adult role is to facilitate learning through processing and reflection.

15. Ideas for Your Program • Schedule time for free play • Be intentionally spontaneous • Play with students • Explore • Add playful activities to concepts and skills students need to learn • Notice instead of judge or value

17. Laurie Frank GOAL Consulting www.goalconsulting.org

18. Experiential Education Expeditionary Learning Experience Based Training and Development Outdoor Pursuits Simulations Inquiry Adventure Based Counseling Internships Environmental Education Service Learning Art, Play, Music, Drama Therapies And more… Adventure/Challenge Education