Findings: Jen’s Narrative

White Boards and Pens

At the outset of our project, I asked the children what they would like to do during exploratory playtime. I had a list of toys ranging from puzzles, to Play Dough and Hot Wheels. After spending hundreds of dollars, I discovered, three play sessions later, that the children were already tired of the new toys and that a large group of children were playing with what we already had—white boards and pens.

“What time is this?”

“Why do you do the seven that way?”

They were reviewing time, a unit that we had just begun that day.

The special needs child in my class was also involved and was benefiting from this fun game of review. I was amazed at how they were so quickly applying their recently acquired knowledge and how they so naturally corrected each other when one made a backwards letter. They were having fun playing with their new knowledge of circles and numbers that went around, and I could hear my own voice being mimicked in their teachings, “Good for you! What time is it now?”

Amy Dickenson, a Kindergarten teacher, frustrated by the performance-driven environment of the U.S. classroom expresses frustrations similar to my own when she “wonders whether her 25 pint-sized students are still with her “(199, 61). A sense of urgency to move on to the next unit or piece of curriculum was, she argues, getting in the way of allowing children to digest knowledge at their own rate and revisit and play with more abstract ideas such as a circle with numbers going around it.

“No Peeking”

I used to have rules for my centre times, no more than four children per centre and no switching centres once a child had made his or her choice. I quickly realized that given time and freedom, children create their own rules and consequences for breaking these rules. One day of research highlights this:

The children are playing Easter Bunny in the house centre and hiding eggs. No one is allowed to peek. One student is caught peeking and is asked to leave the centre. During the debriefing time this student is upset.

“I felt sad because she said, ‘get out of the house centre’.”

“But she was peeking.”

“But I didn’t know the rules.”

Another student says that she should ask about the rules. I ask her what she could do next time so that she would feel happier. She says, “Don’t peek.”

The students, when asked, knew what they could do differently next time, and they knew the right answer for how to follow ‘the rules,’ but they did not have the skills to do it during the moment and required further time to practice this. They were acquiring good habits through practice, for Wasserman states, “experiential learning, or serious play, builds habits of thinking” (1992, 136).

Playing to Learn

I asked the children on our last day of ‘research time’ if they had learned anything. There was some laughter and smiles as the kids looked around at each other. The children were truly baffled by my question. Then the first child spoke:

“I learned how to share.”

“I learned how to be nice and play with people.”

“I learned to be kind because when we got in a fight we got over it.”

“I learned to play stuff.”

“I learned that when you did stuff that you didn’t like then you didn’t do it next time.”

The special needs student said, “People were learning to be nice to me.”

The lessons these children were learning from each other were much more than could be taught by any adult. The fact that the special needs child felt and understood that children were positively interacting with her is an experience that could not have been artificially created. Giving the children the freedom to interact naturally did this. John Dewey’s (1944) insights into play emphasize this point. “Teachers would find their own work less of a grind and strain if school conditions favoured learning in the sense of discovery and not that of storing away what others pour into them” (159).

Back to Normal?

An hour a day, three days a week is a lot of time to devote to exploratory play in the classroom. I was looking forward to the end, when things could ‘get back to normal.’ ‘Research time’ was coming to a close and I asked the students how they felt about it.

“I feel sad because I won’t have any more fun here,” was a response voiced by many of the children.

Research was over and now I could get on with other lessons and units. I felt a sense of relief. But, I also began to notice many problems. Daily, children were returning from recess with a list of problems.

“He said a mean thing to me. She won’t share.”

I began spending more and more time, going over problems, and soothing crushed egos when it finally hit me! The children were missing their in-class time to play. They did not have time to practice playing during class time when I was there to monitor and guide their thinking and behaviours. Educators always give children practice time for math, spelling, and other subjects, yet we assume that children know how to play naturally, without time for practice.

I began allowing the children exploratory playtime in the classroom, and once again discovered that they were happier all around and there were fewer complaints of problems on the playground.

Reflections: Within the Energy

Initially the children were curious and suspicious about me sitting and observing them play. I chose not to wear any cue but simply told the class I would now be silent and observing their activities. They felt it was a game and accused me of spying on them. Then they became more comfortable with me watching them, yet my presence was always felt. Sometimes they reacted with shyness, other times with guilt if they were doing something wrong.

The feeling in the classroom, whenever we had exploratory play, was an overall feeling of relief, freedom, and joy. The children acted as if they had won a prize each time they were released to play. Rather than finding evidence of this feeling in the tangible data, it was expressed within the kinetic energy of joyful engagement.

What I have learned from watching the children through a different lens is that when I stopped doing the research, and stopped giving the children exploratory playtime, I began to have more problems in the classroom. The children were coming back from the playground after recess and lunch with a list of problems. The children were not practicing their problem solving skills and I was not debriefing with them daily, discussing these issues. It was difficult to find time in the day to implement exploratory play but I was beginning to see that everyone was better off with a little time to socialize in a supervised manner, where they could practice these skills in a safe environment.

I also learned that some students used this time to synthesize their learning and to test their preferences. I would often see them grab a chalkboard, imitate me while reviewing, and practicing many things we had learned throughout the day. One special needs child really benefited from this time when classmates used it as an opportunity to teach and play with her, where they normally would not. In fact, most children used this time to play and interact with others whom they normally would not.

Observing my students means I have become much more connected to them and their needs. I have learned to step back sometimes and to trust in their choices. I still struggle to give my children exploratory playtime because I think they are worth it!