At Indianapolis Public School 61 kindergarteners participate in traditional forms of learning such as hearing stories and practicing with letters and numbers. However, they also get time to play, and this is where teachers also see essential learning taking place.
Outside of recess, teacher Carolyn Kendall makes time for her students to play several times a day. When she looks at a boy simply stacking blocks, she also sees that child's hand muscles getting a workout. When she looks at a little girl sorting colored animals into lines, she sees a child learning early math concepts. When she looks at her students playing during recess and they are dividing up into teams and creating rules, she sees them forming relationships and learning to get along.
Indiana University early education professor Mary Benson McMullen says that while teacher-directed play is important, the importance of free play shouldn't be underestimated. Read the full article by Robert King from The Indianapolis Star online.
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