(Ok, this post isn’t about REDRUM… but the picture incorporated Halloween and play, so…..)
It was my dad’s suggestion, but I loved it.
The two of us worked diligently to bend a plain metal coat hanger into the shape of a bare human foot. I didn’t just want to enter the fourth grade bubble blowing contest… I wanted to win.
Although it failed to produce a bubble, I did win for “Most Humorous Bubble Blower”.
A few weeks later, my class took the CAT Test (80’s standardized test). Guess which memory is more vivid?
I’ve always known that play was important in the classroom, but it seems to surface as a constant thread through every avenue of my research this year. Being an upper grades teacher for years has me feeling like it is a constant battle to add play to the demanding daily schedule. Head to head with common core standards, prepping for standardized tests, and the growing demands added to our curricular responsibilities, teachers have felt silently (and sometimes not so silently) judged for doing those “fun” activities. Play has been shoved farther and farther back into grade levels- something that was deemed “good for preschool” but not those we are trying to prep for “real academics” in the upper grades.
So I almost dropped my book this week when I read this…. “If you search ‘play’ on the internet, you’ll find more resources than you can shake a stick at…if you’re looking for it in the context of early childhood education. Play isn’t just an early childhood concept.” (The Playful Classroom, page 76.) I’ve had a similar internet searching experience. It made me wonder…is there an imaginary milestone that students cross, after which they shouldn’t be playing in the classroom?
Maybe it’s time to talk about what play is at every grade level. Sure, in preschool it might look like dress up and kitchen, but maybe it also looks like designing a bubble blower to practice the engineering process. And don’t forget those middle and high school students! Perhaps secondary play looks like choosing an original project idea, or creating a 3-D model of their learning.
And above all…humor. I’ve never seen a playful classroom that didn’t include laughter. To be clear- this doesn’t mean laughing at kids, or that the teacher is required to double as a comedian. It might mean a joke of the day- submitted by both students and adults. Or taking time to laugh at those teacher whoopsies, in turn modeling humility and resilience after mistakes.
Today, on this cloudy Wednesday, I am celebrating the humor. Here are the top three things that made me laugh today:
#1 To help my son get ready this morning, (YES- this is still a work in progress) I wrote the four tasks I needed him to do on slips of paper that I folded and put in a cup. I told him whichever one he drew, he HAD to do that first. Every time he went to grab a slip I playfully yelled, “NO PEEKING!”, while he giggled. I might not be able to pull that off every day, but it bought me a tear-free tooth brushing.
#2 On a whim I bought sushi for dinner. My oldest is lukewarm to the sushi idea and I KNOW my youngest will flat-out refuse. I’m planning to dress up as a sushi chef and serve it with chopsticks, paying them in monopoly money (in character of course) for every bite they try. (Stay tuned for the result).
#3 And the funniest thing that’s come out of my dear six-year-old’s mouth in a long time: He made a bird feeder with grandma last week♥️. I looked out this morning and a fat squirrel was eating in it. “Look, Auggie,” I called, “there’s a squirrel in your bird feeder!” “WHAT?!”, he protested, “But I made a sign!!”
(If you can’t read kindergartener it says NO SQUIRRELS.)
*** This was a longer one, but well worth it. Made me want to get back in the classroom. It is permission and proof that we do NOT need testing to dominate our curriculum. Lots of hand on activities and examples.
Teaching the Good Stuff 