Strengthening
Academics Through Play
As parents search for the ‘perfect’ preschool for their young
child, they are often faced with a conundrum: should they choose a
developmental play-based preschool or should they choose one of the popular
“academic” preschool options? As kindergarten becomes increasingly academic,
many preschools have transitioned from a traditional play-based environment to institutions
that function more like college preparatory schools. Parents are enticed by the
fact that their young children might be able to fill in a worksheet or spout
rote facts such as the ABCs and 123s by the time they are three. But are
academic pencil-and-paper preschools truly beneficial or do they stifle
creativity, physical development and the ability to learn critical social
skills? Conversely, do quality developmental preschools actually sacrifice academics by foregoing worksheets and
encouraging play?
This past year, our transitional kindergarten attempted to
watch the historic Endeavour fly-over. Although they didn’t get to see it fly
over our school, a spark of excitement was ignited. From this experience, our energetic
5-year-olds embarked on an in-depth study about outer space. While maintaining
the play-based philosophy, this class gleaned academics that were akin to that
of third and fourth graders! From the beginning, the children were actively
involved in the development of this project. They made a three-tiered chart on
what they already knew about space and what they wanted to learn; the chart concluded
with a summary of what they had learned by the end. They created “thinking
webs” to organize their ideas on how to integrate space into their daily
curriculum and learning experiences. As a group, they made charts about what
types of materials, books, games, fieldtrips, and experiences would increase
their learning opportunities. With the help of their teacher, they designed
their own dramatic play area, complete with a HUGE child-created spacecraft,
space suits, and a mission control station. They created their “own” planets,
wrote about space in their journals using ‘proper’ pencil grip and letter
formation, authored a short report on their chosen planet, independently sculpted
space ships from recyclables, and made realistic moonscapes out of clay. They
designed paper airplanes and then measured and graphed the distances they flew.
They played games about space that integrated phonics, math, reading and
writing skills. A not-quite-to-scale model of all the planets was created by
the students using paper-mache and then hung from their classroom ceiling (the
planets were hung in the correct order from the sun, of course!). To culminate
their studies, they invited Will Allen, one of the key scientists who worked on
the Mars Curiosity Rover, to speak to their class. They also went to see the
original influence of this project - the Endeavour itself - at the California
Science Center. As they progressed through this journey, the teachers carefully
documented and observed the learning and interactions that took place. They
watched as the children grew in their knowledge and in their ability to work as
a productive citizen in the class.
To say this experience was limited to our transitional
kindergarten would not just. Our three-year-olds had an equally engaging study
on trains where they built their very own steam engine from a refrigerator box,
complete with cattle-catchers and pistons! Our pre-kindergarten class explored
the wonderful world of animals and discovered many new and exciting facts about
our world.
Research indicates that young children learn through direct
experiences. They learn through touching, tasting, seeing, hearing, conversing,
singing, writing, reading, playing, observing, testing, predicting, trial and
error. Much like us, they learn through guidance, discovery, exploration, and
adventure.
At our school, we embrace that children
can, and will, thrive academically and socially in a well-planned, balanced, developmentally
appropriate, play-based environment. We have seen first-hand that when children
learn through play, they are exposed to higher levels of socialization, language
development, creativity, problem solving, and critical thinking. Finally, the
DO develop the much-needed focus, determination, independence, physical and
cognitive skills needed to not only thrive in kindergarten, but as scientists,
CEO’s, professors, or wherever else God takes them!
Funny enough, if you ask the children in our transitional
kindergarten class what they did in preschool, their answer would inevitably
be, “I played”.
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| Our "playing" in action! |
