Self-Regulation and Play-based Learning

Enter any kindergarten classroom and you will see children engaged in different types of play – painting at the easel, sculpting play dough, splashing at the water table, playing house in the dramatic play centre.  Some children stay for long periods at one centre, while others move from place to place. The teachers circulate through the room, talking with the children and supporting their play.

Why a play-based program? Children are naturally curious and play allows them to explore, create, build, wonder and ask questions. In kindergarten, educators set up the classroom so that children are actively learning language, math, science and more through play.

How does a play-based kindergarten program help children to develop self-regulation? Just as play is a natural way for young children to learn language and math, it is a natural way for them to deal with and recover from stress.  Kindergarten educators provide many different materials and play spaces in the classroom, and allow the children to decide where they want to play and for how long. With support from the adults in the classroom, children learn which play materials help them to feel calm and which energize them.

The children at the block centre use lots of energy as they carry the blocks and move around in the zoo they have created. Their teacher knows that this will help them to be calm when it’s time to sit for lunch, as they will have released so much energy during play.

The young boy sitting quietly in the book centre is learning to self-regulate.  He has found a place in the classroom where he feels safe and calm. A recent arrival to Canada from Syria and just beginning to learn English, he isn’t ready to play just yet. 

By playing with different materials in the classroom, children learn to self-regulate.  They learn to recognize when they feel stressed and which activities will help them to feel calm. They move away from play areas that they find too loud or stressful, and choose play that meets their needs. Each student is unique, and what is calming for one student may not be calming for another student. One child may find working with play dough calming, while another child may prefer to pour sand at the sand table. With so many materials to choose from in a play-based kindergarten program, each child can find what works best for them!

(Revised -original version can be found in Self-Reg Parenting, Volume 1; Issue 3)

Honouring the 'Wild Child'

image from pinterest.com

This poster, using text from Wild Child by Jeanne Willis, reminded me of the first week of school in kindergarten year after year.  That first week I would find shoes scattered throughout the classroom - the children were not used to wearing them after spending their summer footloose and fancy free, and would kick them off at the first opportunity. And quite frankly, I wasn't used to wearing shoes after a summer spent barefoot or in flip flops. 

How can we welcome our youngest learners to our schools and still honour their wildness?  Some ideas that immediately came to mind for me were:

Play-based learning - large blocks of uninterrupted time for child-directed play-based learning with open-ended materials

Outdoor learning spaces - finding ways to incorporate the outdoors into our day as often as possible, even in urban environments 

Inquiry-based learning - allowing student wonderings and questions to lead our learning. Educators may bring in natural objects, ask questions or share their own wonderings to spark inquiry.

How else can educators provide a positive learning environment for students without taking "all their wisdom and wildness away." 

20 Must Follow Twitter Feeds

I joined Twitter back in 2008 after attending a workshop where it was promoted as a tool for connecting with other educators. But I wasn't hooked.  I used it for a few weeks and mostly connected with a few other teachers in our board who were using it.  After a month or two, I had drifted away from twitter and didn't use it at all.

Fast forward to Spring 2016, and I decided Twitter another try.  Several colleagues had mentioned that they were finding it a useful tool for professional learning and networking.  I began to follow more educators, groups and organizations that were addressing issues that resonated with me.  And, after following others for awhile, I began posting interesting literacy and mathematics learning that I observed when I was in classrooms.

My big 'aha' moment came when I was live tweeting from the ETFO Learning Math in the Early Years conference in May 2016.  Educators from all over began retweeting and commenting on my posts.  I found myself thinking about which were the most salient 'nuggets' from each presentation to tweet?  What was a tidbit worth sharing that would spark conversation or inspire someone to try something new in their classroom?   It was a different way for me to process my learning at each session. 

This morning, I came across The Edadvocate's List of 20 Must-Follow K-12 Education Twitter Feeds.  Take a look - you might find some that pique your interest!

Then while exploring on their website, I found their List of 20 Must Follow Early Childhood Education Twitter Feeds.  I saw some familiar names, but also some new feeds to add to my list. 

I'm sure that there are lots of great people I could be following but I'm trying to keep it manageable.  How does it work for those of you who are following thousands of people?  How do you keep up with all the tweets?