Last Wednesday, our entire Early Childhood participated in Global School Play Day where the children were involved in unstructured play the entire day. This day was a great success - for both students and teachers! Everyone had a great time and the teachers had the opportunity to assess in ways that in ‘normal’ school days do not present themselves. Teachers were able to see how students respond to complete self-direction. For example, Is it easy for a child to find their own activity or does he need guidance from an adult? Which children come out as natural leaders when the teacher is not calling on them? Are the children familiar with traditional games? Do they share appropriately for their age level? These questions, and so much more, was easily observed on this day. Plus - the children had great fun! We gave them the opportunity truly be children and show us their interests and readiness levels. I think we all - students & teachers - came away from this day revived and feeling very happy!
This week the elementary school celebrated Global School Play Day for the first time. We experienced it all this past Wednesday, as our kids played for hours straight in a supervised yet unstructured environment. From Twister, Monopoly, Legos, and other games, to epic soccer matches, cardboard sledding, and even a haircut (my own son) the kids did it all.
The importance of this day is really not just to take a day off from our academic work and play, but to provide the students with an unstructured opportunity to interact with each other and use their imaginations to keep them busy, as well as learn how to work collaboratively and even solve conflicts. It was amazing to see our students work through boredom by themselves and find things to not only keep them busy but finding new things to do that they enjoy. Some students who were playing soccer for hours, then grew
