Learn by Doing - Suggestions for Play

(continued from "Good Times at Play")

LEARN BY DOING

Here are some activity suggestions so that you will learn more about play and children. Be creative in choosing your activities.

1. Observe children at play every chance you get. Don't participate, but watch little things, like their eyes. Listen to words, tone, and speed of their talk. Write down what you observe. Record the time and describe the place.

2. Interview parents of a child you know. Call the parents to set a time for the interview. Prepare your questions about the child's play habits.

3. Participate in play activities with one child.

· Take the child for a ride in a wagon. · Demonstrate a musical instrument. · Go to a playground. · Play a pretend game - have a tea party, play store, make a train, go on a trip, or play school. · Make something fun to eat, like cookies. · Pound nails in a board. Older children can make string designs around the nails. · Build with blocks. · Take a listening walk. · Teach a finger play to a preschooler. · Read a story. · Play jacks or jump rope.

4. Participate in play activities with a group of children. · Lead a group in a game - farmer in the dell, red rover. · Have a spelling contest. · Make up a story, then act it out with puppets. · Plan and carry out a field day with races and contests or a children's backyard Olympics. · Organize a pet show or a neighborhood circus.

5. Create a file of play activities for different aged children. Review it before you baby-sit or interact.

6. Make a display that shows: · materials that are useful for pretend and dress-up play, · books that a certain age child would enjoy, · how three different aged children hold a crayon and examples of their creativity, and · ten objects (not toys) found around the house that a child could play with safely.

7. Prepare a poster showing: · how to make play safe, · how to make and store playdough, · three play things for an infant (explain why they would be good choices), · why children need to play (use pictures and drawings), and · how children's social play changes as they grow (use pictures).

8. Create a play activity or material for a child. · make a puzzle; · create a musical instrument, like a coffee can drum, or a reed whistle; · make some play dough; and · make a puppet.

9. Describe in writing how a child stacks blocks.

10. Fill in the chart in this section to show how growth depends on play.

11. Prepare a craft box for older children. This box of collage materials is welcome when children are bored. Put a pair of blunt scissors into a large box. Add a bottle of glue and a package of construction paper to use as the background for the collages. Take a tour around the house and collect things from each room. Toss in a few cotton balls, cotton swabs, and empty toilet paper rolls from the bathroom. Add toothpicks, empty paper towel rolls, small empty packages (raisins, pasta, spices), paper napkins, dried beans and pasta, and empty can labels from the kitchen. Look in closets and drawers in the bedrooms, and gather discarded costume jewelry and pieces of shirt cardboard. Look in the living room for old magazines, catalogs, fabric scraps, beads, ribbon, and yarn. You may find old used envelopes, labels, last year's Christmas cards, old postcards, index cards, and scrap paper in the den. You should have enough supplies to last a few rainy days. Keep the box well stocked - when you start to throw something away, throw it instead into the craft box.

12. Provide age-appropriate play materials and toys (see Growth and Play Chart)

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Lagoni, L. S., Martin, D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G., Bigner, J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times at play. In *Good times with child care* (pp. 174-192). Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.