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 spontaneous play 
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I was just browsing CNN and I found a very interesting article that emphasises the importance of spontaneous play for children and the effects that it has and that the lack of it has. I know this is random, but from a teacher prospective I found it very intriquing.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parentin ... index.html

"Numerous studies have shown that unstructured play has many benefits. It can help children become creative, discover their own passions, develop problem-solving skills, relate to others and adjust to school settings, the academy report says."

I think this is an area that we tend to forget about because of the demand for acheiving greatness and staying busy. When I was home a few weeks ago I visited my mom who was subbing for a kindergarten class. I got there for recess and was sad to learn that the school had made many restrictions for the students during recess because of parent complaints that it was too unstructured. Isn't that the point? I can understand for safety issues, but I mean thats not enough reason to demand structure to play time for 5 year olds. Where is the room for creativity and imagination that is so vital? What do you guys think of this and how can we encourage play in our overly structured and demanding classrooms?

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Torrey Hanna


Tue Oct 10, 2006 8:51 am
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Interesting.

This reminds me of coloring books and drawing inside the lines. When I was a kid, everyone drew inside the lines ... and I even remember comparing who never crossed the line. Kids who drew all over the coloring book weren't "good" or it was "wrong". This sounds like a minor observation but my friend brought it up one day while we were looking at coloring books. Dancing Moon on King Street has coloring books without lines and unfinished lines that sound similar to the spontaneous, random, and "creative" aspects of this article.

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Justin Pittman


Tue Oct 10, 2006 12:01 pm
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We have discussed this in my How Children Move class. Our teacher gave us a list of the "hall of shame" for children’s games. The games on the list were games that I can remember children having a great time with. All of these games were games I loved as a young child. However, now they are considered inappropriate for different reasons. Sometimes I think it is good for the children to play the games as a class; however, I don’t think they should really have to “teachâ€

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Stephanie Nichole Gardner


Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:11 pm
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This is a great point to make Torrey! I love working in a summer camp mostly because I have the freedom to play whatever games that I choose with the kids. However, no matter how much I push a group game, my 5 and 6 year olds want to have free-play. They can entertain themselves for hours on end with no toys. That's something that I always find amazing, because you actually get to see their imaginations at work. (Sometimes if I'm lucky I even get to experience it myself). At that age I think it's vital for kids to have play time like that, because they're still learning about themselves and the world around them, and what better way to do that than to just get out there and experience it first hand. I would hate to see our schools systems fall into a curriculum that didn't allow children to express themselves in this way.

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Jessica Beckworth


Wed Oct 11, 2006 1:36 pm
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What Jessica said about working at summer camp and enjoying watching the children in free-play made me think of a summer camp I worked at a few years ago. The first year I worked there the kids had plenty of time for free play and there were very few behavior problems, but the second year I worked there they began adding more structure to the camp. They had certain activities that the kids had to do at certain times and there were science projects and things that the kids had to do. The camp started to resemble summer school more than summer camp and kids were punished for not participating in the activities. There were more and more dicipline problems and kids stopped listening to the counselors. I don;t really know what I'm getting at with all this....i guess it just made me realize how important free play really is and that kids (at least in this camp) are more likely to behave properly and follow directions when there isn't an organized activity going on.

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Meghan Gaffney


Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:14 pm
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You know that every kid in today's world of structured lessons, structured little leagues, structured piano lessons, structured parent swap weekends is screaming GOD PLEASE LET ME HAVE 5 MINUTES WHERE I DON'T HAVE TO DO ANYTHING FROM A LIST OR ITINERARY! I am pretty sure they say that because I know that we as adults do alllllll the time.

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Jennifer Doll Gray


Sun Oct 15, 2006 2:02 pm
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I definately agree that children need time for spontaneous play. I really wish I still had a textbook from one of my theatre ed classes because it had detailed descriptions of the development of different age levels, and in the younger levels, spontaneous play was a key factor in development. Without the room to experiment with creativity, children are missing out on a vital process in their own developmental cycle. It really isn't fair that kids today have lives that are structured 24/7.

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Mandy Phillips


Sun Oct 15, 2006 4:19 pm
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