I am making individual bins for my kindergarteners for when they return to in-person learning! Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning. Play is critical to academic and social development in all children. It takes less repetition for a child to retain an academic skill when it is first introduced through play. Play increases problem solving skills, creative thinking, and collaboration. When looking at an academic problem through an authentic play-based lense, children are forced to think critically to solve and are more likely to retain the material. Play is serious learning for young children.
COVID social distancing regulations can make it seem impossible to maintain play-based learning in Kindergarten, despite the importance.
While I will only have half my class at a time (14 out of 27 students), that is still a large amount of students. We would like to create individual exploration bins for each child centered around purposeful play-based learning. The child would use their bin all week and then it would be sanitized and quarantined before another child would use it. To accomplish this, we need toys for our students. We have picked toys that are versatile and can fit a variety of topics and academic skills. Please help us maintain play in Kindergarten!
About my class
I am making individual bins for my kindergarteners for when they return to in-person learning! Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning, but for children, play is serious learning. Play is critical to academic and social development in all children. It takes less repetition for a child to retain an academic skill when it is first introduced through play. Play increases problem solving skills, creative thinking, and collaboration. When looking at an academic problem through an authentic play-based lense, children are forced to think critically to solve and are more likely to retain the material. Play is serious learning for young children.
COVID social distancing regulations can make it seem impossible to maintain play-based learning in Kindergarten, despite the importance.
While I will only have half my class at a time (14 out of 27 students), that is still a large amount of students. We would like to create individual exploration bins for each child centered around purposeful play-based learning. The child would use their bin all week and then it would be sanitized and quarantined before another child would use it. To accomplish this, we need toys for our students. We have picked toys that are versatile and can fit a variety of topics and academic skills. Please help us maintain play in Kindergarten!