Integrating Play in the Classroom

Remember in 3rd grade when you would come back from recess with a bright big smile on your face, talking with friends, making plans for the next recess, and feeling, well, happy? Why do we allow children to play and have fun so much during these years of their life, but then take it away the day they enter high school?

These years are crucial to the development of these young minds and yet we force them to sit in rows, act like robots, and work all day long. Some teachers like to bring in games like Kahoot and Jeopardy to make days lighter and more fun, but everything is still rooted in academia. What is so bad about letting students just have fun? No numbers, no vocab words to remember, no extra credit if you win, just regular, 3rd grade play like fun.

I sat down with Dr. Jodi Bornstein, a Professor at Arcadia University, to talk more about how she uses play in her classroom and what she thinks the value of this play is. In our conversation, I learned that we had a lot of similar thoughts for this process. I also sat down with a 12 grade student in one of my classes I have been student teaching. In our class, though online, we play games before we start learning on Monday mornings. He brings in a unique perspective that I value highly.

When students come to school, they bring with them a half of their brain, sometimes more, full of other information that is not learning related. Students are first and foremost, kids. And kids crave connection. They crave social interaction, fun, and joy just the same way that small children do. Play allows for this connection to be built in ways that lets academia take a backseat. In a study conducted by Tori Flint with 1st graders on the benefits of play in the classroom, they found that learning improved significantly when play was integrated into teaching. Students felt more comfortable with each other, happier, and made better connections. If we know all of this to be so helpful for younger students, why do we stop once they get to high school? If anything, our brains crave fun more at older ages since we are often not allowed to simply relax. Bringing in games is psychologically proven to help students do better in the classroom.

The Journal of Childhood Literacy defines play as, "a voluntary and pleasurable experience that incorporates imagined and creative play with others." I like to think of play as time in class when we are allowed to come together and just take a breather. Play in my classroom looks like Pictionary, improv games, heads up/seven up, scattergories, dance parties, and so much more. It is about students taking a break and working together.

Dr. Bornstein says, "Schools are very hierarchical. Shared goals of games bring people together. Maybe it opens the readiness to imagine that we don't have to be in competition with each other." We have systems in place that rate students constantly. They are in competition with each other for GPA's, for test scores, for a spot in the honors class, for a spot in the college they want to go to. We spend so much time ranking students that it becomes exhausting to them. Bringing people together to play a game that requires all students to work together at one goal fosters a connection that creates a pathway for kids to feel that they are all working together at one thing: learning. We are all learning together and this is a collaborative process.

You might be thinking, there is no way I am going to play an improv game with 12th graders three days before they have a big exam. I challenge you to ask yourself why. What is wrong with taking 10 minutes out of your class to foster positivity in your classroom? When I sat down with a boy in my class and asked him how he felt about us playing Pictionary before we took a big quiz, he said, "I liked it. It made me not think so much about the test for a few minutes. I have been thinking about it all weekend, and it made my head hurt. I like when we get time to just be funny because then when the test comes, I don't feel as bad about taking it." After this game, he ended up doing considerably better on this quiz than he has on others we did not play games before. Granted, these are not miracles. He did say that he studied more beforehand and we went over the information more than we did in previous classes. But, it is not all just about achievement. It is also about mental wellness. If I know that one student felt better before going into a quiz, that is what matters to me.

Dr. Bornstein says, "The history brain doesn't just show up at 8:20am because we have artificially created 8:20am as history time." I think we underestimate this all too often. Students are whole people, who want to do well in school, but also people who have feelings, emotions, and ideas that often get suppressed when they walk into the classroom. If we begin to treat these emotions as valid and invest more time into these portions of our students, they will ultimately do better in the classroom.

Think about the first 10 minutes of every class. Students are loud, talking, not focused, or just preoccupied with something else. Not much gets done in those first 10 minutes. What if instead of struggling to get students to finish a "do now" or get ready, we just played a game? Allowing students to warm up for the day with something fun has so many more benefits than we realize. Building community has to be intentional and this is a really great way to foster it.

It also allows for kids to relax. Schools are stressful. Dr. Bornstein poses the question, "What would it be like for kids to think that where they are going to go each day would be fun?" Students spend 8 hours a day, 5 days a week in school. There is a lot expected of them at all times. 10 minutes of freedom is something that is so simple yet so beneficial. I challenge you to take just 10 minutes out of your week with your students to have fun and see what that gets you. I know we are often put in boxes with our creativity due to test scores, curriculum, and principals with no imagination, but as Cornelius Minor says in his book We Got This, "You can disrupt the status quo in your class." You can take risks, you just have to know when to take them.

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Through play, we can build a foundation of community that allows students to feel both connected to each other and connected to their teacher. When I was in high school, if I saw my teacher at a grocery store, my first thought was *in a Steve Irwin voice* “Wow look at it in the wild!!”

Play allows for students to see their teachers in a different light. It allows for a form of vulnerability that you often don't see in classrooms. As educators, it might be difficult to bring this other self to the stage when teaching, but I feel that it is the only way we can build the connections with our students that we want. Bringing in this vulnerability allows for students to feel safe which then opens up pathways to deeper learning. We want our students to be able to come to us when they are stressed and ask for help when they need it. But no student is going to come to someone they think is perfect to ask a question. Showing your students that you are also learning and making mistakes show that you are:

We all know that learning includes mistakes. But mistakes are hard. Students don't want to get things wrong and feel discouraged. Creating this vulnerability allows a sense of comfort when working with their teacher. They know that they are supported by this other person because that person makes mistakes too. We are all learning together. Professor Bornstein says that often we think of the "teacher as knower, student as learner" and that this creates a dynamic that does not allow for growth. Everyone is growing, so “when teachers are also having fun, it shows that they are also a real person" who makes the same mistakes as the student does, thus creating a dynamic that fosters creativity, growth, and joy.

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Play in your classroom can look like a lot of things. And it is a risk you have to take. Being vulnerable with children is not something everyone can do. But taking risks is how we make change in our classroom. Risks allow for students to grow into the learners we want them to be.

Integrating play into our learning is the first step to creating the classroom where students will thrive.