The Play Based Learning Principal

 One of my favourite provocations is to add different objects into the learning environment. For Cross Country this year, we bought bales of hay.  We used them as part of the race to jump over.   We left them in the playground.  To start with the children jumped over them.  This lasted for days until slowly the hay bales fell apart. Then it was the great joy of using the hay to throw at each other and build houses.  Then it was breaking the structures they built, gathering up the hay and redistributing it.  We are now into week 2 of the joy of hay.  The Hay has now been moved to other areas of the playground.   Yesterday, it was moved between two huts at the far end of the playground. It transitioned into a commodity worthy of stealing.    The hay has many travel hours and has morphed into multiple uses.   The learning is rich and the play is all in.  The energy levels displayed in rich play are astonishing....

Why do we bother?  It is far easier for a teacher to stand at the front of a class and teach everyone the same lesson.  Many countries overseas do this, you might remember this from your schooling or from TV programmes. However, this doesn’t happen in NZ.  Teachers are experts at differentiating, giving all children the right opportunities and access at  just the right level and right type of learning. They are also great at building trusting learning relationships so our students believe and show confidence that they are capable learners.  In most NZ classes teachers are covering between 2 to 3 curriculum levels, sometimes more.  In their book, Putting Students First, Jones, Avery, and DiMartino (2020) note that “Students taking ownership of and responsibility for their own learning is nearly universally accepted as a desirable and positive trait. When students have a say in what and how they engage with content, learning deepens and carries over into new...

  The Sound of Joy Like most of you, I have enjoyed watching the Olympics.  My favourite moments come after the athletes win a medal.  The look on their faces. The expression of joy, it makes my face smile.  The sound of joy is loud and expressive.   I remember times of joy in my own life.  The moment after a child was born.  Winning a competition.  It is like senses are on alert and I can remember the place, the smell, I can think of the feeling, the amazement, the total experience.   I remember the time, when I experienced joy in teaching.   I was new to using play in learning.  It was an overcast day.  The 5 and 6 year olds were feeling trapped inside.  I opened the doors and for the first time I introduced bubbles. They went outside on the covered veranda.  Overcast days are great for bubble blowing.  To this day, I remember the expressions of joy on their faces. I remember the sound of joy, th...