Brian to his young pal, Michael, “We’re pretendin’ we’re police. There’s a fire. We gotta get every cop we have—and we need that fire ‘stinguisher, too—the heavy-duty one! Huh, Michael?” This brief exchange reminds us that the learning is in the play. Adults create the conditions for rich play, perhaps nudge it along a bit, but then must step back to let children take charge. When children are in charge they experience the satisfying power of play and immediately see the results of their own decisions and actions. It is this sense of agency that taps the learning potential of play activity; it allows children to explore ideas—roll them around, so to speak—and to talk and listen in deeply focused ways.
Children develop passions around topics they are curious about and often pursue them in their play with intensity and duration. Henry, now 5 years old, for example, is keenly interested in all things Star Wars—an interest that has progressed from role play (with all the accoutrement) to movies and books about space and space travel, and more recently to star constellations and telescopes. Educators can tap children’s passions in topic-oriented play that can be aligned with curricular goals in science, mathematics, social studies and the arts.
4-year-old Claudia is organizing her friends to play a board game. But who will be first? Claudia has a way to decide using her own version of one potato, two potato which goes something like this while tapping her friends’ outstretched hands: hola vicka, sola nicka, boo, boo, boo; hola vicka, sola nicka, I pick you. Claudia’s bid for play with friends hints at the primary features of game play: rules, roles, challenge, and, above all, social interaction.
Several boys are huddling around a pile of sticks in the corner of the school garden. They are intently looking at one of the sticks using a magnifying glass. One of them says, “There’s spiders in there.” Another asks, “How do you know that, huh?” And the one with the magnifying glass says, “ ‘cause I can see their eyes.”
View the Magic of Play
