Teaching A Play Based Curriculum

Recently, Emily over at thenaturalplayground, posted under the title: Is Free Play "Teaching?" I spent quite a lot of time thinking about the question even before reading the piece, which is excellent, to the point, and well worth a read:

The only response I can give is that the children learn for themselves. I am there to help them discover. I cannot tell them what they should be learning.

Anyone who has read here for long, can imagine how loudly I'm applauding her. I might even be the annoying guy who's whistling through his teeth!

As Emily points out, a play based curriculum challenges the conventional knowledge about what teaching is. As I thought about the question in the title before reading her post, hoping her answer was going to be what it was, I began to think about what it actually is that I do in my role as a play based teacher. It occurs to me that we might all answer that question differently. I thought I'd share with you how I see it, at least this morning, sitting here on the second day of my spring break.

Every day, I strive to make sure we have some way for kids to build stuff. Usually that means some sort of blocks. I also want there to be a sensory exploration going on, an art project, a couple fine motor activities, something over which to puzzle, and at least a few conversation starters. I try to make sure there's a place to learn with one's whole body, a way to get messy, and plenty of prompts for sentences that begin with the words, "Let's play a story. . ."

I strive each day to set up an environment offering opportunity, challenge, and questions, one that is both a continuation of the day before, while also offering plenty that is new. 

Some days I think of myself as a kind of artist as I arrive at school each morning, starting out with a used canvas, one that no matter how well I prime it will always show shadows of what's been painted on it before, so I use those shadows as a way to create something new, or more accurately, something very old to which I hope the children will be drawn. 

Sometimes I'm a shopkeeper, pulling certain merchandise to the front of the shelves, creating displays to catch my customers' eyes, marking things down that are taking up too much space in the storeroom. 

Sometimes I'm a mad scientist, throwing things together that don't belong together, clashing things that surprise and disorient, and make children ask, "Why is this here?" I make an hypothesis about what might happen here or there, with this or that, then prepare myself for those eventualities, but without wedding myself to them, because I know there's always the risk, if I'm not careful, that I will try to force my guesses onto the children, preventing the experiment from teaching the children what they seek to know.

Sometimes I'm a games master, sometimes I'm an interior decorator, sometimes I'm a child myself creating a certain type of wonderland.

This is the work of a teacher in a play-based curriculum, at least as I do it. Sometimes it's a joy, sometimes it's a pain in the neck. 

Once the children arrive it's up to them to play in the environment I've created; to get themselves educated. As for me, I try to play with them, to get into their flow. If I've done it right, the set up has created a "safe enough" environment, one with natural boundaries, but plenty of opportunities to fail. As the older, wiser playmate, it's my role then to help these younger children, not to direct them, but to help them do what they are trying to do or go where they're trying to go. I might share my ideas and observations, but they are like any other "loose part" that is strewn about our outdoor classroom, something to be picked up and used or not.

One thing I don't do is decide what the children will learn on this or any day. That's not the job of a teacher in a play-based curriculum, that's the job of the children. My job is to create an environment, then play with them in it, helping them, but only when they really need it.

How do you define teaching in a play based curriculum? I'll bet there are as many answers as there are teachers.

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