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How do I love thee...

How Do I Love Thee : Play

      The use of play is so essential towards learning. It allows us to be creative and display our knowledge in a way that is engaging and meaningful.   Root Bernstein adds to this thought by stating, "Play returns us to the presymbolic drives of gut feeling, emotions, intuition, and fun from which creative insights stem, thereby making us inventors."  (Sparks of Genius, p. 267).  It allows us to take a concept or idea and make it our own through a creative means.

      As a classroom teacher, I feel it is essential for students to "play" with their learning.  It allows the opportunity for me assess what concepts they are grasping in their own way.  All students learn differently. Therefore, it is important to provide opportunities for students to  explore and play with the content to gain further understanding based upon their own strengths.  Auditory learners might create a song that shares the concepts that help them learn.  Kinesthetic learners would rather act out the concept or idea to share their knowledge.  It is important to provide opportunity to extend all modalities in learning by the use of play.    " Play transforms knowledge and builds understanding as we create our own worlds, personas, games, rules, toys and puzzles, and through them new sciences and arts."  Root Bernstein, Sparks of Genius, p. 268.

        My particular focus for the How do I Love Thee assignments is the elements of fantasy.  Whether it is in the classroom or at the home of many young  children, the idea of play with fantasy happens frequently.  Children love to act out and play their favorite parts from fantasy stories. Whether it is a fairy princess getting a magical dress from her fairy godmother , a knight fighting dragons, or an evil sorcerer creating potions- they are all "playing" with fantasy.  Playing with fantasy is so much fun because you have the opportunity to place yourself into the story.  Students also love the chance to experiment by creating "magical" potions for a story. Demonstrating knowledge through play is very powerful!

       My classroom had the opportunity to study the elements of fantasy this year.  As we discussed the elements of fantasy in their literature circles, they also had to come up with an idea to share their story with the class. In essence, I was asking them to play with the content so that I could assess their learning of the elements of fantasy in their literary choice.   The students were immediately excited to play with the material!  They began creating settings, and got right to work.  I had a few groups choose to create puppet shows, while another group wanted to create actual scenes in a play!  They were all engaged and focused on sharing their learning through the use of play.

In this particular example, students were sharing the elements of fantasy of the story, Georges Marvelous Medicine by Roald Dahl.  The students discuss George's magical medicine and how it impact grandma!  This opportunity to play allowed other students in class to learn about the story, as well as sharing their understanding the elements of fantasy to me.

   

    

        This next  example shares scenes that are acted out from the story, "The BFG" by Roald Dahl.  Students shared their favorite scenes from the story. I took their scenes and put them into an iMovie to share with the class.  In one of their scenes, they go on to share an element of magic in fantasy when they can blow nightmares to the giants while they are sleeping.  Another scene shares the BFG  giving Sophie a magical drink, to help her feel better from the snozzcumbers.   These scenes allow students to play with their favorite scenes in the story while also sharing the element of magic.

     

This last example is a game I created to play with the elements of fantasy.   This game uses a variety of choice (drawing, singing, acting, and sharing text) to demonstrate the elements. This game can be used in literature circles.