Hi! Welcome to Teaching Through Play.
Teaching Through Play is a site to help promote play as a way to teach children.
Who am I?
I am a mother to four wonderful children ranging in ages 12 to 25. During my kids school years, I saw the absence of play in many of their classrooms especially during their early childhood years. Teachers were focused on the next test. Focused on how well their students were performing on these tests would determine how well the class performed during the end of the year testing. There was no time for play.
I am also a teacher. In my 19 years of teaching, I have taught everything from PreKindergarten to Second Grade. I have enjoyed teaching at all these grade levels, but I have to say my passion lies at the PreK and Kindergarten level. Through out my teaching career, I have seen the results that play has on learning. The more you can teach through play, the more involved the children become in their learning which in turns leads to a deeper understanding of the material being taught.
Challenges I faced.
During my teaching years, encorporating play into the lessons was not always easy.
We had a curriculum to follow. Sometimes the curriculum seemed overwhelming and there seemed to be not enough time to teach the curriculum. How was I to encorporate play when I didn’t have enough time to teach the curriculum. Through out the years, I have learned to plan purposeful activities that would help me teach the curriculm through play. They were not two different things (curriculum and play) that I had to plan. It was just taking the time to effectively plan the activties around the curriculum.
I have also had principals, that did not understand the importance of play. They believed that if a child was not sitting at their seats they were not learning. They were just playing. Well, yes. They were playing, but they were playing with a purpose. They were learning through that play. I had to make sure I could explain to the the administration how the children were learning through play.
Why Teaching Through Play?
Teaching Through Play is designed to encourage teaher to plan more play into their daily curriculum. Many teachers I have met know the importance of play in early childhood, but many of them do not have the time to effectively incorporate play into the curriculum. Teaching Through Play will help give teachers ideas and activities that will fit into their curriculum and will also give ideas and suggestions to encourporate play into their teaching.
If you ever need a hand or have any questions, feel free to leave them below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
All the best,
Janelle Allen
Teachingthroughplay.com