WF, 7/9/2019 | Wee Friends Early Childhood Program LLC

Good Afternoon!

Meaningful play: What does this look like?

It could start off by a simple question: “Hey Anna, do you want to play family with me?”

It could also involve a child playing by themselves, building an extensive and detailed trio block creation.

It may involve six peers, working together towards a common goal. For example, using wooden blocks to make a castle. This situation usually offers great conversation skills!

These are scenarios that we see every day. Since our environment is a multi-age environment, children often play with peers that are older or younger than they are. The environment can get a little loud at time (a productive loud majority of the time!) but these are times where children make the choice to go do a quiet activity alone. This shows great awareness on the part of the child, knowing they need to disengage from the loudness but yet engage in an activity where they can quietly focus.

Our classroom is made up of three to six year old’s which entails different play levels (parallel and cooperative for example). The level of play for a three year old looks much different than a six year old BUT because these children have the opportunity to play together, the six year old has the chance to showcase what a quality play experience looks like. For example, if there are issues that arise during this play experience, the six year old friend can make sure that they talk through their problems using descriptive language instead of using hands or being physical to solve the problem.

We are lucky enough to see children’s level of play continue to grow day by day, month by month! Red heart