Play is essential to children’s development. It is even recognized as a right under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Play-based learning therefore offers significant benefits: in addition to making learning enjoyable, it helps kids develop socio-emotional skills that are necessary for healthy development. In this article, we offer tips on how to integrate guided play into your lesson plans.
There are two main types of play: guided play and free play. Guided play is characterized by structure, defined learning objectives, and teacher involvement. It is an intentional approach aimed at helping students develop specific skills. Free play, on the other hand, is spontaneous. Students get to make their own choices, and the teacher has no pre-established objectives. These two types of play can be summarized as follows:
Guided play:
Structured
Centred on specific objectives
Led by the teacher
Free play:
Spontaneous
Autonomous
Led by the students
While some activities are described as teacher-directed, as in the case of planned games, others can be described as mutually directed, meaning the teacher is involved without being in charge of the activity. In other words, both the students and the teacher have some control over the game.
There are two main, and often conflated, categories of play-based learning:
Gamification: The use of game elements in a learning context. These elements include leaderboards, point systems, badges, and scenarios.
Play-based learning: The use of games specifically designed to facilitate learning. Such games include card games that help kids practise math, as well as serious games (i.e., those created solely for educational purposes).
Guided play and free play are complementary and benefit students in different ways. However, guided play allows you to focus on specific skills, which can then be developed strategically.
Guided play is part direct instruction, part free play: it is conducted in a supervised environment and targets one or more learning objectives while still granting students a high degree of autonomy over their learning. Here are just a few of the factors that make guided play a good teaching strategy:
It stimulates creativity
It fosters self-esteem
It stimulates cognitive development and problem-solving skills
It promotes the development of language and communication skills
It strengthens social and emotional skills
It provides opportunities for students to practise negotiating and following rules
It helps students learn to self-regulate
It facilitates the consolidation of learning by making concepts concrete and meaningful
Play-based activities help students gain a positive attitude towards learning. Moreover, they constitute a valuable educational approach to developing academic skills like reading, writing, and math, to name just a few.
There are many ways to incorporate play-based learning in your lessons. Beyond organizing games with specific objectives, you can work collaboratively with your students during mutually directed activities or adapt existing games. Here are some activity ideas for you to try in the classroom:
Mathematics: There is no shortage of games that can be used to help students practise math concepts and develop their problem-solving skills (e.g., sports; games involving building blocks, cards, or dice).
The Alloprof article How Can Your Child Learn Math through Play? is chock-full of ideas that can be used in the classroom.
Alloprof also has a number of fun math games, including Allomarket, math bingo, math operations puzzles, and a hidden multiplications activity.
Language Learning : The possibilities are endless when it comes to play-based language learning. Here are a few suggestions:
Create your own word-themed bingo cards to help students learn new vocabulary while having fun. You can also try Alloprof’s printable Halloween- and Christmas-inspired bingo games.
Classic games like Hangman and Stop are also very effective for practising vocabulary.
Choose from the wide range of language board games that encourage kids to practise oral expression, learn new words, use their imagination, and apply strategic thinking: Scrabble, Mixmo, Wordz, Thématik, Concept, Le mot le plus court, etc.
Organize an in-class exquisite corpse activity. Divide the class into small groups and have them take turns composing a collective text using this template.
Science and Technology: Sometimes, there is very little that separates scientific experimentation from games. You can use this to your advantage by using games to illustrate scientific experiments and technological concepts. Here are some examples:
Use the Kahoot! Quiz games app to create quizzes that test your students’ knowledge. You can also try the card games in the app’s themed collections.
Bring in recycled materials and conduct tinkering workshops with a gamified twist. For example, challenge your students to build cars or bridges that meet certain criteria.
Devise scavenger hunts when the class goes on field trips or participates in science fairs.
Create escape games that get students to apply scientific concepts.
Social Sciences: As with the other subjects, there are many ways to teach social sciences via play-based learning. Here are some examples:
Organize a treasure hunt where students have to solve riddles based on historical facts to get to the next clue.
Create a puzzle based on the Canadian provinces or world countries.
Make up a game inspired by a real game show (e.g., Jeopardy! or Family Feud) that gets students to answer history or geography questions.
Educational online games: Alloprof has a variety of interactive online games related to math, French, reading, science, social sciences, and more.