My workshop "Learn to Include Play in your Day"was accepted at the Kindergarten Conference 2017, aka. PK1 Conference. I was delight it to find out the my session was full! What an honor!
This is the first time that I presented at this conference. So I prepared my Powerpoint presentation but ended up transferring it into Prezi, a website for presentations.
The books here are the books that I read about "Play". Allowing our students to play is important in our Kindergarten, Preschool, First Grade classrooms, and If I was a Director at a school I will ask every teacher to include play in their day at Every Grade----hypothetically speaking because I am a teacher---not a Director nor Principal!
Why Play? One research that came from a 2016 book by Alison Gopnik "The Gardener and the Carpenter"said that Play produces a Neuro Transmitter called Cholinergic which creates plasticity in the brain. In other words, allowing children to play is creating "a flexible brain". There was also another nugget of information about when children play means that they feel safe and secure.
What is Brain Plasticity? Plasticity is what neuroscientist have discovered about having a flexible brain that can learn at any age, change, and adapt. This neuroplasticity allows our brains to do so.
Why is brain plasticity so important? It is important because it is the ability for the brain to re-wire itself. Without this ability what will happen?
We also know that when children play, they learn to self-regulate, to take turns, to negotiate with others, to exercise their intrinsic motivation, and to be patient (which seems to me that the new kids do not know what that is).
No, I do not make any money on any books that I am posting. I have read them and I have used them in my classroom. But you need to know where the information is coming from and you can read these books for yourself.
I will leave you with this quote from Plato "You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation"
Check out these other books and websites:
The National institute of Play
Play
The Block Book
Tools of the Mind
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