Jill Bean's blog

As a result of my exploration into the importance of play in the lives of people of all ages, I have instituted a 30 minute free play time in my classroom each morning.  The children enjoy building with blocks, reading books, drawing, making their own books, creating things out of recycled objects, working with the math manipulatives, using Legos and K-Nexs, and playing board games.  So far I have left this time completely open to their own interests.  As we move into more thematic learning, I will make more things and activities related to our themes available during this free play time. 

Jill M. Bean

Lansdowne Friends School

110 N. Lansdowne Ave.

Lansdowne, PA 19050

 

I googled "kindergarten daily schedule".  Here is a summary of the amount of free play time in the first ten full day schedule results.  Note that while all the schedules had some recess time, the majority of the results have no in class free play time.  Full schedules are shown below.

 

Play as an Emergent System PLAY ... "is not purely entertainment or a luxury to be given up when things get serious ...playfulness is ... not only to be enjoyed but to be accorded high value for its fundamental role in the success of all organisms, including humans." - Paul Grobstein, Serendip's Playground

What is Play?  Play as an emergent process.  The role of play in the development of self-regulation.

Should teachers examine play as a model for instruction? 

 

"A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure.  I don't want to be at the mercy of my emtoins.  I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them." - Oscar Wilde

"Courage consists in the power of self-recovery."  - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Rember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more diffictul still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment."  - Benjamin Franklin

"I know quite certainly that I myself have no special talent; curiosity, obsession and dogged endurance, combined with self-criticism, have brought me to my ideas." - Albert Einstein

 

 

http://www.umext.maine.edu/onlinepubs/htmpubs/4356.htm

http://www.project2061.org/publications/earlychild/online/perspect/johnson.htm

 

NPR article on the importance of self-regulation and how "old-fashioned play" helps develop self-regulation: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19212514&sourceCode=RSS

 

What is executive function? 

I am thinking about a variety of possible topics for my summer projects. 

Possible things to explore within the context of the brain and bahavior:

• delayed gratification
• persistense
• motivation - intrinsic and extrinisic
• development of executive function in early childhood
• learned helplessness

I teach Kindergarten at Lansdowne Friends School.  I have experience working with kids from 3 years old to entering ninth grade, have mostly concentrated on the younger grades (K-2).  I am passionate about teaching and am highly invested in my students and their development.  I developed this blog as part of the Brain and Behavior 2009 Summer Institute and the Inquiry Institute 2009.