Play Based Learning
Author:
Chelsea Troeller
Introduction
Play is an essential component of early childhood education. As pressures increase around teaching to the standards, play is disappearing from our classrooms. This course will discuss the importance of play based activities in the Early Childhood classroom. The course will also explore how these activities can be aligned to teaching standards.
Performance Objectives
General Outcomes:
Participants will be comfortable and confident in implementing play-based activities for a wide range of topics and standards in early childhood classrooms.
Performance Objectives
As a result of engaging in this mini-course,Early Childhood Educators will be able to...
- Identify and evaluate play-based activities based on given situational circumstances; describing at least 3 elements of effectiveness.
- Compare and contrast appropriate activities when given a description of a classroom audience and setting; describing how each activity would positively or negatively effect student learning.
- Plan play-based activities using a developed set of tools and strategies; justifying use of the activity by aligning to to standards, research, and other available resources .
Click on the units below to begin
Unit 1: Why is Play Important?
After completing this unit the learner will be able to:
- Explain the benefits of play for young children's learning.
- Compare the effects of different types of Early Childhood learning activities.
- Use research to defend choices in teaching strategies.
Unit 2: Effective Play-Based Learning Activities
After completing this unit the participant will be able to:
- Utilize outside sources to identify appropriate play based learning activities.
- Use established criteria to evaluate effectiveness of play based activities.
- Argue/ defend activity choices with research evidence.
Unit 3: Justifying Play Based Learning
Objectives: After completing this unit the learner will be able to:
- Read and understand different teaching standards
- Align play activities to learning standards.
- Use multiple resources to justify play based education.
