Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/what-can/5027275/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
Is your program committed to learning through play? Do you play every day? Then let us ask you this: Could you play if the only materials you had to play with were chalk, pencils, crayons, paper and a chalkboard? Would you find that challenging?
It is challenging for Ghanaian kindergarten teachers too, yet they have risen to the challenge. In most classrooms, they engage in playful learning each day using only these materials or possibly a few more that they have made or acquired.
One way they play is through movement. Every large group lesson includes “energizers.” These are songs and dances that help teach the lesson, but also serve to allow children to move their bodies so they can continue to stay engaged with the learning. Children sing loudly and make large arm movements. They jump and turn. During these energizers, children’s enthusiasm for the activity is apparent. Their faces are joyful and their movements energetic. The teachers we have seen usually know just how long to keep the energizer going so the children are ready to sit down again, but not too tired to learn. In this way, a typical ...