Encouraging Independent Play in the Classroom ~ Ep. 72

Episode Summary

In this episode, I discuss the significance of fostering independent play in kindergarten classrooms, sharing strategies for a play-based learning environment. I differentiate between various play types—independent, purposeful, and child-led—and explain how each supports child development. I highlight the value of balance between independent and cooperative play. Actionable strategies are provided for teachers to enhance student independence, and I encourage teachers to reflect on your approach to social interactions versus independent experiences. 

In this episode I share:

• Types of Play in the Classroom
• The Importance of Child-Led Play
• Balancing Guidance and Independence
• Stages of Play and Their Importance
• Encouraging Independent and Cooperative Play

Related Episodes:

• 5 Creative Winter Play Ideas for Your Classroom ~ Ep. 63
• Balancing Curriculum and Play in Your Kindergarten Schedule ~ Ep. 48
• Child-Led Play and Learning with Melysa from PRE-K Spot Talks ~ Ep. 27
• The Power of Dramatic Play in the Classroom ~ Ep. 23

Learn More:

• Workshop: Play-Based Learning in Kindergarten
• Top Five Play Based Learning Must Haves
• Why is dramatic play important?
• Starting Purposeful Play in Kindergarten? Outstanding!
• Setting Up Classroom Play Areas

Connect with Zeba:

• Instagram – @kindergartencafe
• Facebook – @kindergartencafe
• Website – www.kindergartencafe.org
• Tik Tok – @kindergartencafe

Read the Transcript

[0:00] Hey teacher friends, it’s Zeba from Kindergarten Cafe, and today we are talking about encouraging independent play in the classroom. So I hope you enjoyed our mini-series on math, and we are changing gears a little bit now. And so we’ve got a bunch of topics that you have requested, that you’ve had interest in. So today is all about independent play. So let’s dive in.

[0:27] Music. You’re listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast, where kindergarten teachers come to learn classroom-tested tips and tricks and teaching ideas they can use in their classroom right away. I’m Zeba, creator and founder of Kindergarten Cafe, and I help kindergarten teachers with everything they need from arrival to dismissal in order to save time, work smarter, not harder, and support students with engaging and purposeful lessons. I’m here to cheer you on through your successes and breakthroughs and offer support and resources so you never have to feel stuck or alone. Ready to start saving time and reducing your stress all while using effective and purposeful lessons that students love? Let’s get started.

[1:10] Music. Before we talk about specifically independent play, I want to talk about the different types of play there are in the classroom. We will see all these different types of play. They all have value, but they’re all different. The first is there’s independent play, there’s purposeful play, there’s child-led play, there’s open-ended play, and there’s playful learning. I’ve talked a lot already about the difference between playful learning and purposeful play. When I talk about playful learning. I’m talking about teachers making their learning developmentally appropriate for young children, which is great, and making their learning playful through games, gamifying their instruction, letting kids play with math centers and phonics centers, like doing, you know, sight words with Play-Doh, like all that stuff. That’s all playful learning. That’s all good instruction for young children. But it’s a different type of play than purposeful play. And when I talk about purposeful play, I’m talking more about free play, child-led play, open-ended play, independent play, guided play. They all sort of fall under that category.

[2:37] Purposeful play, in my mind, when I think about it, I think about the different play areas where the child can decide which play area to go to. They can sort of decide what to do when they get there. But it could be guided where the teacher has set something up on the table so the teacher has been purposeful about what materials to put out. It could be guided in that you know if the play area has a limit of number of students and it’s full so then they have to go somewhere else it could be guided in that way but generally speaking it’s child-led where they decide where to go and once they’re there they decide what to do with the materials with the center and so that can be really powerful in young children learning, There’s a ton of research on the benefits of learning through play. And when I talk about learning through play, I’m talking about that purposeful play, not the playful learning. Learning by playing with blocks and sand table, dramatic play, that kind of stuff. When we talk about free play, it’s even more hands-off from the teacher.

[3:45] So the teacher probably doesn’t put out materials. Maybe they’ve set up play areas, but the kids decide what they want to take out to those tables or those areas, they decide totally what to do with it. And in my class, I really have a mix of more guided play and free play. So sometimes I’m putting up materials, but oftentimes I’m just letting kids take out their own materials that they want to play with. Although in dramatic play, I definitely have that more set up. Sand table, I have that more set up. But for like the table areas or the block area, I let the kids just pick out what they want to play with. And I think that that really has an important value in the classroom, that we shouldn’t always be deciding what materials to take out or what kids should be playing with or shouldn’t be playing with for that day. We don’t want to have too much control over their play because they get so much more out of it when they’re the ones directing what happens.

[4:41] And kids need that time to make their own decisions, to make their own play plan. When their lives are so scripted, they don’t know what to do with themselves when they have this open-ended time where they’re deciding what to do or what to play with. It’s a really important lesson for them on how to fill that time, how to make a plan, how to negotiate with your peers, how to compromise, how to pick out the materials that you need to fulfill your plan, how to be creative, how to like there’s so many benefits to letting taking your hands off a little bit taking off some of that control and letting them guide the play even more but of course you’re there you’re watching you’re observing you’re supporting but by taking this sort of step back approach a little bit and of course throughout the year you can step back even more even more even more i mean at the beginning of the year i’m putting all the materials out let’s be clear and then as we get on through the year, I start putting out less materials and less and watching and seeing what they start taking out.

[5:46] Now, if they start taking out the same thing over and over again, and over and over and over again, I want to kind of change it up a bit. I want to maybe inspire them in a different way, or I want them to explore materials in a different way, then I would put out some materials together that maybe they hadn’t thought of, or they hadn’t seen in a while, or they didn’t know were there. And that’s my way of inspiring, encouraging them. But I watch, I observe. I don’t direct. I don’t tell kids you have to go try this out. I don’t tell kids they have to play in this way. I’ll put up materials and watch and see what happens. And the more that we step back, the more that we take our hands off, the more that kids get those benefits of, like I said before, all the planning and decision-making and compromising and creativity, all that stuff.

[6:34] But it’s not easy. I’ve had people, teachers, I have had other teachers make comments to me about how, oh, it’s so nice that you can just sit back. Or like, oh, wow, the kids, you know, like I literally had a teacher say to me, oh, the kids love it when you sit with them. It was like a dig that I wasn’t sitting with them while they were playing. But I have a ton of reasons for why I’m not sitting with them in that moment, actually. I want to teach them to be independent players. For the longest time, I was watching them, and they didn’t know how to make their own play choices. They didn’t know how to play with others, and I’d been teaching them over time, and I know the importance of having them make their own independent play choice and negotiate their own problems with peers, and I’m watching the entire time. I’m not just sitting back I’m observing that’s what the teacher does observe the play and then decide well are there materials that I should bring out that maybe they haven’t seen or do I jump in and negotiate help negotiate in this problem that they’re trying to solve it’s constant balance of do I jump in, and help? Or do I sit back and let them problem solve? And so much as teachers, we’re well-meaning, we want to help them, that’s why we’re in teaching, but we might help too much. We don’t give them a chance for that productive struggle, for that chance to problem solve.

[8:04] That’s a huge benefit of the independent play. It’s a huge benefit of giving them a chance to solve it themselves and watch from a distance. So I think if you take away anything from this podcast, it’s think about ways that you can take your hands off a little bit more. Think about ways that you can let the kids direct the play more.

[8:27] Straight up ask them, are there materials you wish we had? Are there materials that you wish we took out more? Are there play areas that you wish we changed up? Or ask them through observation. Notice which play areas aren’t being used. Notice which materials aren’t being used. Put it out in an inviting way. Put it out with a different material than they wouldn’t have expected. Like combining small blocks and small math counters that they wouldn’t have expected and then end up making a whole little small world with. Who knows? Like just putting out things that the kids haven’t seen before can instantly inspire them in new ways and watch them and see what they do with it. It’s really cool. So yeah, see where you can take your hands off a little bit. Let go of some of the control because there’s so much power in giving that control over to the kids. And actually, when you let go of the control, it actually shows that you have greater classroom management. If you’re able to give over some of that control to the kids, it means that you’ve built the routines and expectations with them where they know what’s expected. They know where they can and can’t go with this. And it’s a testament to you when you’re able to let go of some of that control.

[9:42] There’s one more part about this independent play topic that I want to make sure we talk about. Because there’s not just the types of play in the classroom, there’s also the different types of play for the child. So what I mean by that is there’s independent play and there’s cooperative play. There’s parallel play. Maybe you’ve heard of those things. They’re kind of the stages of play.

[10:03] And when we are taught about the stages of play, cooperative play is like the highest level. Parallel play means they’re playing side by side. That’s like a progressing level. Like they’re not quite there yet to play with other kids. And then there’s independent play or, you know, I’m actually blanking on what they call it. But the point is the child is playing alone. And that’s seen as like the lowest level of play, quote unquote. I want to push back on that a little bit. Yes, the ultimate goal is to get kids to play together, because they learn so much that social negotiation and everything.

[10:37] I also think there’s benefit in kids playing by themselves. And we want to think carefully about how much we push kids and how often we push kids to play with other kids. For some kids, playing with others is really hard work. It does not come easy. And so for those kids, I would push them to play with others, but I also would give plenty of time for them to play by themselves. Because that’s actually a strength to be able to play by yourself, to be able to be creative enough to fill this block of unstructured time with only your imagination and your own idea of play. I mean, how many of us could entertain ourselves just sitting in a room without our phones or our computers or our TVs? Like, what would we do? I don’t know. I would go crazy. I need to be doing something at all times, right? But some of these kids can sit at a table and entertain themselves for hours by themselves. That’s pretty amazing, especially at a time when kids are so reliant on technology or structured activities, teacher directed activities. Like that’s pretty amazing that they can sit and play by themselves.

[11:48] And I do see that as a strength and I think we should honor that. And I think that we should also encourage them at times, not every time, to play with others. And the kids that are always playing with others, if the other kids don’t want to play what they want to play, I want my kids to learn that it’s okay for you to say, well, I really do want to play this, even if you don’t, so I’m going to go do it.

[12:10] And not just be a follower of like, oh, the group wants to play this, so I have to do that. No, if you really want to play blocks and your friends want to play dolls, Let them play dolls and you play blocks. That’s fine. I don’t necessarily know that I have like tips in this episode, but I have a ton of points I want you to think about. I want you to think about how much control you have over the kids playtime. I want you to think about how much are you pushing kids to play with others versus letting them play by themselves. Just thinking about those balances that we are constantly doing as teachers of how much to push, how much to pull back, how much to direct, how much to let be open-ended. I mean, we’re constantly making these decisions, and I think, bottom line, as long as you have a purpose behind what you’re doing.

[12:56] Reason behind it, based on observations of the kids, you can’t go wrong. You can’t. As teachers, we can try things, and if they work, great, and if they don’t, we try it a different way. That’s what I love about teaching. It’s like one giant experiment. So I’d love to hear what you think about all of this, I would love to hear from you. Send me a message on Instagram at Kindergarten Cafe or respond to an email. Write me an email, thekindergartencafe at gmail.com, and let me know what you think. I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on independent play in the classroom. And our quote of the day, I can just imagine this voice saying this in dramatic play, I want to be a king because kings have swords. It’s very solid reasoning. So I hope you enjoyed this episode and we’ll consider leaving a review or sharing with a friend and we’ll see you in the next episode. We are talking about positive reinforcement in kindergarten. That is a big topic a lot of you want to hear about. So stay tuned for next week’s episode.

[13:56] Music.

[14:02] Thanks so much for listening to the Kindergarten Cafe podcast. Be sure to check out the show notes for more information and resources, or just head straight to kindergartencafe.org for all the goodies. If you’ve liked this episode, the best ways to show your support are to subscribe, leave a review, or send it to a friend. I’ll be back next week with even more kindergarten tips. See you then.