Tylia Bank

Professor Amber Ward

ART 133 Section 05
October 22, 2015
Unit Paper 4: Play
A childs imagination can be displayed through play. When play is child driven, children
practice decision-making skills, move at their own pace, discover their own areas of interest, and
ultimately engage fully in the passions they wish to pursue in life and in art. Childrens playful
investigationsopen new art ideas, ways of creating, practicing design, finding new art tools,
and setting a foundation for imaginatively exploring things around them (Szekely, 2011, p. 64)
During the modified studio in class, you can see peoples ideas spark. No one knew actually what
they wanted to create because there was no structure or direction. But when their hands touched
an art tool they begin to play, experiment, and create pieces that they were not ashamed of. Play
offers a relief from structure and perfection, and encourage adventurous trial and error that
promotes comfort with ambiguity (Ward, 2015).
I know that now and days students are given less time for free play in a classroom
settings. In my classroom, I want my students to have every opportunity to excel and that
includes letting them play and participate in a wide variety of activities. I like the idea of the
students creating self-fruit portraits. This activity would incorporate visual humor and give the
students element options such as transformation, exaggeration, disguise, appropriation, or all the
above.
Reference
Szekely, G. (2011). Testing the World Through Play and Art. In D. B. Jaquith & N. E. Hathaway
(Eds.), The Learner Directed Classroom: Developing Creative Thinking Skills Through
Art (pp. 64-76). New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Ward, A. (2015). Unit 4: Play. 21st Century Art Ed Approaches: Choice-Based and LearnerDirected. [PowerPoint]