ASSIGNMENT

SEPTEMBER 2022 SEMESTER 6

SUBJECT CODE : ECC 411

SUBJECT TITLE : CHILDREN’S PLAY

LEVEL : BACHELOR OF EDUCATION

STUDENT’S NAME : BERNARDINE PHYLLIS ANAK PHILL FRANES

MATRIC NO. : E30401210008

ACADEMIC FACILITATOR : NOOR AKHMARISHA SAARI

LEARNING CENTRE : FULLY ONLINE

PART A:

Constructive Play

What is constructive play? Construction play is all about building or constructing,

shaping and manipulating things to create something new. In the other words, constructive
play is creating and building activity using different types of materials. It involves many
skills such as sorting, stacking, putting together and more in order to help the children
development. According to Piaget, the children already had been through a stage of what is
called functional play before they are ready to construct. This means that the children already
knew and understood the materials; its sizes, shapes, feels and more. Functional play actually
prepares them before they begin to construct something.

Typically, constructive play starts around the age of two and their movements are
more purposeful. They move and explore the materials to create something. Nowhere is this
transition more evident than during the stages of block play, from simply knowing how a
block feels to building a basic tower. Construction play is a form of hands- on activity where
the children explore things by themselves and they gather information, experiment and
questions while engaging in constructive play. For example, the children play with open-
ended materials such as play-dough, sand and water and they using their own creativity and
imagination to build something new like sandcastle or build a city.

Constructive play is very important for the children and it offers an unlimited world of
opportunities for exploration and discovery. The children experience using different materials
and put things together actually they are trying new ideas, solve the problems and stretch
their imaginations. It is also encourages the children to be children and enable them to
explore their own ideas and connect them to the world around them. Construction play
actually requires the children to use both of fine and gross motor skills to build something.
Strengthening these motor skills help their physical development into better shape and
manage to control their environment thereby empowering themselves. Construction play also
help their social-emotional development. The children love to create and build especially
when they are in groups. This activity encourages group interaction and indirectly strengthen
their social skills. In groups, the children cooperate with their friends where they learn about
teamwork, collaboration and sharing with others. Here, the children build their self-esteem
and a sense of accomplishment while learning to control their emotions. Constructive play is
all about try and error where the children experiment with the different materials and how to
solve problems or create something new. Here, the children learn to control their own
thinking and assess their actions accordingly. They try new methods and adapt where’s
necessary especially when something does not work well. So, this constructive play indirectly
develop their cognitive skill. When the children play in groups, it involves communications.
The children expand their vocabulary and engage with more open-ended questions. This will
help the children to communicate more and indirectly support their language development.
As we all know, the children learn better by hands-on activity because they’re able to explore
more rather than formal instruction. From hands-on exploration, the children get to see and
feel things for themselves and then they learn to connect them to their world. Here, the
children use their imagination and creativity to create their happy imaginary world which will
lead them to pretend play.

How to encourage constructive play in school? As we all know, constructive play is

so important for the children in order to help their development and the teacher should
encourage the children to take part actively in the constructive play. Here are how the teacher
should do to help the children engage with the activities.

i. Get the right stuff or materials. The teacher must have hands-on objects,
materials or dynamic toys that the children can used in constructive play. For
example, building blocks, paints or colouring sets, scissors, LEGOs, papers, sticks
and others. All the materials or objects used must be kids friendly for the sake of
their safety and easier for the children to handle.

ii. Create an open-ended space of creativity. LEGOs and blocks are amazing for
the children but try other open-ended space of creativity are really cool. Try to
give unconventional materials likes fabric, ribbons, wood, pipe or marbles and it
is amazing to see their creativity and what they can do with those materials.

iii. Play along with the children. Children learn through what they see. When we
start the constructive play, automatically attract their interest to do it too. They
also learn to play from what they see and it is important for us as teachers to
model them first.
 iv. Allow the children to explore. Don’t be too constructive to the children even if
you have a plan for their constructive play. Give the children space and let them to
explore and experiment with the activities that spark their curiosity.

v. Let the children to figure it out. If the children face any difficulties during the
constructive play, just let it be. Let the children learn and figure out how to solve
the problem. This will help to develop their problem-solving skill.

vi. Involves more children. The children love play with their friends. Create more
group for constructive play and engage them to play together. Let them expand
their vocabulary through their communication and learn to share with others.

This begins by providing a vast array of stimulating materials such as blocks, a variety of
puzzles, mosaic tiles and patterns, pieces of woods, sand, toys, water, playdough, and other
art materials.

There are three types of constructive play. The first type is Math. This type of
constructive play involves any type of activities where the children learn how to measure,
count and understand spatial concepts (light, weight, height, distance etc). It can be done
through simple of activities such as stacking blocks or play bake. Through constructive play,
children learn to be more responsible and manage to use math in their real life. Simple
example is the children can count things at home, sort blocks by shape or colour and can
make patterns. The second type of constructive play is reading and language. Reading and
language help the children build their speaking and reading skills, build their confidence in
communication and help them engage in the world of abstract thinking. Example of activity
for reading and language skill is write fun stories and share with their friends or come up new
lyrics to favourite songs. Being creative involves of the children imagination while they
dealing with the tangible. For example, when the children make sandcastle, they are using
their imaginary and indirectly they engage with arts.
 PART B:

Playing with sand

The children love to play in the sand pit or at the beach. They enjoy digging sand,
burying toys, mix sand with water, build sand castle or any of other imaginative sand-play
activities they can think up. Playing with sand is super tactile and full body experience that
gives the children wonderful opportunities for fun learning and sensory input. Playing in the
sandpit is also a great place for cooperative play and socialization.

However, before playing with the sand, it is important to know the risks and how to
keep it safe and clean for the children to enjoy. First of all, make sure that the sand box is
children friendly and well-constructed and filled with appropriate materials. It is also
important to ensure that the sand box well-maintained from time to time. Sand box frames
should not be made with cheap railroad tiles because these may cause splinters and may be
saturated with creosote, a carcinogen and it is not safe for the children. Non-toxic landscaping
timbers or non-wood containers are preferred. Try to avoid sand that are made from crushed
limestone, crushed marble or quartz but use only natural river sand or beach sand. Natural
sand is safer for the children while crushed limestone, marble and quartz contained tremolite
or crystalline silica that can cause health problems to the children. As we all know, not only
the children love the sand but some animals are too. Some small animals are poisonous and
can harm the children like scorpions, centipedes or spiders. That’s why once the sandbox
installed, make sure it is covered when it is not in use. Sand must be raked regularly to
remove debris, clumps or other foreign materials. If the sand gets wet, it can harbour bacteria,
parasites and pinworms and make sure let the sand dry out thoroughly before covering it for
the night. Raking sand regularly is necessary to ensure it is clean, fresh and dry. Always
instruct the children to wash their hands after playing in the sand. Sand and water reflect the
sun so remember that the children should be protected with the sunscreen.

Playing in the sand can be a great opportunity for the children to have unstructured
play time. Sand play can be provided in a sensory bin, in crafts and in simple experiments
and it does not have to be limited to outdoor play. There are lots of ways to enjoy sand play
indoors too! Here are some of the sand play activities that can be carried out at school:
1. Decorative Jar
First of all, get ready with some jars. Teacher hands out bowls and asks the children to
head over to the sandpit and fill their bowls with sand. This does work better with dry
powdery sand but damp will work too. Then, the children choose their favourite
colours and teacher help to sprinkle a little edicol vegetable dye into each bowl. The
pupils use their little hand muscles to stir the colour through the sand. Edicol dyes are
used because they have bright colours and easy to wash out of clothes and other
materials. Let the children busying build layers of sand in their jar and had to run to
the sandpit a few times to restock their sand. When the children satisfied with their
decorations of their jar, teacher screws the lids on and get them to show to their
friends and parents. This activity is suitable do it outdoor because if do it indoor, it
will make a mess.

2. Sand Cooking
As we all know, sand, water and some ‘real life’ cooking props always make the
children excited and keep them busy. Teacher may provide a bucket of water and
some cake tins, trays and spoons. All of these props supply creative imagination
among the children. Let the children be creative by their own and try not to control
them just in the sandpit area only. Let them find flowers or other treasures to add on
in their cooking.

3. Sand writing
 Sand makes a perfect writing surface. Pour a little water on the sand and smooth it
with the back of a toy shovel. Then, grab a small stick or the children can use their
fingers and get the children to write on the sand surface. Children can draw or wiggly
line in the sand or practice to write their name or alphabets. This activity help to
develop their hand strength as well as their fine motor skills.

4. Digging for letters

For this activity. The teachers will buried and hide foam letters as treasures in the
sand. Then, asks the children to dig the treasures using toy shovels or other digging
tools. As they find the letters, have them to name each of the letter. Older children can
identify the sound of the letter represents. A teacher can add a little math into the
activity by having them to count how many letters they find in the sand.

5. Sand building
The children also love the sand construction site activity. They enjoy build roads,
filling and emptying the loader bucket and move their toy vehicles. Teacher can
prepare the sand and the toy vehicles such as loader bucket, crane, traitor and other
vehicles. The children start to investigate once they see those things prepared.
Immediately they will start to move the toy vehicles, filling and emptied the loader
bucket and tipping it into a dump truck.

6. Sand art
Creative sand art for children uses colourful sand to create fun artwork. It is a sensory
activity involves relaxing touch and helps to melt away anxiety. Colourful sand art
allows the children to explore colours and understand what happen when they are
mixed. Teacher can prepares a printable as colouring sheet and make coloured sand or
 can buy ready-made at stationery shop. Then, asks the children to paint the colouring
sheet with the coloured sand. Here, the children use their own creativity to create
creative art.
7. Sand shakers
Teacher gets the children to collect various containers, plastic bottles or small tins
from their home. Then, the children fill up all the containers they collected with the
sand. The children shakes the containers to produce different sounds. Children can
play with their shaker while they sing their favourite song. The children also can
decorate their shakers and display them in their class.

8. Sand and rock quarry

A sand quarry area is an easy way to combine two of children’s great loves outdoors,
sand and rocks. Just prepares a small space and put sand in that area to make a little
quarry. Add some rocks and pebbles. Then, puts some toy car and trucks and it will be
amazing to see how the children begin to explore. Prepared also some coloured
pebbles and larger stones for the children to decorate their quarry.

Sand play is a great way for the children to build a number of different skill, both
physical and social. It helps the children to learn about textures and develop fine motor skills
and hand-eye coordination. Sand play actually promotes language development, creativity
skill-building, socialization and sensory and tactile stimulation.
PART C:

Importance and Benefits of Play for children

Children live are overscheduled now a days more than ever before. All those activities
taking a bit out of their free play time. Because of short changing playtime, the children miss
out on emotional, physical and cognitive benefits.

1. Important of Play by CECE by Dr. J.T Smith

Play is the central of learning and it is what the young children supposed to do every
day. Based on Dr. J.T Smith, play is an enjoyment fun activity for the children and they learn
through play. Researchers found out that play allows children to use their creativity while
developing their imagination, physical, cognitive and emotional strength. Through play
children can interact and engage with the world around them. They manage to create and
explore a world they can master and conquering their fears while they practicing adult roles.

Children also learn how to solve problem through play. Problem solving is a strategy
for the children making good choice about how to respond or act in various situation. When
come to problem solving, it required time, patience, energy and skills. Once children have
acquire problem solving skills, they become more confident and will be responsible in
dealing with daily situations. Children may make mistakes while learning to solve problem
and adult should guide the young children how to handle mistakes and most common
blunders. So, adult should encourage children to keep trying and eventually they will be able
to find solution for the problem.

Dr. J.T Smith says that play is an extremely important are of early childhood
development especially when it comes to growing speech and language skills. Play is how
children learn and explore the world around them. That’s why developing good play skills
helps children increase their communication abilities. It also support the child’s ability to
express and understand feelings, think and learn, solve problems and develop and maintain
relationship. Language is the first step in literacy and the basis for learning to read and write.

It is important to encourage the children to practice reading and writing. Give the
children the opportunity to choose the books they like and the adult can read together with the
children. Sharing stories in books, orally or in make-believe play helps the children to
understand who they are and their role within the community. Stories also teach how
language works and how narratives are structured. Playing with toys help build the small
muscle in hands. Children will able to hold pencils and start to write.

Play is the perfect vehicle to teach mathematic concepts to young children. Hands-on
play help children pay attention for much longer periods of time and helps children to gain
well-rounded understanding of numeracy concepts. For example, the children play with toy
telephone and they push the numbers on the telephone. While they push the numbers, they
say the numbers and indirectly they learn about numbers. So, adult must keep an eye on them
so that they can say the numbers correctly.

Pretending is important in child development. Through pretend play, children learn

about themselves. Pretend play experiences are some of the first ways children learn about
what they likes and dislikes, their interests and their abilities. For example, a child pretend to
be a doctor and hold toy stethoscope as the others line up for a check-up. These children are
exploring an experience and prepared for life events in a safe way. Children often use pretend
play to work out more personal challenging life events too. Pretend play also develops their
social and emotional intelligence. They learn how to interact with other, how to negotiate and
consider others’ perspective.

Play complexity is not just play but play is seen as a learning journey for the children.
Children who are confident learners are leading their learning through play following their
interests to build knowledge. Teachers who are on hand engaged in the play and learning and
ever building on the knowledge children already have. Teachers follow the child’s interest to
build a unique learning journey for them facilitate them whenever they needed.

2. Importance of Play by Prof. T. Hutchinson

 Most of parents nowadays misunderstood about the important of play for the children
development. The parents more to focus on how their children will be in Harvard or
Cambridge University. Parents who feel pressure to heavily schedule their children’s lives
may be letting the well-known of creative play slip away. Some parents think that play is
something that professionals and caregivers use to fill time and there aren’t any benefits to
play but children enjoy it. They think academic skills are important element and the children
should be focusing on learning letters, shapes and numbers.

However, play gives the children experiences to help them build background
knowledge, imagination and rational thought that enables academic skill development. In
fact, play is a way the children uses language and math concepts. In order to learn academic
skills, early childhood programmes focus on practicing social, emotional and physical skills
that support the children’s success. Unsupervised child and let the child himself to lead play
helps them to become more independent and better in making decisions.

Toys are tools that enhance the playing experience. Toys with a lot of moving parts
can be interesting and don’t distract the child from playing with toys. Teachers should guide
them through play by asking different questions or comparing make-believe to real life will
help them get most out of playtime. The more a child can do with a toy, the more likely it is
to be educational. But, make sure the toys are matching with the children’s thinking,
language, physical skills, feelings and friendships. Each child grows and develops at a
different pace, so watching they play and playing together with them will enable teachers to
choose appropriate toys and worthwhile activities for the children.

Play don’t have to be structured. The more unstructured the more it is beneficial for
the children. Unstructured play also called free play allows children the freedom to explore,
create and discover without and structured rules or guidelines. It’s been shown to foster
cognitive development while boosting physical development and social and emotional
development. It specifically helps creativity and imagination, problem-solving abilities and
social skills. Because there are no fixed rules to follow, children can make their own games
and guidelines. This is opportunity to create and use imagination that is important to
cognitive development. When children work together during unstructured play to solve
problems allow the children to work together on problems before resolve a conflict.
Playgrounds and outdoor spaces are ideal for free play because there are endless
opportunities to explore and interact with the world.

Even though play is important for the children development, but, most of the
curriculum was missing this important part. Play disappearing from most of the schools for so
many reasons but the headmaster reason is that parents, educators, teachers and policy
makers consider play as frivolous and can be dispensed with. They are unable to see the
important of play to learning in particular and to education as a whole. Researchers
themselves never get those who take decisions about what ends up in the school curriculum.
They should sit together, discuss and bring back play into the curriculum.

3. Important of play in early childhood

Play is the work of children. It consists of those activities performed for self-
amusement that have behavioural, social and psychomotor rewards; it is enjoyable and
spontaneous. Play is an important part of the childhood development. Through play children
learn about shapes, colours, cause and effect and themselves. Besides cognitive thinking, play
helps children learn social and psychomotor skills. It is a way of communicating joy, fear,
sorrow and anxiety. Nowadays, most children prefer computers, battery-operated toys to self-
directed, imaginative and creative play. This kind of situation leaves them deprived because
imaginative and fantasy play allows children to explore their world and express their thought
and feelings. Play is the direct opposite of work; it is frivolous and it provides freedom for
the children to make decisions.

There are many benefits of play to the early childhood. Play has educational, social
and therapeutic benefits. Children release their anxiety by hitting, pounding, punching or
running. Through play they can release these kind of energy. For example, and anxious pre-
schooler pounds a ball of modelling clay flat and a relaxed child may build the clay into
shapes. Children also can do dramatic act to dramatize real-life situations. They act out
anxiety and emotional stress form neglect, abuse or others painful physical experiences. Play
also helps the children work through their feelings about what has happened to them. When
children play, they are developing skills in all areas of development such as cognitive,
physical, communication and social and emotional. They practice and reinforce these skills in
a way that can’t be achieved through worksheets or screen time. Play is a natural stress
reliever and an outlet that allows children to work through anxiety and fears.
Children also learn make their own decisions during play. They begin to make
connections between their choices and the natural consequences of those choices. Play is
essential for reading, writing and maths. It develop perceptual skills which underpin both
numeracy and literacy. It is a process that happen through play and discovery in the early
years at home and under the direction of the teachers. This learning doesn’t happen in one
day but required and refined over many years. For example, a child plays with the wooden
blocks and indirectly they count the blocks and name the shapes of the blocks. Play can help
children develop their social skills with others. By listening, paying attention and sharing
play experiences helps these children to communicate well with their friends and develop
self-discipline.

There are 5 elements essential to meaningful play that create those rich memories.
Children manage to make their own decisions. When children to choose to pay for
themselves, they actually experience freedom in making those choices. They are also begin to
see the connections between choice and the result of that choice. Open-ended toys can be
used in many ways and the children decide for themselves on how to use them. For example,
a child can imagine a block to be a truck or something else. Open-ended toys inspired
creative thinking when the children use them to make something no one has ever made
before.

Children are intrinsically motivated when the impulse to play comes from natural
desire to understand the world. This play impulse is as strong as the desire for food or sleep.
This kind of intrinsic motivation allows the children regulate their feeling and desires to keep
playing. Although the children play with their friend to satisfying their own wants and needs
but at the same time they learn self-control. And self-control lead to success in the future.

In true play, children are engaged that they will lose awareness of their surroundings,
time and space. However, there is risk-free atmosphere where the children have security and
safety where they can experiment, try new ideas and investigate the laws of nature.
Sometimes, children still can recognize reality versus fantasy and knew where and when they
should feel safe or unsafe.
 Play is totally unplanned and spontaneous even though sometimes it is planned.
However, children can make the change especially when their toy does not cooperate. This
sense of unknown provides the opportunities for the children to develop their flexibility in
their thinking and decision making.

Play is enjoyable and fun and of course children love to play. Play always has an
emotional response attached to it. Without emotional connection, it is not a play. The results
of play supposed to be enjoyable and fun and provides the children with rich experiences.
That is what we want; to create a great play memories that will become the good old days.

As the children get older, the way they interact with other people during play also will
change and it is normal. Each child have different stages of play depends on their personal
development. Here are developmental stages of child play;

Unoccupied stages is when a baby moves for no reason such as kicking their legs and
this is the first sign of play. Parents can encourage and let the child to move around. It is also
to warm them up while they are awake.

Solitary play also known as independent play. It is a stage where the young child
develops and plays alone. Solitary play teaches young child how to entertain themselves and
it is helpful when parents need to get things done. Solitary play often happen before they start
interacting and playing with other children. Onlooker play happens when a child watches
other children play but does not want to join in. Actually, this the first step in learning to play
with others. It is a normal and healthy part of development.

Parallel play is when the children play at the same time and next to each other but do
not interact. This is also a normal part of learning to play process. This happens to the
children at the age of 2 to 3 years old. So, do not push the children to play together. Playing
together will come with time.

Associative play is when children play together and do similar activities with other
kids. They start to adorably talk or interact with one another but won’t organize or
synchronize activities. This usually happens to the children between 3 and 5 years old. Social
cooperative play is making teacher and parents proud. The children start to work together
towards common goal. They also learn to share with others and solve problems. For example,
building a blocks tower. This helps the children to develop their social skills.
Social play refers to collaborative interactions of peers during play. The interactions
are the result of productive engagement through sharing of knowledge and provide the
opportunity in role taking or social taking. As result, children manage to develop rules that
guide their play. The more children are experienced to play with peers, the higher is their
level of engagement in social play.

Physical play is a type of play that gets the children to move from big movements like
running and jumping to small movements like picking up sticks or tying a knot. Children
burn more calories through active play than any other type of play. It can keep the children fit
and contribute to a huge range of health benefits. It is also helps the children to understand
their bodies and build their self-confidence. Physical play also shown to contribute brain
growth and function and make them stay focus in the class.

Constructive play is also known as manipulative play. It is a type of play where the
children engages in with manipulating toys to create something. The children learn to
explores the materials around him and create intentionally with them. Children also learn that
the focus should be in the process and not the product. Construction play often leads to
pretend play where they bring their ideas to life.

Expressive play is a forms of play that give children the opportunities to express their
feeling by engaging with the materials. Materials used in expressive play include crayons,
watercolours, coloured pencils, sponges, drawing paper and others. Expressive play is the
child’s imaginary world complete with characters, setting and dialogue.

Fantasy play is also known as imaginary or pretend play. The children pretend to be
something else based on what they imagine. For example, when the child acts like his
favourite hero or character, real or imaginary. They might mimic someone they like such as
his favourite hero, his parents or even his teacher. Fantasy play is not just for fun but fosters a
child’s creativity while developing social, emotional and language skills. The children also
manage to learn express themselves and build positive relationship.
 As conclusion, play improves the cognitive, physical, social and emotional well-being
of the young children. They learn more about themselves, learn skills they need for the future
and build up positive relationship that help them to be success.