So what should we do?
In an ideal world, Kindergarten could return to its origins and be a place for children to explore and play freely all day. However, the reality is that today, part of the purpose of Kindergarten is to prepare students for the academic rigor of upper grades.
My proposed solution is for the number of minutes of play to be at least equal to the number of total minutes of math, reading, writing, phonics, social studies, and science combined. Essentially, play should be at least half of the school day for Kindergarteners. This may seem like an unrealistic idea, and depending on state and district mandates, this may be impossible for some teachers to achieve.
Below, I have created a sample schedule that shows how play can become an equal part of the school day to academics:
In an ideal world, Kindergarten could return to its origins and be a place for children to explore and play freely all day. However, the reality is that today, part of the purpose of Kindergarten is to prepare students for the academic rigor of upper grades.
My proposed solution is for the number of minutes of play to be at least equal to the number of total minutes of math, reading, writing, phonics, social studies, and science combined. Essentially, play should be at least half of the school day for Kindergarteners. This may seem like an unrealistic idea, and depending on state and district mandates, this may be impossible for some teachers to achieve.
Below, I have created a sample schedule that shows how play can become an equal part of the school day to academics:
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The first schedule (before injecting play into content) was created using results from my survey. The minutes allotted to each subject reflect the responses from teachers on how many minutes they spend in each subject during their day.
In order to make the second schedule possible, teachers will need to get creative about what their instruction looks like. This means that some math minutes might be taken up by free exploration with math tools like counters or cubes. Play can be injected into literacy time by giving students magnetic letters and a whiteboard or stamps with letters on them. By redefining play and making it intentional, teachers can create a learning environment that is more closely aligned with the origins of Kindergarten, while still following the required amount of academic time and preparing students for first grade.