How often do we give children long, uninterrupted stretches of play, either at home or at school? Unless you are being very intentional about the playtime in your classroom, they probably aren’t getting as much as you think.
It is during long stretches of play when the brain has the most opportunity for growth—neural connections build at a rapid pace when the brain is engaged in creativity during play. It is during this time when children learn to focus on a task and stretch their attention spans for longer and longer periods of time (and much more effectively than trying to make them sit and complete schoolwork in preparation for kindergarten). And during long stretches of play children have opportunities to not only run into problems that need solving, but have the time to solve them. When we are constantly interrupting children in their play, they miss out on so much!
PLAYER