Discipline: Professional Resources

Copyright: 2020

Grade(s): K - 6

Imprint: Heinemann

Author(s): Stephanie Parsons

Play Attention! A Playful Mindset Meets Academic Content

A playful mindset is key to finding creative, resourceful ways of doing the things we need to do in life. And yet, in the past 50 years there has been a steep decline of free self-directed play both in and out of school. “In providing more structured activities outside of school, longer school days and more rigorous curricula, we have raised children who are less prepared for a successful adulthood,” Stephanie writes. But there is hope!

In Play Attention! you’ll learn how play can add value to what you are already doing in your classroom and can even help you do it better. Stephanie offers:

  • Individual playful experiences and tools to encourage a playful mindset across the day and year
  • A predictable framework for planning for play: invite, play, reflect
  • Ideas to show you how play can be a powerful tool for assessment
  • Questions to guide your observations of different kinds of play

Stephanie shows you and your students how to make space for possibilities you hadn’t even imagined before. “I think we can all agree more joy in school is a good thing.”