This week we have begun to feel the vibrant pulse of our school emerge. Almost all of our students now have a full day of school and I promise, the rest of you will soon! When walking through the classrooms and Common Space it feels both so new and also so familiar. Children are connecting to one another, to their teachers and to the routines of the room. It is quite amazing to see that despite this all being so new, the children have already begun to internalize the rhythm of their classrooms. In one classroom the children know that when a particular song begins to play it is time to clean up. In other rooms they are using the choice chart or “passes” to select what area they would like to work in during work time. Children are beginning to participate in clean up, snack time, and joining their classmates on the rug for a meeting. The rooms are bustling and productive.
Children are busily engaged in their work – the work of making friends, making connections and PLAY! I fear sometimes that the word play has become a “four letter word,” a word that we are not supposed to discuss or value. But I want to remind you that play is important! Play is the most important activity your child will do during their time at the JCC. Your children are going to play in our school because it is the work of early childhood (and hopefully should continue even into our adulthood). Dr. Stuart Brown, in his book Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul describes the context of play as it relates to all animals and explains “The ability to play is critical not only to being happy, but also to sustaining social relationships and being a creative, innovative person.” Play is a necessary part of children’s daily lives in school and at home because it teaches them to problem solve, to innovate, to read social cues, and to respond to their ever-changing world. In the animal kingdom they have found that animals that played the most survived the best, even though playing would seem like it would take time, attention and energy away from activities like eating which would seem more necessary to survival. Play is positively correlated to higher intelligence and cognition. Play activity sculpts the brain. Play leads to the creation of imaginative new cognitive combinations that serve us for the rest of our lives.
So why do I say all this? I say this because if you walk from room to room you will find children involved in busy, productive play. You can see the numerous ways that they are working and hopefully appreciate how much work they devote to their play. Through their play they are working to get along with their peers, to negotiate when they face conflict, to use the materials in new and innovative ways, and to describe what they are doing to friends and teachers. Sometimes by the end of our work times the rooms look a bit like a tornado has blown through! But then the children also learn all about the necessary life skill of CLEANING UP. There has been so much accomplished in these short 9 days and we also can see how much the children who were here last year bring into their new classroom – they have such a strong sense of the routines, how we use materials and how to talk to their friends when resolving conflict. And the children’s past experiences serve as the foundation for all their work ahead.
So we know that your children are being given ample opportunities to play. But as we head into Shabbat, I want to invite you to shift your attention to the question of whether you as an adult might be able to play more? We are wired to continue to play even into adulthood. The benefits of play are certainly more significant when we are young and our brains are growing most rapidly but the benefits continue into old-age! We each may have very different definitions of play – for some of us play may be engaging in exercise, reading a book, learning to knit or bungee jumping! But this Shabbat I encourage you to indulge your natural instinct to play, no matter how you define it!
Shabbat Shalom.
Ilana received her B.A. from Harvard College and a Master's Degree in Education from Bank Street College. She was born and raised on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and now lives there with her husband and three children.
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