Succeeding Through Play
For some families, learning is fraught with anxiety. That anxiety can lead to power struggles that leave everyone feeling defeated and destroy a love of learning.
In one family with whom I work, the parents were anxious for their son to learn his sight words. Their son was anxious about being drilled with flashcards. Creativity and flexibility alleviated everyone’s anxiety and sparked learning through play!
Sight words are important to many parents and teachers. Star Wars and Angry Birds are important to many children. How are they related? Play, of course! We learned through play by dressing up in costumes and using slingshots to launch Angry Birds figurines at sight words. Play catapulted my student into engagement, and he successfully learned all his kindergarten sight words through play!
Here are a few more ideas:
Create sight word dance moves and get your groove on each time you read a sight word.
Pop sight word “popcorn” on a trampoline: put sight word cards on a trampoline, jump around, and read the cards that pop.
Play sight word hide and seek: hide sight word cards around the house, at the park, in the garden, and race to see who can find and read the most.
Play is how children learn and how they learn how to learn. Play is that powerful, and it can empower teachers and learners. Stay tuned to the blog and social media for more tools and strategies you can use to teach and learn through play!
