Genres of Play in Childrens Curriculum

Question: Discuss about theGenres of Play in Childrens Curriculum. Answer: Part I There are different genres of play that can be provided to the children between the ages of 4 and 6 years. These include: Motor Play: This refers to the types of play that involve physical activity and movement by the child for example running and football. Motor play should be included in the childrens curriculum because it can benefit he children in many ways (Pellegrini, 2009). Apart from helping in physical fitness by strengthening and integrating muscle strength, it can help the child to acquire important cognitive skills such as critical thinking and problem solving. Social Play: This refers to a type of play that involves social activities that bring different players to interact together. This implies that social activities can only be done in the presence of other children and includes activities like singing, story-telling, and dancing. Social play is significant in the life of a child because it imparts social skills such as adherence to rules, morality, sharing, cooperation, and team play (Saracho, 2012). These are essential skills that can enable children to fit into the society even during adulthood. Constructive Play: This is a type of playing activity in which children use their energy to manipulate the environment around them. It includes activities like playing in the sand, side walk, drawing of murals, and the use of blocks to build cities and towers (Spodek Saracho, 2014). Such activities can be of great contribution to the children because they can help them to acquire important skills such as creativity, singing, drawing, building, and manipulation of the surrounding to achieve the desired results. Part II Given the significant role of play in the development of children, it should be integrated into the school curriculum. As an activity, play can play a significant role in enhancing the learning process as well as providing the children with skills that are required in their day-to-day lives right from childhood until they mature up. Therefore, it should be upon the curriculum developers to incorporate play in the design and development of childrens curriculum. Social play should be incorporated into the curriculum of subjects like social studies, literature and language. This is a subject area that concentrates on social affairs of the society. If activities like rule observation are incorporated in the curriculum, children can be encouraged to grow up as morally upright and law-abiding individuals who can be useful members of the entire society. It is therefore evident that the inclusion of social play in the childrens curriculum can be of great benefit to the children and society at large (Saracho, 2012). On the other hand, physical play can be integrated in the childrens curriculum to teach them about the physical sciences such as biology. Given the significance of physical play in the development of physique and cognitive skills, included in the childrens curriculum. It can help the children to learn much about motor skills, muscle movement, and creative use of ones mind to tackle the challenges facing them (Pellegrini, 2009). Hence, its progressive inclusion in the curriculum can help in ensuring that the teaching and learning process progressively occur in line with the stages of childrens development. Finally, constructive play, when included in the curriculum, can help in improving the learning of mathematics. Activities such as the distribution of snacks, lining up, and building of towers of different sizes, lengths, and height can help in boosting arithmetic competency in children (Van Oers Duijkers, 2013). Mathematics can be understood better if related to everyday experiences that the children encounter as they grow up. References Pellegrini, A.D. (2009). The role of play in human development. New York: Oxford UniversityPress. Saracho, O.N. (2012).An integrated play-based curriculum for young children. New York:Routledge. Spodek, B., Saracho, O. N. (2014). Handbook of research on the education of young children.Routledge. Van Oers, B., Duijkers, D. (2013). Teaching in a play-based curriculum: Theory, practice andevidence of developmental education for young children. Journal of Curriculum Studies,45(4), 511-534.