Creative Play

           For our creative play peer teaching, we used the book "Please, Say Please." The main reason for choosing this book is that there are many characters and so all of the students could participate. Also, the words and actions were quite simple and it would be very easy for children to perform  even with very little to no practice.

           Truthfully, we had a hard time selecting a book and deciding how to tell the story through creative play. Creative play seemed fun but when it comes to actual practice it could be the hardest to execute. What if the students wouldn’t participate? What if they enjoy it too much that it becomes hard to manage? What if they don’t do as well as we thought they would? These were considerations even if we knew that we would be only doing the activity with our classmates. It is always best to imagine or visualize that you will do the activity with real kids. And by doing so, the task became more difficult.

           It also didn’t help that we couldn’t hold a meeting face to face so I had to hold a conference call meeting, which was hard due to connection problems. Over all, there are some things that I learned and realized while preparing for this creative play activity.

           First, creative play is serious business. It could be very fun but you have to plan it well. Know your students. Know what they could do and help them if necessary. Not all kids would be participative with things like this. they could be shy or self conscious. If that's the case, maybe you could figure out another way so that they would participate. I've seen this a lot of times in demo teaching and even interaction with kids outside. A kid might be able to do this and that but if you subject him to everyone's attention, he would shy away and wouldn’t do it anymore. As a teacher it is our job to show them that there's nothing to be shy about. We could reduce the stress by not singling them out and letting more than one student do it at the same time.

           Second, book selection is important. I think what made our activity somehow work despite our lack of classroom management skills is that the book we chose is really really fun when used in creative play. Not only the selection of the book but also the manner you will tell the story, is important. I think it wouldn’t be as fun if we just told the story plainly. There is not much story to the book, really. But when turned into a play activity, it works like they were just playing roles and we were not just telling the story to shove some manners down their throat. Speaking of manners, the book was also good in such a way that if you want to teach them manners, you can teach it by letting them do it. One thing I noticed with kids is that they love to copy whatever the characters are doing or saying in a book . If they enjoyed the story, they are bound to repeat the words and actions for the next few minutes or hours. Now, if instead of just words they could repeat, actions come with the story, chances are high that they would imitate the actions too when circumstance permits.

           Third and finally, the lesson of the day is be confident. Be sure of what you are doing. Even if sometimes you are not sure, try not to look like you are panicking because it just makes classroom management harder. Especially in creative play, if you want kids to participate, they have to be calm and at ease. As a teacher, if you are the who is not calm or confident about what you are doing, it would be really hard to get the children to stay with you through the activity.

           That being said, I might try creative play as a means of story telling in the future, but I'll have to think about it well and long. Preparation is key. What makes it a bit more difficult is that you have to make it fun and organized at the same time. When you find that balance in creative play, I think it should go on smoothly.