As Mr. Ridgley expects, children find most of the worms that are red and lightcolored during the first round. Finding the green ones takes more time and energy.
Through this guided play experience, first graders explored science and math concepts and words, learned about camouflage and adaptation, and began to investigate science variables( in this case, the color of the pretend worms, the color of the grass, and the number of worms available). The children used addition, subtraction, and number relationships to describe how many worms of each color they found during the timed rounds. They created pictographs using classroom materials and had conversations with each other and Mr. Ridgley about their understandings.
Playing Outdoors with Intention
Mr. Ridgley and his class are discussing how animals protect themselves in their habitats. He introduces children to the concepts of adaptation and camouflage. Once they can define camouflage in their own words, he sets the stage for an outdoor play opportunity: During timed rounds, children will pretend to be birds, hunt for pretend worms of different colors, then graph the number and color of the worms they find.
As children run and play on the playground, Mr. Ridgley scatters the pretend worms. Curious, the children come over to see what is happening. Mr. Ridgley explains how the children can pretend to be birds. When given the cue, they gather up all the worms they can spot and start to graph their findings.
The teaching team determined that these experiences aligned with Tennessee’ s learning standards in science, math, and literacy, and they observed children’ s progress toward these goals after engaging with the materials. Yet in addition to the academic benefits, children were motivated to engage in the activity as they ran, interacted with their peers, and received adult guidance— all essential elements of guided play( e. g., Weisberg et al. 2016; Skene et al. 2022; Zosh et al. 2022).
Mr. Ridgley enhanced children’ s conversations, learning, and interactions with materials through a variety of scaffolds and prompts. For example, as children returned with the worms they found during round one, they noticed their similar coloring.“ Why do you think you found those worms first?” Mr. Ridgley asked as children made their pictograph.“ What colors do you think you’ ll find during the second round?” As children added to the pictograph after each round, Mr. Ridgley encouraged them to share their observations(“ What do you notice?”) and to discuss why some colors were easier to find than others.
He recorded their responses on a big sheet of paper, noting whose ideas were represented. This allowed him to assess and document children’ s learning.
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