22 Feb Styles of Play
In the pursuit of creating the best program for our schools, we at The Outdoor School make an intentional effort to utilize various styles of play in our activities. For those that aren’t experts at playing like our staff, you might wonder what different kinds of playing there are? Isn’t all play just… play? For decades, psychologists and sociologists have studied the way that children behave and play. Two of the biggest categories of play are described as “structured play” and “unstructured play”. Structured play is a game or event led by an adult facilitator, with set goals, While unstructured play is child-driven. Unstructured play is often recognized as being far less goal-oriented.
Most of what we do here is structured play. Our instructors lead activities and games based on helping children reach a certain goal. In our team building class, the instructors can accurately assess what types of activities or challenges would suit a group and work toward competence in skill-related areas, as well as have the satisfying payoff of achieving a goal. Structured play environments tend to go along with executive function rather than social and emotional well-being. Take the game of soccer for example. This is a very structured environment: two defined teams, a set of clear rules, and a score or time limit that dictates a winner. This would improve hard skills like body control, stamina regulation, and finesse with kicking. In addition, this teaches some other things related to executive function such as goal setting, teamwork, focusing on a common goal, planning ahead and remembering it to execute, etc.
On the unstructured side of things, we provide groups with an allotted free time every day. We value unstructured play and provide opportunities for children to initiate play on their own terms. Without set goals from staff, children have the chance to be creative and also feel safe to fail and make mistakes. In unstructured environments, children feel less pressured by staff and fellow group members to “succeed” in their play. One way we can easily encourage good, unstructured play is to give children the materials they need to play with, but not tell them what to do with them. When done this way, children can use their own vision and imagination to play either with others or even by themselves. We as adults might have an idea for a game to play with our kids, and that game might have an incredible connection to lessons they need to learn. However, it can often be far more gratifying to children when they come up with their own ideas and get to execute them, self-reflect on how they went, and further their social and emotional understanding.
We deeply value both styles of play and their positive effects on our students. If you also work with children, we hope to inspire you to incorporate as much of both playstyles as you can into your program/ curriculum!
–Bryce Williams Progam Coordinator.
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