The Power of Playful Learning: The Green Edition(Maupin House)

Go green in your classroom! This collection of playful activities will support and complement your classroom curriculum, and the games and activities can be made almost entirely from common household recyclables. Each activity includes simple instructions for creating the game or toy and a list of educational and developmental benefits.

About the Author :
Joyce Hemphill has a doctorate in developmental psychology from The Ohio State University and 30 years experience teaching infant-child development, cognition, and learning. She organizes community play events, gives workshops on safe ways to play using recyclable materials, and serves on the board of the American Association for the Child's Right to Play. Joyce retired from the University of Wisconsin School of Education in spring of 2012. Laura Scheinholtz received her Ph.D. in learning sciences from the University of Wisconsin and has since spent her time promoting the importance of play to healthy child development. She is most interested in playing with science and how everyday items may be playfully repurposed. She also has a passion for playing in the kitchen. Heather Von Bank is an associate professor in the Department of Family Consumer Science at Minnesota State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin where she discovered her passion for teaching the benefits of play to pre-professional educators. Heather's young sons contribute to her playful state of mind.

Review :
...a 184 page collection of playful activities that will support and complement a classroom curriculum with games and activities that can be made almost entirely from common household recyclables. Each individual activity includes simple instructions for creating the game or toy and a list of educational and developmental benefits. These classroom based activities are nicely organized into five chapters based on skills being applied, and skills in number sense, objects in motion, and speaking and language are developed along the way. . . .Thoroughly 'user friendly', "The Power of Playful Learning: The Green Edition" is very highly recommended as a school curriculum resource for preschool through fifth grade classes.-- "Midwest Book Review, Wisconsin Bookwatch" Play has theoretical and practical places in education. Play has a place in the library too. This book takes the essence of play and attaches it to curriculum, as well as learning objectives. Yet it involves the use of common things around the house, not expensive equipment or supplies. Each activity includes reasons for it, simple instructions, and developmental benefits. A book for the early learners at your school, it helps teachers and teacher librarians incorporate many issues of play: collaboration, learning, tactile approaches, math, sequencing, connections, relationships, etc. The activities can be incorporated into active learning situations and multiple themes and are an excellent way to involve recycling and parent assistance. Recommended.-- "Teacher Librarian, "Resources for the Teacher Librarian"" A refreshing, recycled perspective on familiar and not so familiar games and ideas that is certain to inspire students to dig deeper in knowledge, understanding, and critical thinking! The activities are not weighed down with heavy explanations and meaningless details to be discarded like the trash! The descriptions provide concise details with clear visual guides. Teachers may choose to adapt and differentiate an activity to connect it to a specific literary piece, a specific math skill, or the developmental level of the student/group of students. -- Jodi Zurbuchen, 4th Grade Teacher, Madison Metropolitan School District, Madison, WI The idea of playful learning removes the artificial and harmful separation between learning and play, between home and school. The values it conveys and the benefits it offers us are both finite and infinite. --Bernard DeKoven, author of The Well-Played Game, A Playful Path, and the Deep Fun website-- "Bernard DeKoven"