Accepting the Invitation to Innovate Play

The Discovery of Innovating Play

Jessica LaBar-Twomey is a Kindergarten teacher who has made it her mission to prioritize play for play for children around the world by promoting #InnovatingPlay. The idea of combining play with technology for early elementary students is a concept first grade teacher, Sarah McCown, at Clara Love Elementary was willing to pursue for the math unit on 2D shapes. Jessica LaBar-Twomey’s blog post “I play with Design and Creation: #InnovatingPlay Through Math” was the perfect experience to support Mrs. McCown’s learning goals for her students.

Mrs. McCown’s first graders were working on their 2D shape unit in math and one of the skills is to join shapes together to make a new shape. First graders love to build and create with any manipulatives you give them. Mrs. McCown wanted to give them the opportunity to "play" and be creative, while still working with shapes. She asked her students to create an object (or scene) by joining pattern blocks. She gave them a bag of pattern blocks and allowed them to create anything they wanted on their desk. Once they were finished she took pictures of what they created, while they explained their work.

Students in Mrs. McCown’s class then turned their creations into a stop-motion video using the Stop Motion app. Mrs. McCown scheduled time with the campus instructional technologist to work with the kids one-on-one to create a stop-motion video. The students loved turning their shape creation into a stop-motion video. Mrs. McCown felt like the technology enhanced the learning experience for her kids because they were able to take something they created in class and put it into a video for all to enjoy. The app allowed others to see step-by-step how the students created their scene out of pattern blocks.

When Mrs. McCown reflected on the experience with her kids she shared, “All of my students enjoyed the time they were given to "play" and create using pattern blocks. When you allow kids the opportunity to create anything they desire, you give them the chance to work on their level to make something meaningful to them. All of my students were proud of their work and were excited to explain what they made to each other. They marveled at each other's work. It was a great learning experience for all!”