Intentional Play

Intentional play is playing with a purpose. Meaning teachers are consciously planning activities and learning experiences with a deliberate and specific goal in mind to meet the children's needs and help them learn and grow. 

One way to be intentional is to encourage high level play versus low level play. High level involves scenarios, multiple roles, props and planning. Encouraging and supporting this type of play fosters a intentional and prosperous learning environment.

Another way to build Intentional teaching into your classroom or home is by child guided or adult guided play.

Intentional teachers support child-guided learning experiences when children are:

• Exploring materials, actions, and ideas actively and making connections on their own
• Establishing interpersonal relationships and learning from one another
• Considering and investing their own questions about materials, events, and ideas
• Motivated to solve problems on their own 
•  So focused on their objective that adult intervention would be an interruption
• Challenging themselves and one another to master new skills
• Applying and extending existing knowledge and skills in new ways

These behaviors signal teachers that a child-guided experience will be beneficial but this does not exclude using other teaching strategies and planned activities.

Intentional teachers employ adult guided learning experiences to:

•  Introduce children to new material to experience
•  Help children learn established systems of knowledge
•  Draw children's attention to something of interest to them
• Encourage children to reflect on how or why something has happened or help them consider what might happen 
• Engage children with a skill or concept teachers know they will need for further learning
• Offer support and suggestions when children appear stalled, discouraged, or frustrated
• Scaffold experiences when children seem ready for the next level of mastery but may need assistance to attain it on their own
• Introduce a material or idea to a child who uses materials or actions repetitively over time

Intentional teachers keep in mind that child guided and adult guided experience is an important part of the full learning picture.

Here at The Academy of Gateway Intentional teaching is apart of our daily routine and curriculum.

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