PLAYWORLDS: IMAGINATIVE ADULT-CHILD JOINT PLAY IN EARLY LEARNING CLASSROOMS

Play is considered as one of the most effective and meaningful ways of learning for children until the age of eight years (Skene et al., 2022). Play is also a prerequisite for human development and creativity (Rieber & Carton, 1987). However, many early learning classrooms struggle to find time or ways to include playful learning in their curriculums. In this presentation I introduce an educational innovation that helps bring play in early learning classrooms. Playworlds are forms of adult-child joint play often centered around a piece of literature or story. The story is turned alive by acting, playing and creation of plot, characters and props (Lindqvist, 1995). Implementing playworlds often requires time and dedication so many teachers find it hard to combine it with formal learning goals of the school. I will introduce a Finnish first year school classroom in which a teacher developed a playworld activity around the story of Crocodile Gene (by Eduard Uspenski). The class was culturally diverse with children from around six different home languages. The data analyzed consists of teacher diaries and notes, informal email correspondence and interviews between the teacher and the researcher during the school year. I focus on one of the characters in the story, Chebi (a hand puppet played by the teacher) visiting the classroom and becoming a member of the class. I discuss how children who were ambivalently engaged (see Ferholt & Rainio, 2016) towards school going found meaningful ways to participate in class activities with the help of Chebi. The imaginative character played by the teacher was helping children to engage and attach to the classroom activities. The paper concludes that the power of imagination, play and stories should not be undermined in developing easy access and meaningful ways of participation in early learning classrooms.