Free Choice Play

Free choice play in early childhood classrooms allow the student to explore his or her interest through a variety of toys and work materials that help foster self-regulation and expand cognitive, language, and social skills. Implementing free play into a daily schedule, whether it takes place in the classroom or outside on the playground, gives the students an opportunity to freely explore self-motivating activities, albeit at his or her own pace. Teachers can utilize this period in the schedule to observe each student and assess his or her development, which can provide insight into his or her strengths and capabilities. Play is an integral aspect in a young child, as it can positively impact the foundation of the child’s learning experiences

Depending on the students’ academic level, they are placed in either an 8:1:2 or a 12:1:2; the former being for lower functioning students with limited to no language, social, and play skills, and the latter for students with comparatively higher cognitive function. Students receive related services such as speech therapy and occupational therapy by way of a pull-out method, wherein the therapist takes the student out of the classroom to work individually in a private room. An important scheduled activity during the day is free choice play; similarly, there is another activity during the day called centers. The distinction is that during free choice play, students are given the freedom to choose what areas of the classroom they may play in, whereas centers are assigned areas where a group of students are designated to play in a given amount of time. Although implementing non-preferred activities is necessary in order to expose students to a variety of activity, incorporating preferred activity allows students to explore their interests for an extended period time. Furthermore, teachers can utilize this period of class time to observe or encourage student social interaction, language

Children’s unstructured outdoor free-play (or active free-play) represents an opportunity for children to be active and has the potential to make an important contribution to children’s overall physical activity levels (Veitch, Salmon, & Ball, 2010). A child’s gross motor development is necessary for his or her overall wellbeing, i.e. physical, mental, and emotional state. Regular physical activity is associated with improved health status, primary and secondary prevention of chronic diseases, reduced risk of premature death, improved cognitive functioning, academic achievement, and lower depression. The more physical activity, the greater the health benefits (Lee, Tamminen, Clark, Slater, Spence, & Holt, 2015). Offering a variety of play structures and activities on the playground or indoor gym, such as a sand box, slide, swing, and bikes, will promote the same learning goals sought after in classroom activities. Children will be able to expand motor functions, language, creativity and independence. Supporting physical activity in early childhood is a recommended strategy to reduce the community health burden of inactivity, as physical activity in childhood persists overtime, and health behaviours in childhood are more easily influenced that behaviours in adolescents and adults (Wofenden, Wiggers, Morgan, Razak, Jones, Finch,