LEGO® Serious Play® is thriving. How is it that a child’s toy, has become a serious strategy tool used by some of the worlds best known organisations? And what might be the relevance of this method in your work? LEGO® Serious Play® is the result of 15 years development. A powerful method to solve problems, […]
Self Active Play shares with readers the principles and experiences of 30+ years of exploring play through the Institute for Self Active Education and with hundreds of children and educators. Self Active Play delivers: – insights you can use in opening up environments for play; – advice for stocking play spaces with creative open-ended materials; […]
A guide for teachers about the importance of planning learning experiences that integrate child-centered play with rich content-based instruction. Serious Fun emphasizes a teachers’ active role in children’s play in order to guide learning. Organized into two sections, Serious Fun first looks at strategies teachers can use to connect play to learning. The second focuses […]
Risk, Failure, Play illuminates the many ways in which competitive martial arts differentiate themselves from violence. Presented from the perspective of a dancer and writer, this book takes readers through the politics of everyday life as experienced through training in a range of martial arts practices such as jeet kune do, Brazilian jiu jitsu, kickboxing, […]
Play, academics, and standards can work together with the right strategies and support from educators. Take an active role in child-directed play to guide learning. Become a strong advocate for saving play in early childhood education by empowering teachers to join play and standards, and learn how child-led, open-ended play addresses the seven domains and […]
Based on the work of one of the world’s foremost child development experts, Rest, Play, Grow offers a road map to making sense of young children, and is what every toddler, preschooler, and kindergartner wishes we understood about them, Baffling and beloved, with the capacity to go from joy to frustration in seconds, young children […]
Provide students with purposeful practice and fun activities that focus on detecting, manipulating, and interacting with the sounds of language. Purposeful Play for Early Childhood Phonological Awareness offers 70 lessons that are grouped according to phonological skills and include kinesthetic, visual, and aural representations. Through singing songs, engaging in role-playing games, or tossing balls of […]
Play is serious business. Whether it’s reenacting a favorite book (comprehension and close reading), negotiating the rules for a game (speaking and listening), or collaborating over building blocks (college and career readiness and STEM), Kristi Mraz, Alison Porcelli, and Cheryl Tyler see every day how play helps students reach standards and goals in ways that […]
The central concepts of the theory of interpersonal neurobiology. Many fields have explored the nature of mental life from psychology to psychiatry, literature to linguistics. Yet no common “framework” where each of these important perspectives can be honored and integrated with one another has been created in which a person seeking their collective wisdom can […]
The scientific study of empathy has exploded in the past decade. Practically all of the relevant sciences – from various neuroscientific, psychological and sociological perspectives – are now vigorously participating in the emerging conversations about the nature of this essential, pro-social process. Empathy is also emerging as a critical topic in medical education and practice, […]
As adults, we have more responsibilities than we could have ever imagined growing up. Learning the work of marriage. Navigating the bumpy terrain of parenting. Maintaining social relationships. Facing grave hardship. Finding contentment in our career. As the years pass by, we sense how the good things in life are so often eclipsed by stress. […]
Are children playing less than they used to? Are rising obesity rates linked to a decline in children’s time to play freely? These and other related questions have filled the pages of newspapers, magazines and scholarly journals for the past decade. Researchers and journalists have attributed these issues to societal changes around children’s lives and […]
“Do you remember the joy of recess? It was a magical time to explore, to dream, and to turn the world into your playground. Consider this book your recess! Filled with ideas, prompts, and fun-filled games, Play is an activity book for the childlike explorer inside you. It is an invitation to a life of […]
For teachers, counselors and school psychologists, Play, Learn, and Enjoy! is a social-emotional learning curriculum for elementary school children that bridges self-regulation skills with social-emotional competencies. It covers a broad range of self-regulation and social skills including executive functioning (attention, working memory, and inhibition), strategic skills (time-management and planning), self-awareness, emotional regulation, decision-making, communication, and […]
Learn how play can enhance your relationship with your dog, improve your dog’s responsiveness, and provide your dog with the mental and physical exercise that he or she needs. Here are just some of the things this book will enable you to do: • Play your way to a quiet and contented dog • Use […]
This award winning book has been recognized by iParenting Media Awards as a 2008 Best Product, and is a Gold Award winner in the 2008 National Parenting Publications (NAPPA) Parenting Resources competition. Based on 30 years of clinical research, Play To Talk empowers parents with proven strategies and step-by-step instructions to help children of any […]
What’s the Play Smart secret? Learning should be fun! Gakken’s Play Smart workbooks and classes have been helping children from ages 2-5 to develop important skills for more than 30 years in Japan. Now this unique, tried-and-true creative learning system is available in North America. Play Smart Animal Picture Puzzlers 2+ is packed with 70 […]
What’s the Play Smart secret? Learning should be fun! Fun-first activities—an engaging mix of drawing, number games, picture puzzles and more—keep kids thoroughly entertained while they build reasoning skills, vocabulary, and creativity. Notes to parents on every page offer suggestions for enhancing focus and problem solving skills as kids play their way through the book. […]
When trainers use games, learners win big. As a trainer interested in game design, you know that games are more effective than lectures. You’ve seen firsthand how immersive games hold learners’ interest, helping them explore new skills and experience different points of view. But how do you become the Milton Bradley of learning games? Play […]
Engage Students with Toys, Games, and Comics In Play Like a Pirate, Quinn Rollins offers practical, engaging strategies and resources that make it easy to integrate fun into your curriculum. Regardless of grade level, serious learning can be seriously fun with inspirational ideas that engage students in unforgettable ways.
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The Institute wants the world to know:
A) Playing, being playful, is the healthiest way to spend your time (after feeding and housing yourself).
B) The activities that evoke playful feelings are unique to each of us.
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