Sparta — There’s nothing quite like the sound of dozens upon dozens of kids engaging in uninhibited play. It’s a joyous, rapturous, sometimes even downright cacophonous sound, and it was ringing throughout the halls of Sparta’s elementary schools on Global School Play Day in early February.
Global School Play Day is a worldwide initiative that promotes the value of unstructured play, encouraging educators to set aside time for their students to enjoy toys, games, coloring and just about any other activity that strikes their fancy, without restrictions or guidance from teachers.
At Sparta’s two elementary schools — the third- through fifth-grade Appleview, and the kindergarten through second-grade Ridgeview — students made the most of the opportunity. There were card games here, paper-airplane-building stations there, and even a camping tent erected in one classroom.
“It teaches the kids that learning is more than just textbooks and papers and pencils,” said fourth-grade teacher Ashley Shelner, who helped bring Global School Play Day to Sparta a few years ago.
Shelner and fellow fourth-grade teacher Tori Zdanciewicz reserved the whole day for play, whereas some of their counterparts opted to go with just a half-day. Students bopped back and forth between the two teachers’ adjacent classrooms, launching paper airplanes and showing off toys brought from home.
“They’re learning,” Shelner said of the students. “They’re doing math (while) playing a game. They’re learning to get along. They’re learning social skills. And it’s allowing them to be creative without technology.”
Learning Through Play
Shelner chose to give the students the whole day because she wanted to see what they came up with if they had a day full of freedom from instruction and from screens.
“This allows them to have free rein,” Shelner said. “And they’re learning so much, they just don’t realize it. They figure it out. They’re making towers with cups, they’re drawing — they get to be creative and they get to be kids. I mean, they’re all so used to devices that some of them don’t really know how to play.”
Most of the students were playing in groups, and the scene was a pretty rowdy one. Among the students engaging in solo activities was fourth-grader Roderick Ralya, who could be found in the corner of Shelner’s classroom, hunched over an oversized drawing pad, markers in hand.
What was he working on?
“A beautiful self-portrait of me — at least it’s supposed to be,” Roderick said with a proud gesture toward his drawing.
Roderick said he’s glad his school takes part in Global School Play Day because “I can basically do whatever I want.”
Elsewhere, in Zdanciewicz’s class, fourth-grader Skylar Sheehan was using LEGOs to design multicolored vehicles.
“I love to build,” Skylar said. “I’m going to build this truck here, and then I might build a house when I’m done with this.”
Skylar’s favorite part of the day was “just seeing other people be nice” and enjoy working on fun things together.
Over at Ridgeview, the scene was similar, though a bit more subdued. Students in Becky Faulkner’s first-grade class spread out playing various games.
First-grader Weston Moffett brought in a chess set he’d received as a Christmas present.
“This is one of my favorite games at home,” Weston said, as he speedily won a few games against classmates Cooper Moden and Tripp Stein.
‘It teaches the kids that learning is more than just textbooks and papers and pencils.’
— fourth-grade teacher Ashley Shelner
Faulkner said she’s a big believer in Global School Play Day, noting that free play is a crucial part of students’ development.
“I think it helps build a sense of community. It gets the kids playing and interacting and engaging with each other,” she said. “It gets them doing something different than the normal, boring same thing over and over.”
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