Abstract:

Froebel (1894) believed in teaching children through play and songs. His idea came to the United States in 1855 with Margaret Shurz who opened the first German speaking Kindergarten and then Suzan Blow (1894) opened first English Kindergarten. Maria Montessori in Italy, like Froebel, developed her own materials for teaching by helping children learn by discovering and exploring with the use of manipulatives. Unfortunately, Froebel’s and Montessori’s ideas of teaching through play is fading in the US and are often replaced by academic programs, push down curriculum based on children sitting at desks and working on worksheets. (Ceglowski ,1997). There is a proven research link between creativity and play (Piaget 1962 , Sterling-Honing 2007, Samuelson and Johanson 2006,Salomon 2010, Anderson et al.2014). Researchers stress the relationship between play and learning, as play promotes social skills, sharpens cognitive and language skills, helps to solidify number and time concepts, promotes spatial understanding, reasoning of cause and effect, enriches sensory and aesthetic appreciation, extends attention span, persistence, and sense of mastery and enhance young children’s thinking, enriches math learning and symbol representation. (Sterling-Honing 2007, Samuelson and Johanson 2006, Salmon 2010, Anderson et al., 2014).

This presentation describes the benefits of using newly developed materials called Edudiscs (Szwejkowska& Szwjkowski, 2013, Szwajkowski, 2013). In the last year, Edudiscs were introduced to 148 children from age 4 to 11 in preschool and after school programs. The possibilities created using Edudiscs are numerous: learning science concepts through play (mathematical operations), developing concentration, developing fine motor skills, developing social skills through games, developing creativity by designing patterns, sequence, pictures, developing problem solving skills and critical thinking skills. Some examples of teaching with Edudiscs are also presented.

Keywords:

Edudiscs, learning through play.