I. My understanding of play is open-ended exploration.
II. “Something Happy” is both playful and meaningful because it gauges a student’s own understanding of happiness and encourages them to present it in a way that feels correct for their understanding. In “Something Happy” a (seemingly) simple and widely known emotion is used as an introduction to the layers that make up emotions and the subtopics following emotions. “Something Happy” begins with the simple statement, “Show me something happy.” From there, students are encouraged to visit any center in the classroom (in my classroom we have multiple different learning and creating centers) and use their desired tools to find, create, or show something that exudes happiness in their own definition. Activity time may vary based on interest level and creative motivation, but once the time is completed gather students to share their version of something happy and explain why they showed that item.
III. I developed this activity because it is open-ended and provides students with a basic guideline of what they need to do without creating barriers for exploration. This also allows students to express their own knowledge of happiness in a way that can be as simple or as detailed as their minds allow. By adding the language tool of explanation following the activity, the teacher is able to gauge student understanding better and foster discussion that creates connections to future topics. Following the end of the unit or instruction, students may complete this activity again and compare their initial creation to their final creation, noticing their level of growth surrounding the topic of emotions (or happiness).
Reflection:
Similarly to the discovery of penicillin as a result of Fleming’s continued play through microbe paintings, something was created within my classroom after a playful exploration of happiness: a surge of excitement to generate happiness for others (pg. 247). My own playing by completing this activity with my class allowed me to see the connection and joy that spread throughout the classroom when the play of my students was guided through a lens of happiness. Something I was not expecting to happen during this activity was the magnetic collaboration that emerged from the direction “Show me something happy.” My students all flocked to various areas of the classroom and discussed their ideas on what they were going to show for “happy,” bouncing ideas back and forth and describing what they planned to do. This reminded me of the accessibility of musical urinalysis as each student chose an area that best fit their strengths and interests (pg.284). This activity supported social diversity within the classroom when some students decided to work as a team (with those outside of their typical friend groups) to make their “happy” because of their interest in the same medium. These creations were precise, descriptive, and displayed all the students’ talents and creative motivations.
Root-Bernstein, M. & Root-Bernstein R. (2001). Sparks of genius: The thirteen thinking tools of the world's most creative people. Mariner Books.
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