The innovative and creative games in Learning to Play, Playing to Learn foster social skills to help young people deal with conflict without resorting to violence. It guides parents and educators in helping children identify their own set of values and feelings while playing with others. It also discusses several ways to modify popular games to encourage fairness and trust in children and encourages the use of healthy play techniques to increase self-esteem, cooperation, personal responsibility, and emotional and physical health.

Sandra Smidt sets out to explain what play is and why it is so important as one of the key ways of learning, particularly - but not solely - for young children. She argues that all play is purposeful, and can only truly considered to be play when the child has chosen what to do, where and how to do it. Using case studies drawn from all over the world, Smidt challenges some of the prevailing myths relating to play and pays close attention to what it is that early years professionals need to do to interpet the play, understand its purpose for the child and sometimes extend it. Attention is paid to the close links that play has with creativity, and the author also highlights the importance of being able to explain to colleagues, parents and even those in government, why play matters so much in terms of learning and development. This book will be of interest to anyone involved in early years’ education.

There is a growing recognition in the learning sciences that video games can no longer be seen as impediments to education, but rather, they can be developed to enhance learning. Educational and developmental psychologists, education researchers, media psychologists, and cognitive psychologists are now joining game designers and developers in seeking out new ways to use video game play in the classroom. In Learning by Playing, a diverse group of contributors provide perspectives on the most current thinking concerning the ramifications of leisure video game play for academic classroom learning. The first section of the text provides foundational understanding of the cognitive skills and content knowledge that children and adolescents acquire and refine during video game play. The second section explores game features that captivate and promote skills development among game players. The subsequent sections discuss children and adolescents' learning in the context of different types of games and the factors that contribute to transfer of learning from video game play to the classroom. These chapters then form the basis for the concluding section of the text: a specification of the most appropriate research agenda to investigate the academic potential of video game play, particularly using those games that child and adolescent players find most compelling. Contributors include researchers in education, learning sciences, and cognitive and developmental psychology, as well as instructional design researchers.

Create meaningful experiences and engage children in learning through play. Playing to Learn gives you hundreds of activities to make learning fun through games, small group activities, stories, and more. These games and activities promote learning every day of the week, every week of the year. Sure to become a classroom favorite, Playing to Learn has everything you need to create wonderful learning experiences for young children. 192 pages.Carol Seefeldt is Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland. She has written 21 books and over 150 articles for teachers and parents. This is her first book with Gryphon House.

Teaching and learning are not mysteries that can only happen in school. Every event is a teachable moment to encourage a child's learning at home, according to Howard. (Christian)

Playing to Learn: Video Games in the Classroom is one of first practical resources that helps teachers integrate the study of video games into the classroom. The book is comprised of over 100 video game related activity ideas appropriate for Grades 4 to 12. Virtually every subject area is addressed. The book is augmented with several discussion articles contributed by scholars, journalists, and bloggers who routinely write about video games. In addition, the book includes dozens of activity modification and extension ideas, Web links, data tables, and photos.

This book provides classroom practice and research studies that verify Reacting to the Past (RTTP)—a student-centered, active learning pedagogy that provides college students and faculty unique teaching and learning opportunities—as a high impact practice for student learning and engagement. The overarching objective of this book is to collect practices and evidence from multiple disciplines and institution types regarding the efficacy of RTTP in higher education classroom settings. At its core, RTTP is a game-based pedagogy with published games on some of the most conflicted moments of human history. While RTTP is deeply grounded in theory and literature that suggests its approaches can be impactful, deep and broad examinations of RTTP pedagogies in a range of course settings have not been extensively performed until now. This book provides guidance and an evidence-base on which to build RTTP practices.

A step-by-step, concise, user-friendly guide to learning chords, strumming, and songs. Music is presented in the keys of G, D, E minor and C with a play-along CD. the book also features sections on types of guitars, frequently asked questions, how to string a guitar, and musical and guitar related terminology. Ideal for beginners of any age.•

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