The Values of Active Play
Physical
- Helps develop gross motor and large muscle skills
- Allows time to release energy, burn calories, and fight childhood obesity
- Teaches children the importance of remaining active and keeping a body healthy
Mental
-Provides mental relief and lowers stress
- Spending built-up energy will in-turn cause children to learn more effectively and focus more inside the classroom
- Allows children to apply certain lessons they have learned inside the classroom
- Strengthens each child’s imagination and creativity
- Promotes an understanding of the basic rules of popular games and sports
Social/Emotional
- Provides pleasurable experiences for children
- Being able to play on unique, fun equipment that’s “only at school” will install a desire to attend school regularly
- Enhances children’s self-confidence and gives them an understanding of their physical strengths and weaknesses
- Allows children to work together, take turns, and share equipment
- Teaches responsibility for cleanup and return of equipment
Spiritual
- Teaches children that bodies are God’s gifts
- Allows children to recreate and learn from different Bible stories
- Allows children to explore the outdoors and form an understanding of the world that God created
- Helps children experience a sense of awe regarding God’s world