Play Resources

Articles

1. Alfie Kohn’s, “How Children’s Play is being Sneakily Redefined.” (terrific article – will inspire provocative discussion)
2. “Hard Fun” a newspaper column by Seymour Papert. (high priority read)
3. “Does Easy Do It? Children, Games, and Learning ,” Seymour Papert’s exploration of gaming, fun and learning.
4. Vivian Paley, “You Can’t Say You Can’t Play,” profile from This American Life. (12 minutes – audio)
5. The Journal of Play
6. “I Wonder…” 2008 short article by Deborah Meier
7. “What Happened to Play?” 2006 short article by Deborah Meier
8. Tinkering Resources compiled by Constructing Modern Knowledge

Books (click on author’s name for other books)

You Can’t Say You Can’t Play by Vivian Paley

Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground by Deborah Meier, Brenda S. Engel and and Beth Taylor

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul by M.D., Stuart Brown and Christopher Vaughan

What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? by Susan Ohanian – Susan Ohanian’s web site

Gary Stager

Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.