Mrs. Lewis’ Classroom Edit display name

About my class

More quickly than slowly, the imaginations of our youth are being replaced with technology that does all the imagining for them. This is a very sad and unfortunate circumstance of the society our children live in today. Raise your hand if you know a little one that can work an iPhone just as well as you can. Better yet, raise your hand if you know a little one that actually has their own iPhone/iPad. What happened to playing house? Where have all the Lincoln Logs gone? Why don't kids know how to cooperate with each other without adult coaching and interference? Why are social skills in upper grades becoming more and more of an issue as time goes by? Kid's social skills used to be the 'big' learning target in the lower grades, but now there are just as many 3rd and 4th graders that have difficult times making and keeping friends and interacting with peers and adults because so much of these kids lives are spent sitting in front of a screen. I have a solution. PLAY! If I was given the opportunity to put back into my classroom the imaginative play items like the kitchen set, my students would once again be put into positions where they would have to cooperatively make decisions like, 'who gets to be the cook today and who gets to be the waiter?' or yesterday we played 'restaurant' so today we can play house. Let's go build a fort with the blocks! This is what our children need to succeed. 'Let's Pretend' PLAY! I know how crucial it is that young people are given the chance to exercise their imaginations. Strong imaginations lead to critical thinking and problem solving skills, which lead to the innovative minds that we all desire for our youth.