Why is Play important?

I recently had a conversation with a friend and colleague.  She is a kindergarten teacher at the same school my child attends.  Last year, my child was in kindergarten and they playtime in their lesson plans.  Now due to the increased common core standards and the required activities in the classroom, playtime had to be removed.  The students have now replaced playtime with daily 5 instruction which is where their playtime is now working with words of some sort, reading to self, reading to others and two others.  This is an interesting way of teaching in my opinion, at the age of 4 and 5, most students cannot read.  However during my conversation with my friend, I asked her if she incorporated play into her classroom.  She breaks her recess down into 2 portions.  Half of the recess time, they play outside.  They then continue with class and they have another recess, which they call play time and the students use the old play items, such as kitchen, dress up, blocks, and more.  The kids do not have as much time as they have in the past, but at least we still have educators who know the importance of playtime for students.  Playing is a way to help develop creativity.  According to Almon, there is no better way to foster creativity than to keep it alive in early childhood when it is naturally strong and expresses itself through play. Creativity is something that we want all children to have as well as what most colleges and employers want as well.  Let's give our children the best start possible by letting them just PLAY!!!!!

Almon, J. (2013). It's Playtime. Principal. Retrieved from Almon_Playtime.pdf