PRED 420

FINAL ASSIGNMENT
DR. BÜLENT SEZGİN

SİMGE ÇİÇEK
2017108132
 THE UNDERSTANDING OF CHILDREN’S PHYSICAL PLAY AND
DIGITAL GAMES

In today’s world, the digital environment has a huge role in the children's play world. The
online video games, mobile technologies, virtual spaces, and all forms of digital media are
the main part of our lives. As a teacher, we mostly discuss the role of physical plays and
games in children’s development. When we talk about the importance of play through several
theorists without analyzing their thoughts in the light of current experiences with the digital
environment. We should not underestimate the role of digital games and virtual spaces in
discussing the notion of children’s play. Thinking about the importance of play should be
beyond typical and cliche responses. It also involves the perspective of digital environment
and virtual reality. When we analyse digital games, we ought to look at firstly, the thoughts
about children’s play, toys and games that have attracted children for centuries, and
cognitive, psychological, and behavioral effects that affect children’s development as well as
looking at engaging these ideas with children’s digital environment. There are questions that I
tried to give a foundation for answering. “Can we create digital environments which take
children beyond the computer screen and engage them in a world of whole-body physical
movement?” and “ can children’s digital games involve physical movements in their digital
world rather than hold children on the screen or virtual spaces?” (Madej, 2016, pp.1). These
two questions should be reconsidered during the all activity. Our main purpose is to connect
with children’s physical play and digital games through discussing the meaning of play and
the history of toys and games. The early experiences and thoughts will be revisited by our
current experiences with the digital environment.
Overall, the use of digital technologies have increased a sedentary lifestyle that made an
inactive play environment for children (Madej, 2016). Therefore, children’s digital games
should be an active part of their world through meeting children’s developmental needs and
ages. In this atelier, I will discuss the primacy of play, the roots of toys and games, and the
digital environment that children engage with virtual spaces. The atelier that I made for
teachers and candidates consists of four parts: the meeting activity, warm-up activity, role
playing, drama activity, and finally the evaluation part.
A. THE MEETING ACTIVITY
➢ The Name of the Activity: Creating toys and games with the first letter of people’s
names.
➢ Level: Teachers and candidates from all age groups

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➢ Place: Indoor
➢ Duration: at least 15 minute and it depends on the number of people in the atelier.
➢ Materials: chairs
➢ The objective of the activity: The aim is to encourage the ability of expressing
themselves in front of other people and also create a positive environment for
discussing together. This activity will be helpful for establishing a strong trust
relationship among participants.
➢ Procedure:
● The educator will make a circle with the group. The educator will briefly explain the
rule of play with the group. The rule is to reproduce toys and games with their first
letter of names. The educator can transform this play into more interesting and joyful
for the group. For example, the educator wants to perform the toys and games that
begin with the first letter of participants’ names.
➢ Guidance: The educator should notice that each member of the group participates in
the activity. Also the educator should encourage the group members who do not
create toys or games with their first letter of their names.
➢ Evaluating the Activity: This activity supports building a dynamic relationship with
group members. It also begins to prepare group members for the main theme of this
atelier.
B. WARM-UP ACTIVITY
➢ The Name of the Activity: Carrying the hat in the circle.
➢ Level: Teachers and candidates from all age groups
➢ Place: Indoor
➢ Duration: 30 minutes
➢ Materials: a hat
➢ The objective of the activity: The purpose is to reduce participants’ anxiety level and
get ready for the group work. Also it assesses group members’ thoughts and
perspectives about play.
➢ Procedure: The educator makes again a circle. The educator takes a hat in her or his
hand. The rule of activity is to take hat and answer the questions that are prepared by
the educator. How would you define play and games? Which characteristics define
the play for you? Are children’s play physically defined play space? What do you
think about experiences during physical play and digital games? What are the

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 differences and similarities between them? After sharing thoughts and beliefs, the hat
is passed from hand to hand until the last member.
➢ Guidance: The educator can underline the Huzinga’s thoughts about defining the play.
The seven characteristics of play can be explained before or after the activity for the
group. These characteristics can be thought for digital games and the educator
provides an environment for thinking digital games experiences of the group
members. The four characteristics can be underlined for focusing on virtual
experiences. Those are that play is not “ordinary” or “real” life, play is limited in time
and space, play has rules, and play creates special communities. Virtual spaces also
create a world beyond people’s common reality (Madej, 2016). Huizinga's ideas of
the magic circle compartmentalizes the play space from the real world (Madej, 2016,
pp. 12). We are in the play not just physically but mentally so; the world of video
games creates a mentally included space. Therefore we can use the magic circle
concept of Huizinga for game studies because the temporary space that is created in
online video games creates a very real magic circle for players which they can
temporarily escape from real situations and persons ( Madej, 2016).
➢ Evaluating the activity: This activity establishes a positive environment for group
members to talk about their experiences of physical play and digital games. This
encourages them to think about the similarities and differences between physical play
and digital games.
C. ROLE PLAYING ACTIVITY WITH THE GROUP
➢ The Name of the Activity: Going back in time
➢ Level: Teachers and candidates from all ages
➢ Place: Indoor
➢ Duration: 20 minutes for preparation to drama and 30 minutes for presentations.
➢ Materials: Costumes and preschool materials which are puppets, dolls, wooden
objects, toys.
➢ The objective of the activity: This role playing technique is free impromptu that
derived from a general theme. The purpose of this activity is to encourage the ability
of improvising with group members and the ability to discuss and critical thinking.
Also, it helps to recognize the different perspectives about play in different time
periods by impromptu as well as making an empathy with children in that time. This
activity supports the group members to understand the differences and similarities
between historical periods in terms of children’s play and digital games.

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➢ Procedure: Firstly, the educator wants to imagine a time machine from group
members. Then, the educator underlines the six different time periods for going back
in time. These six different times which are ancient times, medieval times, the
Renaissance and Enlightened, and the nineteenth century, and late 21st century. The
educator also gives cues about these historical periods for group members. Those cues
are written in the papers. After determining the groups, each member of the groups
will choose each of those cues papers that are about historical periods. There should
be at least five groups. In these papers, there are several prompts about each historical
period for presenting an impromptu. Each group has 20 minutes to prepare for a
drama presentation. Those cues papers include six different historical periods and
approaches toward games and toys as well as childhood. Clues are for group members
to act such a child, teacher, parent, or famous thinker in that period and think about
what kind of toys and games existed and people’s perspective toward play and
children:
➢ These are basically:
1. Ancient Egypt, Roma, and Greek: In Egypt, Rule based and dice games were
popular. Also toys are made of bone, clay, ivory, stone, woods. In Greek, Plato
believed that adult-structured play at early ages significant for children’s later
development into socially responsible and well adjusted adults (Madej, 2016).
Plato underlined music and gymnastics as a measurement of young
development because one developed the soul and the other developed the body
(Madej, 2016). There are knucklebones, finger games, hoops, balls, as well as
toys are made of materials such wood and leather. In Roma, children are in the
childhood period until around age 7 and they had only a chance to engage with
play and games until that age. Play was seen as a practical tool for gaining
necessary skills and abilities for life and athletics and music were viewed in
practical ways also because they are important for the development of a
healthy and aesthetically pleasing body (Madej, 2016).
2. Medieval Times: There were manufactured toys that became more popular
during the thirteenth century and also toy knights, ceramic puppets, horses,
and other animals as well as imaginative play artifacts which hobby horses
and swords.
3. The Renaissance and The Enlightened Learning: You can think about Pieter
Bruegel painting which includes approximately 80 different games. There was

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 an important thinker in the Renaissance. Johann Amos Comenius (1952-1970)
prioritized first-hand experiences for children. He suggested a new
combination of text and image to engage students more playfully with their
subject and his book “Orbis Sensualium Pictus” that means children's picture
book which involves 150 pictures about nature, philosophy, religion, and daily
life (Madej, 2016, pp.42).

(Johann Amos Comenius, Orbis Sensualium Pictus, 1658, pp.172)

Comenius demonstrated boys playing games such as bowling, stilts , spinning
tops , and swinging (Madej, 2016). In the Renaissance, John Locke and
Rousseau played a huge role in educating young children. They supported the
necessity of learning experiences through imagination and play for young
children. There were spinning toys, hoops, rocking horses, stick horses,
wheeled toys, kites, as well as puppets and marionettes. Also, new rule based
games which Shuttlecock (badminton), Jeu de Paume (earlier version of
tennis) and Bilboquet were popular among people (Madej, 2016, pp.46).
4. The Nineteenth Century: There were significant reformers and teachers who
were Froebel and Pestalozzi. Froebel’s gifts and occupations that provided
materials to practice skills and his “children’s gardens” school have an
important place in today’s preschools (Madej, 2016). Throughout the
Industrial Revolution, mechanical automatons provided popular imagination
and tin toys and clockwork toys as well as train sets were popular, soldiers,
dolls, dolls house, tea sets, and toy shops, medicines (Madej, 2016).

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 5. 21st Century: Video games and mobile technologies that tablets and phones
are big parts of children’s play culture. Virtual spaces begin to replace the
physical play. You can also discuss the Generations such as x, y and, z. How
does their play culture transform by highly changing technology?
➢ Guidance: Group members should not be off topic from the purpose of role playing
activity, The educator can make suggestions for group members when participants do
not continue the role playing so; the educator should have knowledge about the
context and themes for drama.
D. THE EVALUATION PART
The educator makes a circle again and starts a conversation about the day. The educator takes
a small ball and throws someone in the circle. Then the educator asks group members how
would you describe your experiences about this activity. The educator wants to think about
play culture in the future. Also the educator encourages group members to consider the core
of play in both physical and digital environments. After all group members explain their
opinions, the educator shares his or her comments about the day and expresses his or her final
sentences about the topic. The educator underlines the quote of John Locke which “children
needed concrete experiences in order to learn and implied a close relationship between
cognitive thinking and material artefacts” (Madej, 2016, pp.70). In understanding digital
games, we should focus on how we can make best use of children for the limited sides of
virtual spaces. When we talk about digital games, we realize that they are not very different
from the characteristics of play that were underlined by Huizinga.

REFERENCES
Madej, K. (2016). Physical Play and Children’s Digital Games. George Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Comenius, J, A. (1705). Orbis Sensualium Pictus: Hoc Est, Omnium Principalium in Mundo
Rerum, & in Vita Actionum, Picture & Nomenclature (Hoole, C. Trans.). London. (Original
work published in 1658)