Imagination in the Classroom

A complaint or comment I have heard from a few different young elementary teachers is that children do not know how to use their imaginations. They make comments like, "But kids don't play like that anymore," or, "They can't really even use their imaginations like that."As a child imagination was a big part of my life--imaginary friends and stories, playing Oregon Trail, and all that. According to some educators, children today are not able to entertain themselves like this.

Now, I think this is probably exaggerated. Children will do what is natural to them, and imagination is natural. I still see students making pretend soups or pretending they're cops and robbers. I think the concern is that our current society and even educational system tend to discourage such imagination in children. An emphasis in society is watching TV, and at school we teach children to be quiet and on task. And by on task we mean doing some directly academic work. And I think this may cause children to lose their imagination and sense of play earlier than they should. Play has been found to be a key asset in bringing up intelligent students.

So, I would encourage us all to try to incorporate imaginative play into our classrooms. I'll give some random ideas for doing this in the classroom, and I would love to hear other ways to encourage and nurture students' imagination.

Instead of coloring pages, blank pieces of paper for drawing.
Student-created plays.
Free play blocks as a math center.
Imaginative "worksheets", such as ones that have students make 'recipes', using letters as ingredients to make words as a food. Or worksheets that allow students to arrange a room in a house or pretend to be a knight or an astronaut or teacher.
Books! Reading aloud books that are good literature, even and especially at the young ages.
Encouraging classroom discussion where students respond to each other.
Allowing students to resolve conflicts instead of teacher immediately giving the verdict.
Creative writing, such as "what would it be like to be a rock?" for the rock-cycle

Et c.