From Pat-A-Cake to Play Dough
“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief
from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning.
Play is the work of childhood.”
— Fred Rogers
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that playing is key to building thriving
brains, bodies, and social bonds. Play can improve children’s abilities to plan,
organize, get along with others, and can even help them cope with stress.
Library staff plan multi-sensory activities, like playing with play dough or painting
with shaving cream, that encourage children to learn by observing, copying, and
experimenting. When multiple activities such as talking, listening, seeing, and touching
are combined, they stimulate more areas of the brain, making it more likely that children
will retain new information.
Parents and caregivers can engage children in many forms of playful learning:
24 FALL 2021 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
Ask a child to read to you; wake your
child up in the morning with a special
song; read street and road signs in the
car or cereal boxes in the grocery store;
listen to an audiobook, take a walk and
play I Spy. And always make time to visit
the Library.
The new Children’s Room on the
first floor at Main Library and the Play
and Learn Station on the second floor
Shaker
Library
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contain interactive play areas. These
areas and activities support and inspire
learning through play by strengthening
the development of early literacy skills
that help children get ready to read when
they start school. The free, unstructured
play areas encourage children to discover
The Power of Play:
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
/shakerlibrary.org