Step Into My Sessions: When Play Takes a Turn: Following Students’ Ideas

It started as a crane—and became something entirely different.

Often, my older groups start in the playroom. It’s a place to gather as students arrive, and often serves as a creative hub to get everyone warmed up.

🤖 Building more Rokenbok track? Sure.

🚗 Battling with the remote-control cars? Just keep it friendly.

⚔️ Invasion of the Rokenbok factory with Minecraft figures? Why not?

Other than showing your best, friendly engagement, one important guideline is: Please try not to break anything.

​Implementing play in sessions

When I come in, I am never quite sure what to expect. 🫣

I do monitor from outside the room, listening for hints of “trouble,” ready to intervene. But one session, I was hearing LOTS of collaborative conversation and well-regulated movements as materials seemed to be shifting around the room.

When I came in, I was SO surprised! 😲 They had modified the Rokenbok crane to serve as a basketball hoop. 🏀

In the photo above, there’s an arrow pointing to it, up at the very top! My four students were sitting around, pitching the many Rokenbok balls in their attempts to score. They had quickly developed a scoring system: if you hit the crane basket, you got a point.

No one was actually making baskets, since the target was SO small and SO high. But no one wanted to bring it down, even though that idea was considered by the group. Although balls were flying all around the room (there are about 200,) no one was complaining about getting hit.

For such a high-energy activity, everyone stayed calm, engaged and connected. Wow! 🤩

🔍 Need another example?

How do you feel about poutine? Many of our students have “interesting interests,” and one of my groups is on a poutine kick.

This fascination emerged as we were writing Seven Sentence Stories (I heard about this activity at a CSHA conference.) Somehow, the activity morphed into creating a flag for Poutinia, as well as googling world maps from 1943 to serve as a basis for determining the international spread of this mighty country, led by Sire Joquanious Johnson III, the 16th Duke of Poutania. 🫅

Again, the discussion was lively, creative, and expanding in ways I could never have thought of. 🤯 Every single group member was engaged, smiling, and interjecting their ideas and opinions. Next week, they plan to work on the national menu, as well as stamps and a website. ✉️🌐

Moments like this are such a good reminder that our students will come up with ideas we never would have imagined. 🧠💫

When they are given the space, they can take familiar materials and transform them in ways that are creative, collaborative, and deeply engaging. Our role is not to direct every moment, but to create the conditions where this kind of play can happen—spaces that are safe, organized, and flexible enough to hold their ideas. 🤔💡

That means setting clear expectations, staying nearby, and being ready to step in if needed—but also knowing when to step back. When we get that balance right, students can surprise us in the best possible ways. ⚖️

Whether it’s transforming a crane into a basketball hoop or building an entire country around a shared idea, these moments remind me that engagement doesn’t come from what we plan—it comes from what students bring into the room.

✨ When we create space for their ideas, support the structure around them, and stay open to where things might go, we give students the opportunity to collaborate, imagine, and build something together that feels meaningful to them.

Reflective moment

Where in your sessions might you step back just a bit more—and see what your students build from there?

Hope you are taking the needed breaks we all need 😌