Fun is an Avenue to Learning: Why Fun Matters in Preschool Ministry

Play matters

It may not surprise you to learn that play is a key defining behavior in young children. It allows them to try out new ideas, create ownership over these ideas, and practice these ideas. In other words, play (and the fun that comes with it) is an avenue through which kids learn.

Play can help your Bible lessons take deeper root

When we think of the ideas about God and His Word that we want the kids in our ministry to grasp and have ownership of, we can jump at the chance to increase the impact of our teaching by adding in more fun and play. Game time has always had a prominent place in Awana because fun matters when you want Bible lessons to sink into kids’ hearts!

Fun and play are not about entertainment

As we mentioned, fun is of critical importance to kids because it is the channel through which they learn. Fun isn’t just about providing entertainment for kids—it is actually using the best pathways in their brain to involve them deeper in a learning opportunity. Research is clear when it comes to the value of play and fun in how it helps learning—the fact that it is enjoyable is a great side benefit!

What kind of play best encourages learning? Here are four characteristics of meaningful play and how to make your free play and game times reflect them.

Four Characteristics of Meaningful Play:

1. Children get to make their own decisions about how they play
2. Play is enjoyable to them
3. Children are intrinsically motivated to want to play
4. Children become immersed in the moment

Some examples

These can sound like great ideas, but how to translate them into your preschool ministry may seem puzzling. Remember this can include both free play but also the games and led activities we do, so here are a few thoughts…

When children can have agency over how they engage in play, they will take more of an interest in what they are playing. When you are holding a game time, give kids choices in how they participate. For example, if you have them act out a story, let them choose what character they will be or give them a choice of costumes to decide between as they act it out. Or, if you are having them move from one spot to the next, invite them to decide how they will do it (walk, hop, crawl, etc.).

You also likely have times with your preschoolers where you are providing activities for the kids to choose between, like a craft they can do or something on the floor they can play. Recognize that even offering this choice increases your likelihood of the children in your program being more interested in what they choose to do.

We can make play enjoyable to children by being intentional about fun. Are you hanging out with some preschoolers while playing play dough? Smile and ask them to tell you about what they are making and see if you can get them to be silly with you. Make something out of play dough yourself, and talk about it in a way that lets the kids know you are having fun too!

Check out the Cubbies Teaching Plans for some great ideas on Play Time to do with preschoolers, or if you want some for parents to do at home, you can check out the Puggles At Home Kit or the Cubbies Under the Apple Tree activities in the kids’ AppleSeed and HoneyComb handbooks. You can also see our Q & A about Play Time, a segment of a weekly Cubbies program.

Remember that play is a big deal

It can be a big deal for us and our fellow adults to just recognize that when kids are playing, they are learning. When we are respecting play time or game time as a learning moment, we will be more willing to be in the moment with them. When we are in the moment with them, they will be engaged in deeper play.  Now that we know play matters, we can look for times to give children opportunities for curiosity and choice in our class time. We need to include fun and play in any learning moment that we can because it will make better pathways to the important things we want them to learn.

Fun is the avenue through which children learn best — and research backs this up — so learning should be infused with fun!