Events & Gallery

Workshop Report: Importance of Play & Story Reading Workshop

Date:5.7.2025
Venue: PVBM Auditorium
Participants: Students, Teachers, Parents
Objective: A comprehensive workshop focusing on the Importance of Play and an interactive Story Reading session was conducted for kindergarten parents.

The session emphasized the critical role of play in child development and showcased how stories can be used as powerful tools for teaching language, thinking, and social skills.
Introduction: The workshop commenced with a prayer, followed by a welcome address, extending greetings to all attendees.
“Importance of Play” – Led by Vice Principal
Interactive Start: “Truth or Myth”
The Vice Principal initiated the session with an engaging “Truth or Myth” activity to break common misconceptions about play. Statements included:
“Only expensive toys help children learn”
“Watching videos is the same as playing”
“Messy play is unnecessary”
“Play is a waste of time when children could be learning letters and numbers”
Each statement was discussed, encouraging active participation and critical thinking among parents.
Definition and Value of Play:
Play is the foundation of all learning and development in childhood. It contributes to physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic growth.
Schemas in Play:
Different patterns in how children explore and learn through play were highlighted:
Transporting: Moving objects builds planning and coordination.
Enclosure: Creating spaces for emotional and spatial understanding.
Trajectory: Exploring motion and control through throwing and aiming.
Orientation & Rotation: Understanding movement and body awareness.
Containment: Filling and emptying containers for volume concepts.
Construction: Building structures to foster creativity and problem-solving.
Positioning: Lining up and arranging objects to support sequencing.
Connecting: Linking objects for fine motor development.
Free Play vs Structured Play:
The importance of allowing children time for open-ended, child-led play was emphasized.
Developmental Benefits of Play:
Physical: Strength and motor coordination
Cognitive: Planning, reasoning, problem-solving
Language: Vocabulary and expressive skills
Social: Teamwork, sharing, turn-taking
Emotional: Self-regulation, confidence, empathy
Imagination: Creativity and storytelling
How Parents Can Support:
Offer safe and varied materials for play
Join children occasionally in pretend play
Encourage storytelling and imaginative exploration
Praise effort and participation
Time Recommendations:
At least 1–2 hours of active play daily, balanced between indoor and outdoor settings.
Story Reading Workshop
The second segment of the workshop focused on the Story Reading Workshop, a practical session demonstrating storytelling as a teaching strategy.
Teacher-led Demonstration
Teachers followed a planned sequence across six days of storytelling, showing how stories can be broken down into engaging, age-appropriate learning experiences.
Day 1: Picture Prediction
Students were shown story illustrations and asked guiding questions to predict the story content
Day 2: Reading with Expression
Story should be read clearly, expressive reading to encourage fluency and listening comprehension.
Day 3: Justification
Questions such as “Why do we help others?” and “What do you love doing?” were posed to develop critical thinking.
Day 4: Sight Words Activities
Creative games like Sight Word Bingo, Interactive Word Walls, and Story Stones helped children recognize words by sight.
Day 5: Sequencing
Students were asked to arrange pictures and sentences from the story in correct order, reinforcing narrative structure and event sequencing.
Day 6: Creative Expression
Children were encouraged to draw their favourite scene and rate the story using star symbols. This helped them express preferences and opinions, building early evaluative thinking.
Student Participation
Students actively volunteered during the story session:
Answering questions related to the story
Identifying characters and actions
Parent Involvement
Parents observed the learning methods and were also engaged by:
Answering about the game they played during their childhood.
Answering story-related questions.