Please, Can We Play Games?


Book Description

¿Please, can we play games now?¿ is a frequent plea in the early childhood classroom. Children explore and relate to their world through play, and something magical happens when it¿s time for games and a caring adult dons the cloak of playful lightheartedness. A regular offering of appropriate games in the early childhood curriculum can create a powerful atmosphere for healthy development. Between teacher and children a safe harbor springs up¿a place where trust, interest, joy, and an enthusiasm for learning is kindled. Rudolf Steiner expressed many times that children thrive in an atmosphere of joy, warmth, and love. He also stressed the importance of imitation in early childhood. The Waldorf early childhood classroom strives to be a place where children want to follow their teacher¿s worthy example. Please, Can We Play Games? offers the author¿s forty years of creating, collecting, and playing traditional and original verses, songs, and games for early childhood circle time or home play. As you make your way through the pages of this book, may you enjoy your own personal harvest of food for the young child¿s body, soul, and spirit. Perhaps for you too!




Top 10 Games You Can Play in Your Head, by Yourself: Second Edition


Book Description

"Your mind is now the ultimate gaming engine. Ditch the remote. Ditch the controller. Explore worlds and stories through a revolutionary single-player role-playing system that pushes your imagination beyond its furthest limits"--Back cover.




101 Games to Play Whilst Socially Distancing


Book Description

During this global pandemic there are many unknowns for teachers. However, one thing is clear - social distancing, at least in some form, is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Attempting social distancing with young children raises many questions: how is it possible? How can we incorporate it into games and activities? How do we help and support children with this lack of human connection? Written by an early education expert and consultant, '101 Games To Play Whilst Socially Distancing' provides a simple, and step-by-step description of games covering the entire curriculum that take place within the context of social distancing. Resources have been stripped back, to leave a collection of activities where storytelling, role-play, drama, song, and movement come to the fore. Wellbeing is at the heart of this book. Children's mental health has been tested recently in ways never experienced by earlier generations, and wellbeing and happiness are central to all the games. This book teaches: * A wide range of outdoor games, and all the activities can be played in the outdoor environment if required * Many games that develop memory and listening skills * Multiple maths games, that develop skills in number, shape and calculating * A wide selection of early phonics and literacy games * Activities ideal for Kindergarten, Reception, Preschool, Key Stage 1, Pre-K, Nursery - all children between the ages of 3-7 * Inspiration that is ideal for teachers, junior sports coaches, preschool workers, childminders - anyone that works with young children * A mixture of old classics tweaked to fit with social distancing, combined with numerous games that have been invented afresh for this book '101 Games To Play Whilst Socially Distancing' is the ultimate handbook for teachers and educators seeking ideas and structure at this historic moment, and a source of inspiration providing fun, laughter and learning in these difficult times.




How to Play Video Games


Book Description

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.




Redeeming Productivity


Book Description

Feeling overwhelmed and unproductive? The answer isn’t to do more. What image forms in your mind when you think of productivity? An assembly line? Spreadsheets? Business suits or workplace uniforms? In the ancient world, productivity didn't conjure images like these. Instead, it referred to crop yield and fruit bearing. This agrarian imagery helps us understand productivity through a biblical lens. Jesus taught, By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit (John 15:8). Who doesn’t want to have a truly productive life—to bear much fruit? But how does this happen in the places we hold dear—the home, workplace, and in our communities? We often feel overworked and overrun, defeated and discouraged. The world says be productive so that you can get all you can out of this life. The Bible says be productive so you can gain more of the next life. In Redeeming Productivity, author Reagan Rose explores how God’s glory is the purpose for which He planted us. And he shows how productivity must be firmly rooted in the gospel. Only through our connection to Christ—the True Vine—are we empowered to produce good fruit. This book shows how we can maintain the vitality of that connection through simple, life-giving disciplines. Readers will discover manageable applications like giving God the first fruits of our days. Additionally, Reagan discusses how our perspective on suffering is transformed as we see trials as God’s pruning for greater productivity.




Lost in a Good Game


Book Description

'Etchells writes eloquently ... A heartfelt defence of a demonised pastime' The Times 'Once in an age, a piece of culture comes along that feels like it was specifically created for you, the beats and words and ideas are there because it is your life the creator is describing. Lost In A Good Game is exactly that. It will touch your heart and mind. And even if Bowser, Chun-li or Q-Bert weren't crucial parts of your youth, this is a flawless victory for everyone' Adam Rutherford When Pete Etchells was 14, his father died from motor neurone disease. In order to cope, he immersed himself in a virtual world - first as an escape, but later to try to understand what had happened. Etchells is now a researcher into the psychological effects of video games, and was co-author on a recent paper explaining why WHO plans to classify 'game addiction' as a danger to public health are based on bad science and (he thinks) are a bad idea. In this, his first book, he journeys through the history and development of video games - from Turing's chess machine to mass multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft- via scientific study, to investigate the highs and lows of playing and get to the bottom of our relationship with games - why we do it, and what they really mean to us. At the same time, Lost in a Good Game is a very unusual memoir of a writer coming to terms with his grief via virtual worlds, as he tries to work out what area of popular culture we should classify games (a relatively new technology) under.




Play Better Games


Book Description

Ordinary games are an important vehicle for children's learning. They provide a powerful, naturally occurring learning environment that is physical, playful and fun. Playing games requires interpersonal skills in language, thought, social behavior, creativity, self-regulation and skilful use of the body. When children play games together they develop the following key capacities: •Cooperative behavior •Focused attention •Social understanding •Holding information in mind •Motor, spatial and sequential planning •Self-regulation, e.g impulse control, coping with excitement, controlled exertion •Collaborative behavior and negotiation •Self-expression and creativity. Games provide a social experience that is emotionally compelling, where children laugh and have fun and do not realise they are interacting, problem solving, negotiating and cooperating with each other. Play Better Games is designed to help practitioners and parents to think about what might prohibit their children from joining in with games and plan effective strategies for support. It will be of benefit to teachers, therapists, group works, play workers, midday supervisors and support workers, as well as to parents and siblings of children with autism.




How to Play Video Games


Book Description

Forty original contributions on games and gaming culture What does Pokémon Go tell us about globalization? What does Tetris teach us about rules? Is feminism boosted or bashed by Kim Kardashian: Hollywood? How does BioShock Infinite help us navigate world-building? From arcades to Atari, and phone apps to virtual reality headsets, video games have been at the epicenter of our ever-evolving technological reality. Unlike other media technologies, video games demand engagement like no other, which begs the question—what is the role that video games play in our lives, from our homes, to our phones, and on global culture writ large? How to Play Video Games brings together forty original essays from today’s leading scholars on video game culture, writing about the games they know best and what they mean in broader social and cultural contexts. Read about avatars in Grand Theft Auto V, or music in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. See how Age of Empires taught a generation about postcolonialism, and how Borderlands exposes the seedy underbelly of capitalism. These essays suggest that understanding video games in a critical context provides a new way to engage in contemporary culture. They are a must read for fans and students of the medium.




The Earthman


Book Description

Adam is on a mission to find a new planet for the human race, and instead, he stumbles into an extraordinary new universe where the sky and sun are of different colours and the moon and oceans are nonexistent. He is rescued and cared for by a family from the planet Xoor, a planet of superpowerful beings. Adam, of course, finds it hard to believe at first, but with time, he learns to accept it. Now, he wants to repay these people for their hospitality; he wants to make a contribution, and he wants to integrate socially into their way of life, their habits, and their customs. The truth is, he is enticing them to his. The Xoorians are about to find out about the superhuman race.




The Mood of the Fifth


Book Description

Music is a vital part of the healthy development of young children and yet many teachers can struggle with this key area.This book collects together different perspectives on the theme of music in the mood of the fifth (that is, using a pentatonic scale of five notes), to help teachers, parents and carers understand and work with music at kindergarten level.The book includes classic articles by Jennifer Aulie, Wilma Ellersiek and Rita Jacobs, along with new contributions by Michael Deason-Barrow, Jana Hawley, Renate Long-Breipohl, Sally Schweizer, Estelle Bryer, Eleanor Winship, Jill Taplin and many others.A key resource book for Steiner-Waldorf teachers.