Understanding Children’s Free Play in Primary Schools

Various technologies (e.g., tablets, toolkits, and digital toys) are used in schools. However, they are often designed to introduce new play practices for serving pre-defined learning purposes. In this study, we are interested in constructive play ’in the wild’ and how technologies can be integrated more organically into the ways young school children are already playing. This paper presents 4 one-week ethnographic study in four early primary school class- rooms (children aged 5-7). The aim is to gain insights in children’s free play and identify design opportunities for technology serving children’s constructive play. Our findings illustrate children’s interactions with resources and peers during free play, which often involve imitations and dynamically change between being solitary and social. We observed that children’s constructive play was often associated with other forms of play. On this basis, we suggest three design implications for technologies that support and encourage constructive play during fee play in schools.