What do you think of when someone says they want to play? Do you envision frolicking in a park, picking up a video game controller, or enjoying a pick-up game of basketball? In California State University, Northridge professor Delfina Newton’s Recreation and Tourism Management 305 class, “Dynamics of Early Childhood Play,” it’s all that and more.

Since 1998, professor Newton has been showing her students how children can take “play” to another level, both physically and mentally. For her, there’s no better place to show how that’s done than the course’s annual Play Day.

The yearly event takes her students out into the community to practice what they learned in RTM 305 and interact with real kids. CSUN students from all disciplines, ranging from psychology to education, sign up to take this popular class if they’re looking to work with children in the future. Armed with phrases like “active involvement” and  “intrinsic motivation,” Newton has prepared her students with techniques to bring a child’s attention and focus to creating a world out of play, whether it’s through physical movement or reading a Dr. Seuss book. For her, both actions ultimately support the same goal.

Play Day participants enjoy last year’s event. Photo courtesy of Delfina Newton.

“Play Day came about with trying to bring play back into the curriculum,” Newton said, “showing that there are great benefits when we incorporate play concepts into our children’s schooling.” For her, the idea of play has been a casualty in the war on school budgeting. Cutbacks on after school programs — where children were able to run around and get extra help reading — are an example of how a once-fertile ground for imagination is now almost gone. It’s her job to teach future teachers and child experts how to fill in the gaps.

This year, their fertile testing ground is a local child guidance clinic called the Northpoint School. On Dec. 7, Newton and her class will develop experimental, hands-on techniques that will introduce the children to a world of play and the participating CSUN students to a world where their theory becomes practice.

“We’re focusing on the process of play, not an end product or end result,” Newton said. “We’re looking at … spontaneous play. Things happening at the spur of the moment. “There’s also a level of imagination, make believe, fantasy or however you want to phrase it.”

In previous years, that’s meant projects like the kids making yellow boxes based on their reading of Dr. Seuss’ “The Butter Battle Book,” which led to a raucously good time during which the children learned how to share and care — all through fun. And that’s one of Newton’s main goals.

“I do social skills programming with kids, and when you start breaking down one game, all of a sudden we’re using teamwork, we’re cooperating, we’re having to communicate with one another,” Newton said.  “Play offers so many benefits that, to the naked eye, one can easily miss and not catch.”