Yes, at Teddy School we practice Albert Einstein's maxim "Play is the highest form of learning". For us, this is a sentence that sets the path for our entire methodology of working with both the youngest and oldest groups.

         To be honest, I don't know when it happened that the sentence - we learn through play - took on a pejorative connotation, but it can already be noticed that when adults hear from a Child that they had fun during classes, they immediately rule out the possibility of gaining any knowledge. Is gaining knowledge, in the opinion of adults, hard work paid for with tears and uncertainty tinged with destructive thoughts directed against one's own self? Namely: "Why can't I remember all these words? What's wrong with me? Marysia will surely remember more than me? You're stupid, you can't remember anything, you won't succeed" - such sentences very quickly arise in our heads and bombard our own self-esteem and faith in our own abilities. Learning does not have to evoke such emotions, we at Teddy School do not want such thoughts to accompany our students, that is why we show them that a foreign language is not difficult at all (even if it is) - we are teachers, facilitators - we guide our students through uncomplicated issues, presenting them in a clear, clear, understandable way for them. The role of the teacher is to present the given content in such a way that it is understood and internalized during classes - play to a large extent allows this goal to be achieved.

         Let's focus on an example, let's imagine that children in class 1 learn to describe animals using the sentence: It has got… (to ma…) and 10 new words from the topic are introduced – animal body parts (e.g. beak, tail, wings…etc.) mechanical repetition of the construction with each of the 10 new words will not have the same effect as equipping children with animal body parts and arranging animals that a classmate describes. This is a game that focuses children's attention (because everyone wants to arrange the animal that their classmate creates), there is a humorous element (when one of the students creates an animal with a body part that the animal does not have in nature – e.g. when describing a bird someone adds fins), there are no winners or losers here (because this is the main element that differentiates play from a game), we as teachers achieve our goal in the form of a practiced construction and vocabulary, and the group integrates and has fun.

         For us, at Teddy School, play always appears in classes, it is not a form of reward - it is a basic element of each lesson. Students do not have to "earn" to play, it is something natural in our classes - like the very fact of going to a lesson. Our students very often leave classes saying that we had a lot of fun today - but Dear Parent, this does not mean the same as free play in kindergarten, school or home. These are games with English, games immersed in the language, just like our students do in every class at our language school Teddy School.