"Happy Hearts and happy faces Happy play in grassy places - That was how, in ancient ages, Children grew to kings and sages." Robert Louis Stevenson I simply love the beginning of chapter two in Sue Palmer's book "Toxic Childhood". She chooses to illustrate the importance of play conjuring up lovely images; "Centre-screen, a lion is basking in the sun. Three young cubs tumble, prowl and pounce around him - play-hunting, play-fighting and occasionally launching themselves at their father, until he loses patience and brushes them away with a mighty paw. Into this picture edges the natural historian David Attenborough, speaking softly into the mike so as not to disturb the family group. ‘Play,' he breathes sonorously, ‘is a very serious business.' Thus we can see in a moment that conjures up humour, affection, easy and most natural parallels just how important play is. Just as the cubs develop physical control and co-ordination they will need for the hunt, one can imagine babies and toddlers rolling, stretching, crawling, waddling, pulling themselves up in a variety of playful situations, preparing for similar control and co-ordination they will need, in order for them to be able to walk. The cubs are in a safe controlled environment, exploring and experimenting with what it's like to take risks and they find out (without too much consequence) what happens when they step over the line. Learning is deeper when children have a sense of well being, feel safe to make mistakes, take risks and practice or rehearse things as many times as they need to. As this clip illustrates, learning through play is fun and it can happen as much outdoors as it can indoors, whatever the weather! The Early Years Foundation Stage stipulates "Providers must ensure that there is a balance of adult-led and freely-chosen or child-initiated activities, delivered through indoor and outdoor play." Play is rightly at the heart of the EYFS. A common strand in studies such as EPPE (The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education) is that they found play to be a natural, essential and integral part of a child's education; for play is a child's hard work. Children use play as a vehicle to make sense of their world and by facilitating play (free, directed, child-initiated or adult led) we can help children to initiate and enjoy their own learning, experiment, rehearse, take risks and try things out in a safe, familiar and non-threatening environment. Directed play can be used to scaffold children's learning so that they are not only reinforcing and consolidating concepts, by using what they already know, they can also build upon this and move into new, exciting and challenging ground guided by adults, peers, resources or specifically structured games and activities. Using our professional autonomy and interpretational skills to deliver a well balanced and diverse curriculum, can not only inspire others but crucially it helps children to become engrossed in their learning, a key element in raising achievement and helping children to achieve their full potential. If you look at the orange Learning and Development card 4.1 ‘Play and Exploration the commitment there clearly states "Children's play reflects their wide ranging and varied interests and preoccupations. In their play children learn at their highest level. Play with peers is important for children's development." It seems to state the obvious but it is so fundamental, that it is essential to have it so gleamingly obvious, in so many places within the EYFS. To help practitioners facilitate learning through play the ‘Contexts for learning ‘ box gives advice such as ‘Children need plenty of space and time to play, both indoors and outdoors' and my favourite ‘Children who are allowed to play with resources and equipment before using them to solve a problem, are more likely to solve the problem successfully.' It's not only children is it? This also applies to adults....can you think of anything you have recently learnt about through play and exploration? Let me rustle up a recent personal example to help jog your memory...... My elderly neighbour asked me to look at her hoover which had stopped working for no apparent reason and because, as a child, I had seen my mum dismantle ours many times, I had the confidence to play around and explore the inner workings of my neighbour's hoover. Out came the screwdriver, I twiddled it here and twiddled it there to take a plastic cover off from the underneath only to find a thick black stiff elastic rubber band had split in two. Obviously that needed replacing but before I went off to the shops for that I delved into dismantling other parts pulling hair and dust out of all sorts of nooks and crannies. And I have to say, that although it doesn't sound like a very nice job, I was chuffed to bits at being able to dismantle, clean and replace broken parts without asking my husband to tear himself away from the Olympics. Had I had my engineering father in law beside me, we would have enjoyed some very deep sustained shared thinking as he would have named all the parts, explained their purpose, told me what materials they were made of and why etc. But nothing can replace that feeling of satisfaction when you have learned something for yourself and the best thing for a practitioner to do is to facilitate this for children through a carefully planned array of play experiences so that the children can enjoy ‘light bulb' or ‘penny dropping moments' of joy for themselves. This will boost confidence and self esteem tremendously! I have seen children taking apart all sorts from computers, mobile phones and televisions to flowers stuffed toys and bicycles and it is through play and exploration that they use their experiences to extend their own thinking, build up ideas, concepts, skills and simply seek to make sense of the world around them in terms they can understand and get to grips with. In the ‘Adult Involvement' section points about spontaneous and planned play are made and I think that a balance of both is healthy. So that we can maximise opportunities to help develop and extend children's language and communication through their play, planning, sensitive observation and sometimes appropriate intervention are needed. I'll always remember inviting a friend (who happened to be an air stewardess) into my setting as part of our ‘Around the World' topic because there was an ideal balance of spontaneous and planned play and exploration that day. The planned elements included things like: Welcome and introduction Look at collage of postcards guessing where in the world they are explainng reasons why Share own holiday experiences and plot on map Explore artefacts from around the world Afternoon tea with our guest enjoying food and drink from around the world Try on clothes, take photos, play woth toys/games Have a story, say goodbye, hometime. Different toys, clothes, ornaments and souvenirs from 5 countries some of the children had been to and 5 that none of them had been to. Postcards, pictures and maps for the children to look at, find and compare. A travel agents role play corner A selection of sandwiches, fruit, cakes and biscuits that the children had made with me (recipes from around the world) or brought in from home as some had Chinese, Middle Eastern, Indian and American parents. Without the planning, the afternoon would have had no structure, the learning potential would not have been maximised, the children would have been overexcited, as they would not have been part of the planning and preparation, and my friend would not have had the time to think through what she was going to do, say or bring. I felt that it was as a result of the careful planning we all did together that spontaneous moments of play occur and be ‘allowed'. That seems a dreadful thing to say doesn't it? But spontaneous moments of play could potentially ruin all of your careful planning and organisation as a practitioner and we need to be aware of our own ‘controlling ways' because that's the first step in realising that we can and should ‘let go and go with the flow' sometimes and be brave enough to really follow the children's lead and not hinder their learning by sticking ridgidly to our own agenda. For example I could not predict, as I started to offer the food around on trays that one little girl would excitedly suggest "Let's pretend we are on a plane and be air stewardesses". Part of me was screaming "No" inside because I didn't want spillages and chaos or even the risk of them brought into such a beautifully planned and well executed afternoon. The better half of me won that day and I'm so glad it did. I decided to value that contribution, go with it knowing that I had an extra pair of hands to help me deal with any consequences in my good friend. Following the children's lead I handed the trays over, became a passenger on the imaginary plane with my friend at the helm as ‘Captain' and observed their gleeful excitement as they took turns, offered food and drink around (only one spillage to clear up!) politely organising themselves as I sat back in awe wishing there was a camera on ‘record' recording it all somewhere. I had unwittingly unleashed a whole new dimension and level of learning by allowing and joining in with child-initiated play and was quite amazed by their imaginations as they described what they saw out of the plane windows, the conversations they were having with fellow holiday makers, the problems they solved from a fire on board to a choking baby who had eaten some spicy Indian food and needed hanging upside down and slapping on the back to get the spicy lump of chicken out...oh dear and it landed on my head which everyone, even me, found hilarious! I have to admit that it was the best part of the afternoon and required no resources other than our own imaginations and they did, quite literally,take us around the world. "Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." Albert Einstein Shortly after that visit my friend made the brave decision of handing in her notice at British Airways, signing up for a PGCE and is now a happy and successful teacher...what a happy afternoon full of play and exploration for all of us! ‘Adult involvement' on card 4.1 also states that ‘Play comes naturally and spontaneously to most children, thought some need adult support.' This may be true and we need to be aware that children are essentially very egocentric and self-centred in their youngest years because they are gradually developing an awareness of themselves and how they are separate from others. Hopefully most will be their family's pride and joy so they will be used to having the world revolve around them and may not yet know quite how to do co-operative play. You can't share or learn to if you have never been given the opportunity or had to before. So be patient with children as they learn new skills, practise them, reinforce and consolidate them time and time again with you, other children and adults in a variety of situations as playfully as possible. The statement above could so easily be misread or reworded to say "Play comes naturally to most children, though adults may need some support." This is just as true. Some adults may find it hard to play alongside children and suspend their disbelief but it is one of the most enjoyable, rewarding and informative ways of engaging with children, so even if it doesn't come naturally because we are all grown up and have forgotten how to play, please please practise. Both you and the children will benefit in immeasurable ways. The effective practice section of this card will help you with pointers such as "Tell and read stories and encourage children to act them out." Editor: "We hope you do, and that you share your playful experiences with your online colleagues in the Forums!" Good books "Outdoor Play" by Ros Bayley, Lynn Broadbent and Sally Featherstone, spiralbound paperback published by Featherstone Education ISBN 978-1-906029-48-7. "Can't Play Won't Play" by Sharon Drew and Elizabeth Atter paperback published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers ISBN 978-1-84310-601-2. "Teaching Play to Children with Autism" by Nicky Phillips and Liz Beavan paperback published by Paul Chapman Publishing ISBN 978-1-4129-2894-6. "Toxic Childhood" by Sue Palmer paperback published by Orion Books price £12.99 ISBN 0-75287-359-8. "The Little Book of Games with Sounds" spiralbound paperback published by Featherstone Eductaion ISBN 978-1-90629-11-1. "The Little Book of Counting" spiralbound paperback published by Featherstone Eductaion ISBN 978-1-906029-10-4.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.