Activities - A quick question...

[louby loo]

Is it only at our setting this happens-

 

I can spent hours looking on pinterest or similar, and I find all these beautiful and fantastic ideas - How to set up your tuffspot etc.

 

I feel so inspired when I look..... so I set ours up .... and within minutes it's trashed (in a nice way) and looks nothing like it did, with no hope of it looking like it again for the rest of the session.

 

Example - The three pigs, within minutes the whole selection of building materials are mixed together in a bowl and the pigs have gone for a walk the library area in a bag - never to be seen again! :lol: :lol:

[finleysmaid]

no not just in your setting! however I have decided that without the fine examples of delicious environments that we set up they will not learn to extend their own creative bents. This was demonstrated last year when in the third term my group of boys announced that they were going to set up a dinosaur land and promptly collected rocks/plants/boxes etc etc and created the most wonderful play space :wub: so hang on in there....they are taking it all in!

[Cait]

Perhaps you need to ask yourself why you want to create these scenes in the first place? What are you hoping that the children will do with them? What learning are you wanting to see taking place? Would it be better to just provide the resources in a basket and let the children create what they want? How familiar are they with the story - has it gripped their imaginations fully? In my experience, children won't really engage in that sort of play unless they can see themselves actually within the story. I think it's possible to spend too much time thinking of 'idealised' play, when children just aren't interested in the directions that an adult wants the play to go. If we actually observe how the children are interacting with the materials and the play that is going on, I have found that this can often be much richer and rewarding than any play experience I could set up.

[louby loo]

no not just in your setting! however I have decided that without the fine examples of delicious environments that we set up they will not learn to extend their own creative bents. This was demonstrated last year when in the third term my group of boys announced that they were going to set up a dinosaur land and promptly collected rocks/plants/boxes etc etc and created the most wonderful play space :wub: so hang on in there....they are taking it all in!

As long as they arrive nice and early before the 'earthquake' has devastated said delicious environment :lol:

 

It is lovely to see the wonder on their faces when they first see it though- and in all honestly some do play as it was intended acting out bits of the stories .

[louby loo]

Perhaps you need to ask yourself why you want to create these scenes in the first place? What are you hoping that the children will do with them? What learning are you wanting to see taking place? Would it be better to just provide the resources in a basket and let the children create what they want? How familiar are they with the story - has it gripped their imaginations fully? In my experience, children won't really engage in that sort of play unless they can see themselves actually within the story. I think it's possible to spend too much time thinking of 'idealised' play, when children just aren't interested in the directions that an adult wants the play to go. If we actually observe how the children are interacting with the materials and the play that is going on, I have found that this can often be much richer and rewarding than any play experience I could set up.

 

Trust me, I spend more time looking at other peoples pinterest ideas than I do actually setting them up at work.. :1b Like you I cant really see the point of the effort some people put in- I prefer doing it with the children themselves, especially dens and things.