Children engaging in play spaces...

Creating interesting play spaces for children is important to engage their imaginations. From this, the outcomes for chidren are limitless. As teachers, we can either provide activites that have provocation, such as hair dressing tools or are open ended and are an inviaton to play. While we are mainly driven by children's interests, sometimes we add our own ideas or provocation to see where the children will take them. Ka nui ake to matauranga, your knowledge increases. Today, two great examples of each type of activity occured.

This morning, we had some great donations of hair accessories that came from a discussion with a teacher. This led into some wonderful role play and rich language experiences. Some Habits of Mind came into practice. Working interdependently to do some ones hair, persisting and problem solving with the tricky hairclips and having empathy to share and make sure there were enough items for everyone.

We will keep these resources out and see what follows and what further plans the children continue with over time. 

In the afternoon, we set up open ended resources in appealing manner to create an invitation to play. This was well received. The mirrors added another dimension and created some curiosity and some oportunities for questioning and problem solving. These are simple activities that you can easily set up at home too!