Alicia Savory: Responding to Children’s Interests Through Play

Have you ever spent ages setting up a play and they either ignore it, “destroy it” or play for a few moments then walk off? Yes, me too! Imagine being placed in a room with just the books a friend owns, you read a few pages and realise they are not to your taste and so you quickly get bored. Well for a child, that’s likely what they must feel in a room full of adult driven themed set ups for them to explore. Up until about a year ago I was very “theme” driven and planned the themes for every term, and often recycled them the following year.  But do you really know whether those children in your setting will be interested in People Who Help Us for an entire half term in Summer 2?

When children have a fascination, it’s vital we use that as a vessel to fuel their curiosity and motivation to learn through play. How do we know what they are interested in? We watch, observe and respectfully question. Now I’m not saying if a few children pretend to play doctors you completely strip your home corner and transform it into a doctors over night! You may want to add just a first aid kit like they may have at home.

Recently we have been going on our daily walks and my son spotted some rubbish floating in the pond and said “Mummy, did the ducks eat the chocolate?” Now instead of feeding him the answer, I said, “I wonder if they did? What do you think?” On the way home we spoke about whether the ducks liked having rubbish in their home and he was so curious about what else might be in the pond too. So, I set up this little provocation with some nature, animals, water and various loose parts of differing materials. This gave him an opportunity to discuss what belonged in the water and what didn’t, what would the duck like to eat? How did it get there? What feelings do the ducks have about it being there? How could we help? As well as having opportunities to explore a range of concept such as floating/sinking/recycling etc.

When setting up play provocations it’s important we try to make it as open ended as we can to enable the children to have autonomy on the direction of their play – let them be the architects. These two similar little set ups were inspired by the child’s fascination with loose parts as well as them evidently exploring the positioning and enveloping schemas. I created a playdough parlour with junk and another with nature a few weeks later. I provided a range of tools including hammers, rolling pins, tongs and even a garlic press (which are great for hand strength, cause and effect and getting your technology in). The balance scales provide opportunities for weight to be explored and it’s important to think about the loose parts you add, do they encourage curiosity and help explore the misconceptions of size/weight relationships. Do you have small heavy items and large light items in there? The numerals and carefully selected books create a print and number rich environment without it feeling forced or out of place. It provides opportunity not necessity to use them.

Our time on the Wanderlust Nature Study and the Accreditation have encouraged us to be more “weful” with our provision, we are not just mindful of the children’s ideas and interests we embrace being present with them and they become co-constructors of their environment. Finding their hooks and subtly but invitingly adding these into the play provision has become one of the most exciting and thrilling parts of my day – witnessing awe and wonder in childhood is a privilege and it is truly magical.

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