Essential Resources: Schemes, Positioning - Right on

Children with a positioning scheme love to line up toys or place objects in specific ways. They may place a single dinosaur on each corner of the table, a toy car on the left-hand side of each step they climb, or they may spend time repositioning objects.

During mealtimes, they may be specific about where they want their food to be placed on a plate – and they may have certain traits, such as getting dressed in a certain order.

It is important that early years educators are receptive to this stage of development and seed the environment to maximise learning potential.

BEHIND THE SCENES

From the outside, the way in which children with a positioning scheme play appears ordered, regimented and precise. But according to Lynnette Brock, director of SchemaPlay, children are likely to be exploring a range of complex ideas.

She explains, ‘For example, they may be working out how things fit in a space, exploring tessellations, symmetry or equivalence, which are complex mathematical ideas. Other children may explore height or dimension, perhaps leading to a grading scheme.’

Take three-year-old Helen from a pre-school in Kent, who was observed positioning her toy horse on a book shelf. First, she explored its position on the far left of the books, then on the far right, and finally she placed the horse in the centre of the books. During the process, she sat down on a rug, looked up at the horse and then repeated the activity again and again.

Her educator noticed this interest and her application of a positioning scheme and decided to observe the child in other contexts. She noticed that the positioning scheme was being applied in constructions, in her art creation of a farm diorama, as well as in her language. She used phrases such as, ‘I will put the road in the middle of the fields and the muddy field will be at the top. The stable will be at the bottom.’

AGES AND STAGES

As children journey through schematic stages, they develop their reasoning, problem-solving, predicting and theorising, creativity, play narratives, social competencies and interactions, language, literacy, and scientific and mathematical thinking (Tina Bruce 1996, 2015).

Lynnette says, ‘Children applying a positioning scheme may be applying a previously explored trajectory scheme in a more systematic approach. Their initial engagement might have supported exploration of drawing lines and building towers or putting objects in rows, and now these earlier activities are explored more systematically, the child’s lens is focused on placement and positions and noticing similarities and differences.’

RESOURCES TO SUPPORT POSITIONING

• Loose parts such as shells, pebbles, logs, buttons, wood slices and glass beads to support the exploration of patterns, counting and creating pictures. TTS’s Shades of Blue Wooden Tonal Collection, £39.95, and its Tree Blocks with Bark, £44.95, are great for building, counting, sorting and classifying. Or try Cosy’s Crate Constructa, £75.
• Peg boards and puzzles that have a socket that each shape fits inside. Try TTS’s Wooden Giant Explorer Peg Puzzle Board, £64.95, or its Sort and Pattern Rainbow Pebbles, £14.99.
• Cable drums are great for balancing and positioning. Try Cosy’s Crate of Cables, £64.99.
• Fuzzy felt.
• Small-world play sets such as Early Excellence’s On the Farm Collection, £110; its Mad About Football Collection, £94.95, or its Doll House, £54.95. Ethnic Wooden Peg People, £15.99 from Cosy, are great for creating narratives in storylines, or children can create their own Car Road Ways, £14.99, perfect for vehicle play.
• Pom-poms, playdough, clay with chopping boards.
• Lightboxes with different shaped or coloured beads. Try Early Excellence’s Interactive A3 Light Board, £110, with Set of Tagua Beads, £13.95. Or TTS’s Circular Light Panel, £135.95, with its Light Box Light Panel Starter Kit 300pcs, £47.95.
• Picture frames and natural resources to position inside. Cosy’s Natural Sorting Set, £58.99, is great for transient art collections.
• Paper, crayons, chalks, paints and upcycled resources, such as tins.
• Graded blocks to support 3D and 2D. Try Early Excellence’s Set of Coloured Acrylic Blocks, £34.95.
• Explore number, size and position with Early Excellence’s Wooden Hundred Square, £26.95, or TTS’s Large Role Play Washing Line with Pegs, £44.95.
• Outdoors, children will enjoy using large-scale loose parts, such as Cosy’s Wooden Disks Bonanza, 30pk, £81.99, or its Tiny Tyres, £89.99.
  
  

CASE STUDY: La Casita Nursery, Hove

Four year-old Jane’s (name changed) interest in the trajectory scheme has led to her exploration of positioning objects in her self-chosen free play, explains early years educator Meritxell Franco of La Casita Nursery in Hove, Brighton.

She says, ‘Jane was initially interested in making towers: knocking them over and putting objects in vertical and horizontal lines. She then moved on to grouping and sorting materials: spools, cones and stones, for example.

‘We seeded the environment to support the positioning scheme by offering groups of objects that would provide an opportunity to perceive differences in height, width, colour, shape and material characteristics. She grouped objects in line by colour, shape and, more frequently, by height – positioning blocks from small to tall, which represents early grading and also links to measuring.

‘A few months later, she began to count the blocks in her constructed tower, fostering her perception that as she adds one more block, the quantity increases. The next step was for us to seed further resources: nesting dolls, puzzles that support grading, number discs and counters. We also seeded different-sized stamps, boxes, cartons, pipe cleaners and natural resources to promote constructions and modelling.

‘To support language and literacy, we read stories with positioning in the story line, such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as well as stories about size and shape. We sang songs such as Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes and played games such as Simon Says. We added objects in the mud kitchen which would enable a positioning scheme to be applied, such as pans with lids to fit on corresponding-sized hob rings, along with new objects to explore: coasters, pots, buttons and groups of food to foster role-play.

‘In just a few months, we witnessed Jane enjoy mathematical experiences and early measuring. She engages happily in collaborative play when the positioning scheme application is possible. Her self-expression and sharing of ideas is wonderful to witness. She is self-motivated and really appears to enjoy every opportunity offered when anchored in the trajectory, sorting, positioning and now grading schemes, which are also now being combined in her play to support her immersion, her “flow” in her free-flow play.’

Competition

Cosy Direct is offering Nursery World readers the chance to win Cosy Nature’s Basket, full of natural resources for explorations, schema play and creating a small-world environment, worth £51.99. To enter the draw, email ideas@cosydirect.com