Children need the opportunity to be imaginative and creative, to develop speaking and listening skills, move their bodies, make decisions and be curious.
At the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds they were encouraged to do this with the Imaginary Worlds project. Imaginary Worlds offered an opportunity for young children to create their own stories and act them out, using a bag of simple props.
Imaginary Worlds was funded by the Ragdoll Foundation and run by the West Yorkshire Playhouse from July to November last year. The Imaginary Worlds team included Anne Taylor, quality assurance manager (education) for Leeds Childcare and Development Service, who along with myself, as children's officer at the Playhouse, ran the Imaginary Worlds sessions. Christina Dackeus, a freelance education worker and photographer, took pictures as the children created their own stories documenting each session.
The practitioners involved felt the project had had a positive effect on both the children and themselves. One left feeling 'more confident in storytelling' and another was 'inspired' by 'such simple but brilliant ideas'.
For another it proved that a lack of resources is not a problem. 'I have limited resources, but I now have a bag of props and will travel who knows where with the children.'
As for the children, one practitioner reported: 'It was a positive experience for many of the children, they talked about it afterwards, re-telling their story and explaining what it was about. It was nice to see a usually shy girl come out of herself and begin to play imaginatively, showing lots of enjoyment. Her face lit up.'
An Imaginary Worlds session Stimulus
* All you need to carry out a session yourself is a bag with props inside and a quiet corner. We were lucky enough to have beautiful bags made for us at the Playhouse by a group of very creative members of Heydays, a day of creative activities for anyone aged over 55, held once a week at the Playhouse.
* In the bag we put: a large piece of beautiful material, such as voile, a torch, one or two simple props, such as a pebble, shell, feathers or a wicker star.
* Working with small groups of four or five children aged between two-and- a-half and four years, and one key worker, we talked about stories.
Who likes stories? What is your favourite story? Where do stories come from? The children told us about the stories that they liked and who was in them.
* We then showed the children the bag (but not its contents). We talked about who was on the front of the bag (a picture of a girl with her arms outstretched). Anything can be on the front of the bag, but it is important to have a starting point and a stimulus for the session. The children took turns at feeling the bag: What do you think could be inside? How does it feel? Ideas go around the circle, it's a car, it's a camera, it's squishy, it's hard. The project was very inclusive and all the children were given a chance to make contributions.
* The children then took turns at pulling an item out of the bag and exploring what they found, looking, touching, talking about each thing.
Building the story
* Once everything was pulled out of the bag, the story began. As the adult guiding the session it was important to value all the ideas from the children and then steer them to the one with most potential. We used questions to help move the story on: Where do these objects come from? Who do they belong to? What can we use these objects for? What stories can we tell?
* The children used their bodies, movement, facial expressions and language to create their unique group story. Everybody contributed to the session.
Sometimes it took the children a bit longer to respond, but because we eased them in by encouraging them to explore the bag, by the time they started to make their own story, all the children had contributed in some way.
We usually spent about half an hour with each group creating the story, then we all sat back down and the children talked about their adventure, what they had done, where they had been - Jand they were much better at it than the adults!
* At the end of the story all the props were put back into the bag, these had come out as a piece of material but gone back into the bag as the sea or a dress for a princess. It was important to have closure as we dealt with scary things like lions, the dark and giants.
* Children left the session very enthusiastic and eager to do it all again.
Follow-up work
* Back in their nursery, the children drew a picture or made a model of their favourite part of the story. We left an audio cassette for the children to record their story and a single-use camera for children and staff to record the follow-up work.
Children's and practitioners' responses have been fantastic, and the activities that have grown from the sessions can cross the foundation stage curriculum.
* Documenting the whole process gave the children a real opportunity to revisit the story. We sent photographs back to the settings and the practitioners often used an overhead projector so children could re-live their story.
* Practitioners can use the materials as they wish and children can add to the collection in the bag. The children in one early years centre now run their own Imaginary Worlds sessions!
* So, why not try for yourself and discover the Imaginary Worlds that your children can create?
THE STORIES: THE MONKEYS
By children of Quarry House Nursery, Leeds
Contents of bag: Piece of gold material, torch.
A gold and sequinned cloth lay on the floor and so a story unfolded:
"It's a bed. For monkeys," said one child. Two monkeys were fast asleep.
All of a sudden the monkeys woke up and started to jump, run and crawl around the jungle.
Soon it was night time again and the monkeys went back to their bed and fell asleep.
While they were sleeping, the baddies crept up to the monkeys. They wanted to catch them.
Two boys who watched from a tree jumped down and came to the monkeys'
rescue.
The monkeys woke up and ran to safety under a table.
They looked out to see if they could see the baddies.
After a while it was safe to come out and the monkeys ran through the jungle until they came to a tall tree.
They climbed the tree and looked out for the baddies.
The baddies were waiting for the monkeys below the tree.
The monkeys and the boys jumped down from the tree and chased the baddies away.
THE STORIES: GOING TO THE BEACH
By children from Kaleidoscope Day Nursery, Leeds
Contents of bag: Pieces of blue and red material, torch, pebble.
One day a group of girls decided to wash their hair in the sea.
They splashed their hair with the water to get it wet and rubbed shampoo into it. It made lots of bubbles.
They wrapped a towel round their hair to dry it.
The girls went to the funfair and had a go on the tortoise ride.
It moved from side to side, backwards and forwards. From the ride they could look down at the people on the ground and wave at them.
Afterwards the girls caught the bus to the beach.
They dug in the sand and made sandcastles.
A shark was swimming in the sea.
The girls looked out to sea and saw a pirate ship. They swam towards it and climbed aboard. The girls became pirates.
They had to practise being pirates; they weren't used to being onboard a ship and kept falling overboard. The shark was watching the girls fall into the sea and tried to get them.
The girls managed to escape and decided to try and catch the shark.
They found a big net on board the ship. On the count of three they would throw the net over the shark.
One, two, three!
The girls managed to catch the shark and decided to take it over to the 'little sea'. This way the shark couldn't get the pirates in the 'big sea'.
The pirates got back on to their ship and sailed away.
Further information
* Imaginary Worlds - creative learning through play (10.95 + 1.50 p&p per document), is an excellent resource and a useful starting point for creative work with children. To order a copy e-mail lisa.parrott@ wyp.org.uk
If you would like to find out more about the Imaginary Worlds project ring Lisa Parrott on:0113 213 7290.
