Nursery Equipment: Engagement - Endless possibilities
Mary Evans
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Creative play and learning come more naturally when the resources are 'open-ended', lending themselves to a variety of uses and constantly holding attention, says Mary Evans.
Child-initiated learning is a key mantra of early years practitioners, but if it is going to mean anything, the children have to be interested, intrigued and inspired by the resources and environment around them.
Early years consultant Marion Dowling says, 'You can have beautiful settings with everything accessible to the children, but if it doesn't intrigue them or interest them you are lost.'
Practitioners are also crucial in helping children become absorbed in their play and learning. 'A large element is down to how the adults place and use equipment,' says early years consultant Pamela May. 'I did a Masters Degree in water play and judged the quality of the play by the conversations the children had. A key factor was the flexibility of the objects and whether they could take the bricks outside to build a castle or put in the sand pit. You need to have things the children can move around. You need to have stuff you don't mind going outdoors and getting muddy.'
Ms Dowling agrees that the flexibility of resources determines whether or not they can engage children's curiosity and hold their attention. 'Less experienced practitioners will turn to the catalogues and buy in things and not recognise the potential of open-ended materials or ask "What is there that intrigues the children?"'
So what open-ended resources should settings provide? And what other categories of objects are guaranteed to engage children's curiosity and hold their concentration?
CARDBOARD BOXES
The ultimate open-ended resource is, of course, the cardboard box, which can become whatever children want it to be. Paperpod transforms recycled corrugated cardboard into flat-pack planes, forts, sheds and dens ready for children to decorate, such as the aeroplane, priced £21.95.
BLOCKS
Wooden blocks are another all-time favourite, offering endless possibilities. Linda Keats, graduate training adviser working with EYPs across Essex, says, 'In small-world play, a farmyard horse is a horse - you can't do much more with it. But a wooden block can be a car, a dog, part of a house - whatever you want it to be.'
Wooden blocks are pricy but they last for years and can be used indoors and outside. Community Playthings produces traditional wooden cube and other shaped blocks, while a block cart with five trays of blocks is available from Early Years Direct (£200). Both Mindstretchers and Fine Solutions have taken the concept of wooden blocks further and now offer natural blocks that look like they come from living trees.
Children can use them to build natural-looking structures and towers, examine the textures and knots and even count tree-rings. The Fine Solutions set of 36 is priced £49.95 and the Mindstretchers set costs £33. Another variation on the theme of wooden blocks is the large rainbow tunnel (£44.95) from Myriad Natural Toys & Crafts. The semi-circular pieces can be used to make tunnels, fences, bridges, circles and rockers.
- - www.communityplaythings.co.uk
- - www.earlyyearsdirect.com
- - www.finesolutions.co.uk
- - www.mindstretchers.co.uk
- - www.myriadonline.co.uk
HEURISTIC PLAY
Ms Dowling says, 'I feel very strongly that for heuristic play the things do need to be multi-purpose. The children are asking the questions "What do I do with these? What is this?" An everyday object like a scrubbing brush will intrigue a child.
'I have a home video of a 10-month-old with wooden washing pegs and a Chinese steamer basket. She is concentrating for about 20 minutes pinning these pegs around the basket. It involves a high level of skill and a high capacity of persistence, because she did not find it easy. Her schema was enveloping. She was intrigued with necklaces and was holding a necklace around her neck with her right hand and pegging the pegs around the basket with her left hand.'
For treasure baskets, Ms Keats suggests investing in good-quality traditional containers that are robust enough to stand up to nursery life, such as the round basket (£31.75) made of English willow by PH Coate & Son, which can be filled by items brought in by the parents.
'Children learn from recall, so it is great to learn from everyday things they have seen at home and which have been brought into the setting. Just think how rich is the experience when children from different cultures bring in small things from home.'
Suppliers of treasure baskets and heuristic play resources include:
- - www.heritagetreasurebaskets.co.uk
- - www.playtoz.co.uk
- - www.thetreasurebasket.co.uk.
- - www.tts-group.co.uk
TACTILE OBJECTS
Other resources that have a great attraction for young children are sensory objects. 'I have a conch shell that I take around with me from time to time and children love to handle it,' says Ms Dowling. 'Children like tactile objects and fabrics.'
TTS Group, Hope Education, NES Arnold and Step by Step all sell collections of shells (from £4.99), feathers (from £1.49) and buttons. Natural hessian pieces are available from Essential for Education (£8), while Mindstretchers offers a range of fabrics, including star and cobweb designs (£23.00 for 3m length).
- - www.essentialforeducation.co.uk
- - www.hope-education.co.uk
- - www.mindstretchers.co.uk
- - www.nesarnold.co.uk
- - www.sbs-educational.co.uk
- - www.tts-group.co.uk
REFLECTIONS
Babies and young children find mirrors fascinating, and they love looking at themselves from different angles.
Early years consultant Kathy Brodie speaks fondly of her time working at a children's centre equipped with a large triangular tube that was mirrored on the inside. 'I spent many happy times lying on the floor inside it with a few children, looking at our reflections, counting them, waving to each other - it was great!'
She say there are all sorts of different ways mirrors can be used - for example, smear them with paint and they can be used for mark-making.
Ikea has an impact-resistant, soft plastic crocodile character mirror priced £20.42, while Reflections on Learning has a plastic combi-mirror (£12.99), a two-sided dish that gives interesting concave/convex effects.
PERSPECTIVE
Children enjoy seeing life from a different perspective, and a 3.5m rope ladder from Ikea (£13.27) allows children to clamber up and view the world from a different height.
Ms Keats says another way of looking at things differently is by using light and shadow. 'Light boxes can be quite expensive but sometimes schools get rid of their old overhead projectors, so it is worth asking around. They can be used for shadow play or to put coloured acetates on.'
Light boxes are available from a range of suppliers, including TTS Group and Reflections on Learning (see websites above).
Viewing things in close-up is also guaranteed to grab children's attention. Magnifying glasses are a must, and readily available from early years suppliers, but good investments are digital microscopes such as the Digital Blue QX5, priced £89.99. Also available is the Easi-Scope hand-held digital microscope from TTS Group (£34.95). (See also pages 4 and 11.)
BOOKS
Never forget the power of story. Good-quality picture books can grab children's attention and provide inspiration for their play.
Among the most popular series of books for capturing children's imaginations are the Gruffalo tales, says Ms May. 'The Gruffalo books have turned more children into readers than many others. They love the rhyme, rhythm, the scary bits, the exciting bits and the great illustrations.'
RECYCLING
Many recycling warehouses across the country offer training and, for a small membership fee, allow practitioners to stock up on a wealth of resources to make their own equipment. The stock on offer ranges from fabrics to giant bobbins, from paper and card to metal drums, from beads to wood offcuts.
Early years consultant Marion Dowling says, 'With natural material resources, you don't have to spend a lot. I started in the playgroup movement and we had no money; it was perhaps the most creative period in my career. We had to make stuff.'
Among the best-known warehouses are House of Objects, Newcastle, run by North Tyneside Council; Weave Recycle, West Midlands; and Grumpy, with branches in Manchester and Salford.
