Building the Ambition Sensory, Natural and Loose Parts Play · The Theory of Loose Parts Simon...

Building the Ambition

Sensory, Natural and Loose Parts Play

• We aim to cover

-The Importance of play

-Agency and affordance

-Loose parts and sensory play

You will have plenty of opportunity throughout the session to explore and talk through some of the key messages with your colleagues

During this session….

Key Messages Building the Ambition – National Practice Guidance on Early Learning and Childcare

Section 4 – How are play and learning connected?

The National Strategy for Play provides the following definition:

“play encompasses children’s behaviour which is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. It is performed for no external goal or

reward and is a fundamental and integral part of healthy development which seeks to improve play experiences of all children.”

Children rehearse their future in their play. There is a balance where we need to raise the profile of play and also deepen understanding for practitioners in supporting play experiences with children.

Play Strategy for Scotland: Our Vision, Scottish Government (2013) cited in Building the Ambition (2014) p. 28

Key Messages How Good is Our Early Learning and Childcare? (H.G.I.O.E.L.C)

Q.I. 2.2 – Pedagogy and Play

Features of Highly Effective Practice

“all practitioners have a sound understanding of the importanceof play and their role in supporting children’s play experiences”

“Practitioners’ up-to-date knowledge of early learning pedagogy is evident in all aspects of practice within the setting”

“We create a rich and meaningful opportunities for our children to be active participants in the community”

HGIOELC (2016) P.27

Building the AmbitionSection 4 – How are play and learning connected?

Play is an essential aspect of early years learning.

What should a practitioner do?

• Be aware of the immediate environment create moments which spark children’s play.

• Think of individual children’s current interest.

• Provide space inside and outside where children can play.

• Know when to stand back and allow children to find out for themselves.

• Provide children with quiet unassuming support.

• Help children to work out their own theories – e.g HOTSBuilding the Ambition (2014) p. 29

Key Messages

Adults Role in Play‘one of the most important aspects of

supporting play is ensuring that children have the time, space and freedom to initiate, plan,

lead and conclude their own play. Children tend to be more relaxed when they can play in the

knowledge that members of staff are available and interested, as this enables children to invite

staff involvement, or feel free to instigate interactions with staff’

Pre-Birth to Three National Guidance (2010)

Play can be described as an activity which:

• is freely chosen and under the control of the player

• is intrinsically motivated – done for its own sake, and not for external rewards

• is open-ended and spontaneous, with the processmore important than the outcome

• often involves exploration and imagination

• actively engages the player

Discussion Point 1

• What are the benefits of play?

• What skills are developed through play?

Play helps to develop these dispositions for learning and habits of mind:

• finding an interest

• being willing to explore, experiment and try things out

• knowing how and where to seek help

• being inventive – creating problems, an finding solutions

• being flexible – testing and refining solutions

• being engaged and involved – concentrating, sustaining interest, persevering

• making choices and decisions

• making plans and knowing how to carry them out

• playing and working collaboratively with peers and adults

• managing self, managing others

• developing ‘can do’ orientations to learning

• being resilient – finding alternative strategies if things don’t always go as planned

• understanding the perspectives and emotions of other people. Stewart (1998, p.23)

Children’s AgencyAgency means; ‘the ability to purposefully make things happen’

• Some theorists believe that there is also an inherent need for agency, sometimes referred to as efficacy, mastery or competence.

• In play the child is in charge, this satisfies the need to feel that they are an effective agent in the world.

• Children’s drive to understand and to have control over their environment leads to exploratory play, which is a rich source of learning.

Stewart (2011) p.15, P. 22

The Theory of AffordancesJ.J Gibson defined affordances as, “all action

possibilities latent in the environment, independent of an individual's ability to recognize them, but always in relation to agents (people or animals) and therefore

dependent on their capabilities”

The Theory of Loose Parts

Simon Nicholson, a British architect coined the term “loose parts” to describe open-ended materials that can be used and manipulated in many ways (1971).

“In any environment,” he writes, “both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly

proportional to the number and kind of variables in it”

Nicholson saw people of every age as potentially creative and stated that the richness of an environment depended on the opportunities it provided for making connections.. How Not to Cheat Children: The Theory of Loose Parts-Simon Nicholson

Loose Parts

Links to National Guidance

How Good Is Our Early Learning and Childcare (H.G.I.O.E.L.C)

3.3Developing creativity and skills for life and learning

Feature of highly effective practice:

• The learning environment, including the provision of open-ended and natural resources and the adaptability of space, encourage creativity. The structure and flexibility of the day also nurture creativity.

Building the Ambition

7.3.3 Promoting curiosity, inquiry and creativity

• Has a focus on natural objects to touch and explore.

• Provide resources that toddlers enjoy, such as bags, boxes and containers to put smaller items in, to move, empty out, and scatter about.

Loose Parts • stones

• pebbles

• sticks

• pegs

• curtain rings

• chains

• pallets

• boxes

• crates

• tyres

• shells

• pine cones

• buttons

• ribbon, string, wool,lace, rope

• tape- masking, duct, insulating

• cable reels

• inside of kitchen, fabric or lino rolls

• fabric

• bottles

• bottle tops

• feathers

• jewellery

• nuts and bolts

• bobbins

etc…

• containers; boxes, bags

• wooden planks

• string

• tarpaulin

• guttering

• nets

• bricks

• small world

• logs

• random found objects

• sand

• water

• wheels

Activity 1

Playing With

Loose Parts

Discussion Point 2

Discuss the added dimension of loose parts

– how do they enrich play?

LEL Literacy Group 2015

Benefits of Loose Parts Play• Increasing levels of creative and imaginative play

• Children play co-operatively and socialise more

• Curriculum outcomes occur through play with loose parts (Wagland, 2015)

• Loose parts facilitate communication and negotiation skills when added to an outdoor space (Maxwell, Mitchell and Evans, 2008)

• Improvements in young children’s physical coordination (Fjørtoft and Sageie, 2000)

• Children feeling better able to focus and it enhances cognitive abilities (Wells, 2000)

• Time in nature aids psychological well-being in children (Wells and Evans,2003)

• Children and young people are more likely to develop pro-environmental behaviours and attitudes as adults (Chawala and Cushing, 2007)

Scottish Play Strategy

“Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with

loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and

sky, transcendent hands-on moments and

skinned knees.”— Richard Louv

“Nature is imperfectly perfect, filled with loose parts and possibilities, with mud and dust, nettles and sky, transcendent hands-on moments and skinned knees.”

Richard Louv

What is sensory play?

Sensory play is essentially play that engages one or more of the senses. As such, most play clearly has the potential to be

sensory. Sensory play differs to other types of play in that the sensory focus adds a significant and integral dimension to the

play.

Usher (2010) defines sensory play as “play that provides opportunities for children…to use all their senses, or play that

encourages the use of one particular sense.”

Sue Gascoyne –Sensory Play

1 6 0 0 1 7 0 0 1 8 0 0 1 9 0 0 2 0 0 0

Comenius1600s

Froebel1782-1852

Pestalozzi1800s

Steiner1861-1925

Montessori 1870-1952

Piaget 1896-1980

Malaguzzi1920-1993

Goldschmied1910-2009

GascoynePresent

Building the AmbitionAdults who and environments which provide:

• natural resources which help to stimulate all of the senses.

• treasure baskets filled with sensory, real and natural materials to touch and explore.

• sensory and tactile experiences with natural objects to touch, listen to, taste and smell.

(Building the Ambition pp. 43-60)

Activity 2

Sensory Bags

1. One person take the bag, put your hand inside without looking and choose an object (keep it in the bag)

2. The rest of your group should now ask closed questions to discover what the item is.

The EPPE reportThe EPPE report identified several factors for encouraging deeply satisfying memory-making play:

• enabling differentiation and challenge

• scaffolding learning to ‘build bridges’ between a child’s knowledge and what they are ‘capable of knowing’(Iram Siraj Blatchford et al.,2004)

• the use of open-ended questions to stimulate and support rather than to probe and test

• encouragement of new experiences

• adult’s watching and listening before ‘making their own mark’

(Gascoyne, Sensory Play, P.61)

Early Childhood educators like to emphasise that young children learn best through their senses but when we plan for learning we often don’t provide enough intentionalopportunities for children to explore their senses especially beyond the toddler stage.

“Thoughtfully planned sensory play experiences support children’s innate senses of curiosity while allowing them to fully use their senses: hearing, seeing, tasting,

smelling and touching .”-Daly and Beloglovsky

H.G.I.O.E.L.C -3.3- Challenge Question:

How well are natural materials and open-ended resources used to support sensoryplay ,exploratory play and creativity?

, mess etc.

Further Reading…

BTA Blog

Go to http://bit.ly/2nMfqMA or scan

Password: #milkbottletops