Children are skilled at assessing risk

Risk in play has positive effects on children's learning and development. Our playground is designed to inspire risk taking, freedom and adventure. Through playing in such an environment children become skilled at self risk assessing. They show increasing confidence,competence and become independent and responsible for their own actions. They develop respect for danger and hazards. Such knowledge and skill would not be mastered in an environment void of risk and challenge.

Claire Warden is a strong advocate for including risk in children's play spaces and her article 'Risk It' extends our understanding of the importance of risk.          Link:      Risk It



Most natural landscapes are characterized by instability and require alertness by any user regardless of their age. Below is a video clip of a two year old girl playing ball with two three year old boys. Tahla and her peers are excited by the experimental nature of their game and are enthusiastically contributing to continue the game.

Watch how Tahla navigates this challenging playspace, she is very alert and shows us how skilled she is at choosing pathways and facing obstacles. Tahla's confidence in this space is a great example of how skilled children are at assessing risk. Tahla is a strong stakeholder in her own development and has not shyed away from this challenging play area. Because of her natural curiosity and confidence Tahla is able to contribute to the play of older peers and extend on invented games.

Amazing Rain

Today we had another unexpected down pour of rain, one minute it was hot and steamy then BAM! Big drops... and I mean BIG began to fall on our heads! This was ok because it caused something great to occur... We all made our way into the sandpit... together... and played with new friends who sometimes we might not see because they really like the boat but we might like painting...




In the above image we can see the whole preschool in the sandpit playing together... we had many mini construction zones going and a whole lot of cement mixing. It was very exciting, the foremen 'Obi' and 'Hudson' were overseeing the cement mixing and giving everyone a running commentary.. "Oh look now he is adding water, oh look he is mixing it in the sand"



Soon we had so many cement mixers that we needed some builders to use all the cement, this is where Asher, Jasper and Nathaniel came in. They layed out the bricks and began arranging them into a box shape.



The rain didn't last long and Amelia and Peyton decided to explore the wet playground. They thought their teddies might like to find some where dry to have a nap and "watch some T.V"



Meanwhile back in the sandpit we have a whole house under construction complete with floors and a garage.




Earlier in the week.....



This strange occurrence of rain interrupting our play happened earlier in the week but with different effects. On this day we used the rain in our play! Helen, Obi, Asher and Jullian went about the playground placing buckets, cups and wheelbarrows under the drips in an attempt to catch the rain. Helen even snuck in a drink, explaining how "fresh" it tasted.



Obi was particularly interested in the rain collecting and he and Asher were proud of their almost full wheelbarrow. He explained that: "This is for everyone to drink" I asked: "Is that ok?" He replied: "Yeah because it's really fresh" I then pointed out the sand in the bottom and said maybe it would be better if we used this barrel for the garden? Asher and Obi agreed and decided to use the water to fill up our barefoot path pool. A good choice I think...




Jullian was monitoring several collection stations and when each container became full he collected them in a central barrel to be used by Obi and Asher. What team work.

Our rain play has been busy and exciting, we have been put in situations we would not usually be in and have had to make adaptions to our play. These adaptions have been positive and have taught us a lot about playing with others, working together, using the environment and communicating. We educators have seen first hand the benefits of playing in and with the rain and hopefully will continue to view the rain not as a restriction to outdoor play but as an invitation.

Observation Drawing

Drawing is an exciting new skill for children and guiding them on this journey of development can be especially rewarding. Children become so excited when they realize they can make a mark look like a vase or a flower! This observational drawing activity was designed to support the children's ability to use drawing to communicate their view of the environment.



By creating an inviting space the children immediately wanted to participate in the experience, they all took up a drawing board and pencil and listened to Kel our educators' sequence of steps and tips for drawing the vase.




Here we can see Kel using her drawing to inspire/guide the children. The children each began by drawing the vase, we supported children who asked for aid and praised every effort. Each child carefully added the water beads and lots of long strokes to represent the leaves and stems.



Some children wanted to add special features to their drawing further communicating to us 'the viewer' how they perceived the vase of flowers. Hudson wanted to add the nettles on the end of the blossoms and used circles to represent these. Asher wanted to use different colours to indicate the variety of flora in the vase. Amelia wanted to draw one of her flowers drooping to show that she saw how not all the flowers stoood up straight. We can learn a lot about how children see the world by looking at what they choose to include or exclude from their drawings.




The children were so interested in drawing the vase that we set up another observational drawing experience this time with a tree branch. We chose to use charcoal as our medium today to add a 'dark and gloomy' effect to the drawing of the 'dead branch'. The children were not afraid to work with this medium and began straight away by drawing the square box the branch stood in. Next the single line for the stem and many little lines to replicate the spiky twigs.



The children naturally explored the medium and used it to create different effects on their page, here we can see Jullian turning the charcoal on it's side to shade his pot.



Asher and Obi worked next to one another and in doing so supported one another. They watched each other when adding the strokes to the branches and imitated technique. Asher inspired Obi to write his name using the charcoal. Working in small groups allows children to scaffold each others learning, children watch their peers and say: "I can do that"



Noah was so happy with his representation that he decided to do another drawing and in fact completed three drawings of the tree, he was very interested in using the charcoal as a medium and was displayed a sense of pride as he handed in his three drawings. It is up to us as educators to then further cement this achievement by displaying his art in a respectful and thoughtful way.



Asher also enjoyed the experience so much that he chose to extend his own learning and later that day he collected his own resources and set up with his drawing buddy Obi ready to draw the vase again. He wanted to explore the use of colour again and included a variety of blossoms each a different colour. Asher is confident in his ability to use drawing to learn and communicate.