‘When children are involved in their play, they are totally absorbed – even ‘held’ and captivated’ (Study Topic 13, p. 9). During this activity all the children could be seen laughing and having fun; the activity allowed for their playfulness to a great degree. They were totally absorbed in what they were doing and outside distractions and noises proved completely irrelevant.
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The teacher encouraged them to make use of the space in the classroom and to really get into their characters and use expression in their voices. He encouraged all the children to voice their ideas about expressions, characters etc and asked open ended questions throughout the story about what they thought might happen next etc. He praised all the children for their contributions. This use of positive language boosted their self esteem and kept them interested. It has been identified that certain types of language, such as the encouraging language the teacher used during this activity, ‘can help to support children’s learning and motivation’ (Study Topic 12, p. 10).
Therefore, considering all this, I feel that the learning environment enabled the children’s involvement and playfulness to a great extent. All children were actively engaged and completely absorbed in the activity and having fun.
How could they have been more involved in play and how could play have been further used to promote children’s learning.
During a conversation with one of the children after the lesson he remarked that, ‘ it would have been better if we could have made up our own lines’. This was a very good point and would have allowed the children to become more involved in their own play. They would have felt that it was more their idea if they had been allowed to use their own language and make up their own lines. The teacher could have read the story out to the class at the start of the lesson and they could then have acted it out in their own words. Alternatively, they could have been allowed to make up a story entirely of their own and perhaps then they could have
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involved more characters. This would also have encouraged the children to explore new ideas and voice these ideas in a playful, fun environment.
This would fit in with Piaget’s theory (KU 1.3) that ‘young children learn from their own spontaneous exploration’ (Cable and Eyres, 2005, p. 9). The children may have benefitted from having less adult involvement.
There was limited space in the classroom and as it was such a nice day outside, the children could have been taken out into the playground where they would have benefitted from the fresh air and wide open space. They would have had much more freedom of movement and more opportunity to engage in play (PS 3.2). The characters could really have used their imaginations and got into their roles. For example, the grass area with trees next to the playground would have been ideal for them to use as the wood that Little Red Riding Hood went in to. Alan Peacock (1997) suggested that ‘children need to be provided with opportunities to make sense of the places and spaces they grow up in’ (Study Topic 12, p. 29).
Creativity
Describe the activity in terms of what you did and what the children did.
This was an art activity which took place inside the classroom. Before the lesson the teacher put a big piece of blue card on each of the four tables with a map like shape made out of green card stuck on to it. He also put out a number of resources such as cotton wool, straws,
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coloured tissue paper etc. He sat all the class on the carpet at the start of the lesson and explained that he would like each group to make and island of their own, including whatever they wished on it.
It was interesting to see the different ideas each group came up with and also the different input that individual children were having in their group. One girl decided she wanted to put a volcano on the island but was unsure how to make one out of the resources provided. A discussion began within the group where the children were coming up with ideas of how to overcome this problem. Eventually one boy suggested that part of an egg box would be good. He asked the teacher for one who came back a couple of minutes with a plastic cake tray, having not been able to find an egg box. The children then cut around one of the cake holders, turned it upside down and stuck it on to their map. Then they came up with ideas amongst themselves about how to decorate it, eventually covering it in brown felt and using orange tissue paper for the top to represent the lava.
Evaluate the extent to which you feel creativity and ‘possibility thinking’ entered this activity in terms of the way you approached your support practice and also the children’s scope for being creative.
This activity took a learner inclusive approach. These approaches involve ‘the passing back of control to the learner. They involve encouraging children to come up with new ideas and contributions, thus opening up possibilities much more widely’ (Study Topic 14, p. 16). This activity enabled children to be creative to a large extent as they were in control of what they
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were doing. This allowed them to freely explore ideas about what to include and also what resources they wanted to use. Having this control ‘is an opportunity for children to experiment with their ownership of their environment and to be innovative and expressive’ (Study Topic 14, p. 17).
This activity also encouraged the children to come up with new ideas and take an active interest in their learning. It also encouraged them to problem solve. This was evident when faced with the problem of how to make a volcano. This enabled the children to be creative as ‘creativity involves identifying problems and solving them in an enquiring manner’ (Study Topic 14, p. 7). In this way, we can see ‘possibility thinking’ taking place in the activity. They were encouraged to ask questions such as ‘what if I used this?’ and ‘perhaps if I did this’. The activity challenged the children to find solutions to problems and go beyond their own expectations.
In the case of finding a solution to the volcano problem, the children had to negotiate their ideas and the use of resources. They thought of something they could use but which wasn’t immediately available to them. So they used their initiative and asked the teacher who provided them with an alternative. This demonstrates their creativity and also their use of ‘possibility thinking’.
All the children used the activity to be creative and bring their own ideas to the activity. This could be seen by the differences in all the maps. One group had designated an area to snowmen and igloos which they had made out of cotton wool. Another group had come up
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with a ‘treasure island’ theme with pirates and treasure chests, and had actually based their map around a story they had made up during the activity.
The children had a fairly wide scope for being creative as they had control over what they wanted to include, and were not guided in any way. They had to use their imaginations to come up with ideas and this created a sense of ‘playfulness’. This was important to a creative activity as ‘creativity involves keeping your options open and engaging with ideas and with your physical and social surroundings, like imaginative play’ (Study Topic 14, p. 8). Children were able to use the skills they already have, to make connections and to imagine what could be.
How could the children been more involved in being imaginative and creative and could creativity have been further used to promote children’s involvement and learning.
After the activity I spoke to one of the groups of children and asked them how they thought they could have been more involved in being imaginative and creative. They suggested that they would have liked to have had more time to think about what they were going to include on their maps. They agreed that they would have preferred to have been told about the activity at the beginning of the week so that they would have had a couple of days to think about things and come up with ideas. They also suggested that they could then have brought in materials of their own to use.
By giving children more time to think about this activity it would have enabled them to carry out their own research in their own time, thus allowing more scope for creative learning to
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take place (KS 4.1). It would have given the children more control over their learning and would have encouraged them to explore even more possibilities. If they had been allowed to do their own research at home, there is no doubt that a large number of them would have used the internet to explore ideas (KS 4.2), enabling them to become even more involved in their own learning and encouraging creativity even further.
Giving children control of their own learning would have sparked their interest and this is especially important for creative learning, as is ‘motivating the children to feel that what they are doing has both relevance to them and can be shaped by them’ (Cable and Eyres, 2005, p. 156).
However I do feel that this activity would have benefitted from more adult involvement as adults would have been able to ask the children open ended questions to get them to explore ideas further, thus developing their creative skills and furthering their learning. As Vgotsky argued, ‘infants only fully realise their abilities with the help of adults to guide them’ able and Eyres, 2005, p. 9).
Word count: 1747
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References
Colloby, J., Forsyth, l. and Hancock, R. (2005), Environments for Learning, Study Topic 12, Course E111, The Open University.
Hancock, R. and Mansfield, M. (2005), Play and Learning, Study Topic 13, Course E111, The Open University.
Craft, A. (2006), Creativity and Learning, Study Topic 14, Course E111, The Open University.
Craft, C. and Haynes, L. (2005) ‘Enabling Children’s Creativity’ in Cable, C. and Eyres, I. (eds) (2005) Primary Teaching Assistants: Curriculum in Context, London, David Fulton, p. 156.
Northern, S. (2005) ‘Play’ in Cable, C. and Eyres, I. (eds) (2005) Primary Teaching Assistants: Curriculum in Context, London, David Fulton, p. 7 – 9.
