Others, Materials, and the World
Children make sense of their world by engaging with people, materials and their environment. This is why play is very important. I will be using critically reflective questions from the BC ELF to reflect on my thinking and my observations.
What limits are placed on how children can engage with materials? Who decides the
limits? Why are those limits in place?
The yard was getting crowded and it was time to use the other yard and this is the one the children were told to go to. My initial thought was, “ there is not much to play with in this yard, what are the children going to be doing here”.
To my surprise, the children were very engaged with the environment and evidence of it is shown below. I noticed that the children were really creative and they found ways to engage with materials in ways that are meaningful to them. The one who puts limits is the adults because they may have an assumption that the environment is not good for children like what I did at first at first. Adults place limits because they want to make sure everyone is safe and because they have other ideas on what is best for children to learn.
Reflection: turning off my adult perspective and being open to the unexpected is necessary. My image of the child should be that children are creative and capable. We shouldn’t put limits on their creative minds and limits are not necessary unless someone is truly in danger.
What materials invite experimentation, problem solving, or intrigue?
The shovels provided by the educators invited exploration and the children dug the yard. They gathered wood and made their own campfire. Maxine was intrigued by the way the pile of rocks wasn’t getting any bigger because as she added more rocks, they fell down to the ground and she kept on working really hard to try and make it big. I noticed Natasha acknowledging this as well to encourage Maxine in her explore.
