Shapes of play (Foundation work, 2006-07)

At the very beginning of the project we ran a workshop for parents and teachers, as well as looking at the basics of photography, we discussed our memories of school games, and playing at home. We used ideas from these discussions throughout the programme of work.

We worked with boxes and fabrics, creating pictures of the views from the playground, making tents, hiding and telling stories. The school has now purchased several tents that they now use for role-play, we are discussing adding to the playground, creating a role play space that can be used flexibly as a stage, or to display work, and much more.

Working Flexibly

Another key aim was to ‘To work flexibly, allowing children to ‘opt in’ and to manage class numbers so as to include everybody’. Several of the workshops focused on group work, allowing children to move from one activity to the next, we encouraged children to spend longer doing the things that they enjoyed, and gave them choices.

The children explored their world of personal toys, and the drawings produced were exhibited on the fences in the playgrounds, giving the children more to look at and more to discuss, as well as an opportunity to look at the work of children form other year groups.

Including Parents

We aimed to ‘share the project with parents, encourage them into the classroom and extend the project into the community’. The level of support we received from parents rose throughout the year, they worked with the children and photographically documented the majority of the work.

As the final event of the year we held a Play Afternoon, the whole of Foundation played and worked together in the playground, this was only possible with the help of the 20 plus parents who came along.

To encourage support the children talked about their picture, the words were added to the image, along with a photo, the invitation was added to the back, the children discussed where they wanted their work displayed, many opting for their garden fence, helping to share the work with the community.

Summary and Development

We feel that we have very successfully met the aims of the project this year. The theme of Play and the Playground fits well with the work at the school, the demands of the National Curriculum, and proved to be great fun. It is one that I think is worth continuing with next year.

The Role-play area already under discussion could be part of a wider look at ways of utilising the school grounds.

The current building work will bring about structural change within the school, it would be interesting to mirror that with the children and staff bringing structural and creative change to the school’s out door spaces.

The success of the final play afternoon, and the increasing levels of support and confidence shown by parent’s means that work with the whole of Foundation, becomes possible.

It also increases our ability to further share the work with the wider community next year.