Risk in Play

News and Reminders: Clothing swap is coming up next weekend, April 29th from 9 am-noon at the Stowe Elementary School Gym. There is still time to drop off clothing!

Thank you to everyone making the effort to drop off by 8:30 am. It has made our transitions easier, allowed us to get out the door faster, and has created more consistency in our daily schedule.

Risk

I recently watched a documentary on Vermont PBS about the adventure playgrounds that exist in Europe. These playgrounds are not your typical play spaces. At first, it looks a bit like chaos but the more you learn about these spaces the more intriguing it becomes.

Here's the link to the video:  The Land

The adventure playgrounds that are shown and explored in the documentary are a concept developed by Marjory Allen, Lady Allen of Hurtwood. Lady Allen was a strong proponent of allowing children unsupervised time for play. She believed that children needed to create and take their own risks to truly learn about the world around them.

"When they set their heart on something which may be beyond their capabilities, they'll stay at it and stick at it until they've achieved it, and this builds up a tremendous sense of self-confidence." - Lady Allen

Lady Allen of Hurtwood was one of the first people to stand up for children's play. She truly believed that adults did not have a role in overprotecting, directing, or managing children's play. Play belongs to the children and we must trust children to play on their own.

NPR has also done a story on adventure playgrounds. Here's the link: Where The Wild Things Play.

These adventure playgrounds are definitely geared toward older children than we have at MVS. However, the concept is important to consider. We should allow children to take risks, to experience their environment in their own way. We are nearby when they are taking these risks, to talk them through what happen, to acknowledge that it might not always work, and to encourage them to try again. We want children to feel confident in taking those risks, to challenge themselves, and to know we trust them to do just that.

This week we have some photos to share instead of our typical classroom updates. The updates will return next week.

This week we had a lot of fun playing in boxes. We hid in them, played peek-a-boo, and sat in them to read books. The simplest toys can sometimes be the most fun. 

We have a new bird feeder in our infant-toddler playground. We spent a long time observing chickadees that came to eat. The children understood that by being quiet and calm the birds were not as scared and would stay longer. 

A few children from the preschool and prek classroom spent time mixing soil and filled planters this week. We cleaned out old pots and found some old roots and worms! Everyone was very excited about the worms. The children made sure that we all knew that we had to be very gentle with the worms. They explained to all of us how fragile their small bodies are. 

Next week we will get started adding seeds to the planters. Please make sure to tell you children to just look at the soil and not to mix it anymore. Thanks!