Posts about PLAY and it’s importance to children, including all indoor and outdoor play, arts ,crafts, creative and imaginative play.
The late American astronomer and astrophysicist, Carl Sagan, described our planet as the ‘pale blue dot’, described as such after seeing an image of earth taken in 1990 from the Voyager 1 space probe, from a distance of about 6 billion kilometres. His book, “Pale Blue Dot”, explores claims that earth and its inhabitants are
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“If you’re inquisitive about life and about the world around you, then space is the ultimate adventure.” Richard Branson Exploring Space and the Universe through STEM, History and Play Space and the Universe spans so many areas of learning – Science, History, Knowledge and Understanding of the World, Shape and Measure, Art, STEM, role-play and
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Making dens is a serious business in my household: barely a day passes without sofa cushions and blankets being rearranged into a den! We live in a flat with no outside space to call our own. Despite park trips and sports clubs, there remains plenty of energy, so in the absence of a garden our inside
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Kitcamp: a new inspiration for loose parts play You may not have heard the term ‘loose parts’ before, but you’ll recognise the type of play. Imagine a child tinkering with a collection of seemingly unrelated objects, e.g. sticks, pine cones, cardboard tubes, shells and buttons. They’ll use these bits and bobs to build a tower,
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October is Black History Month – a month to celebrate diversity and the contributions of black people to history. The question arises; if we spend just one month in a year highlighting black history are we potentially promoting cultural tokenism? “Black contribution to [] history is so rich and varied that attempting to confine the discussion
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Pirate themed play days are always popular and make a frequent appearance on the early year’s calendar. It’s no surprise, with all the looting, funny voices, dressing up and role play opportunities. Add a Kitcamp pirate ship and the imagination really does know no limits! Creating fun, with purpose. The challenge with role play spaces is to
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The new school year commonly starts with an ‘ourselves’ topic. The same planning and the same intentions. Getting to know one another, build relationships and assessing. With Kitcamp’s ‘I am me’ toolkit we explore alternative ways to launch this topic. It is a great way to get to know the class and to help them get to
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We know play is important. It is a child’s work. But is there more to it? With current media awareness around mental health, we reflect on how play can make a difference for a child’s long-term mental wellbeing. Mentalhealth.org tells us that 1 in 10 children and young people are affected by mental health issues.
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Tall, strong and handsome… my hero? Generations of storytelling have led to a widely accepted structure to story writing. Generally, there is a familiar scenario then something goes wrong. This problem then requires someone or something to step up and become a hero. Indeed, a villain added into the mix creates the perfect recipe for
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Nearly three decades ago when I was knee-high and full of bounce, I used to spend most days outside. Wind-beaten and pigtails askew, I had the best schooling experience in a state school that embraced its outside spaces. When it was raining the mentality of ‘you won’t shrink’ meant that play times were unperturbed by
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