The Power of Play
At HPS we firmly believe that the children’s free-play is the most effective way to allow our children to develop the characteristics of effective learning. In this photograph you see a group of children independently playing ‘Superheros’. In the foreground the girls are independently writing sentences that they have thought of themselves (linked to the game they were playing with the boys) In the background, the boys have made a base using the hut and the big blocks. The children have also made blasters and magic tags using the cubes. You can also see a huge amount of socialisation, co-operation and turn taking occurring. As an adult, going into this play after I took the photo, I was able to ask the children to count the cubes in their models, think of different ways to place the blocks so that an intruder could not destroy the base and also use the design sheets available on the clipboards to draw and label their blasters. The list of learning opportunities was endless! Respect the power of play!