Play and Joy – The long grass

This clip focuses on a supervised group of children as they walk into an area of long grass to play, explore and enjoy their environment.

Good for looking at

• The role of the environment
• The role of the adult in supporting children’s play and their sense of wellbeing
• Physical play
• Social play
• Outdoor play

Notice

• What is your sense of the overall feelings experienced and expressed by the children?
• Note the children’s laughter, vocalisations, sense of agency, freedom of expression and their actions.

Reflect

• How does this environment, the activity the children are engaged in and the supervising adults support the children’s confidence, sense of self, independence, emotional wellbeing, development of imagination, social skills?
• What gives rise to the joy experienced by the children? What benefits accrue to the children from this?
• What role does this environment play in enabling children’s sense of physical and emotional sense of freedom?
• What do you notice about the relationships, interactions and dialogue between the children; and those between the children and their adult carers?
• How much of adult speech with / towards the children is directive or controlling versus affirming or supportive?

Planning – What next

• Consider the benefits of providing opportunities for children to experience free play in this way. How might this be reproduced in your context? How can you facilitate this? Thinking of the role of the adults in their interactions with the children, how might we reflect on the proportion of our speech used to value, support and encourage them and the number of times we feel it necessary to control or manage them?
• Researching the benefits to children of play and joy can help us reflect on our practice, the activities we provide and our role in supporting them. Are we clear on what we mean by play? Are we confident in our role as adults to enable and support play?