Play and sustainability – The mud kitchen

A child is playing in the outdoor mud kitchen area. She is 'baking' cakes.

Good for looking at

Observe the child’s concentration, dedication and immersion into the play to identify what makes the play sustainable? What key elements support play?
What skills and competencies are repeated throughout the video? Why?
What do you know about this child from the video? How? What don’t you know about the child from this video? why?
What kind of pedagogy might be evident from watching the video?
Reflect and define what the outdoor philosophy to support play might be?

The 3 Pillars of Sustainability – Justify if and how the environmental pillar relates to the child’s play?
The 3 Pillars of Sustainability – How does the environment and the resources support play, creativity and concentration?
Sustainable play and rights based pedagogy – What are effective strategies you used to listen to the child during play?
Translating meaning observed during play – What skills and strategies did you use to listen and tune into the play?
Sustainable Play and Rights based pedagogy – What purpose did the child’s self-narration have during the play?

We wondered what we could do to support the child’s play and learning further? For instance, we noticed a sequence during mixing, patting, stirring and cooking, did you notice the sequence? What does the sequence tell us about the child’s knowledge and experiences? Why?
When we observed the child pressing the weighing scales up and down repeatedly, we wondered what she was representing in the sequence, how would you find this out? How would you engage with the child to explore her actions and intentions?

Relate on each of the SDGs below to think about how they present in everyday life and practice

Reflect how, when and where the child connects to each SDG. Justify when the SDGs are evident in practice

SDG 3 demonstrates a healthy disposition –

what was the child doing?

SDG4 provides a quality enabling environment

how was the environment enabling?

SDG 5 and 10 a fully inclusive environment

why and how was the environment inclusive?

SDG 8 and 9 offering opportunities to try out and manipulate tools of the trade and learn new practical life skills

How were opportunities made available? Who made the opportunities? Why?

SDG11 the mud kitchen is part of an outside community of learners working sustainably together

Define what an outside community means to you in your context

SDG12 utilising and reusing materials in different ways

how can observing children’s play inform us about a child’s knowledge and lived experiences?

SDG 15 develops a relationship with nature

identify how a relationship with nature evolves, or not.

Clarify the role of the (i) child and the role of the (ii) adult when developing relationships with nature

Reflect on potential challenges that prevent children developing relationships with nature.