Yasmine grouping toys

18 month old Yasmine is playing in the nursery garden. She spots some wooden toy creatures, what will she do with them?

Good for looking at

• COEL - creating and thinking critically, making links and developing ideas of grouping
• Object play
• Following own interests
• Schemas
• Physical development

18 month old Yasmine is playing in the nursery garden. She spots some wooden toy creatures, what will she do with them?

Notice

• How do we know what Yasmine is interested in?  Be specific, look out for body language, actions, gestures.
• How does Yasmine engage with these objects?
• What is she learning from her play?
• Which development areas, characteristics of learning are evident?
• What is valuable about the materials provided?

Reflect

What are your thoughts about:

• What Yasmine was interested in? What concepts do you think she exploring?
• Yasmine’s level of involvement?
• The role of the resources in this interaction?
• The value of this type of exploratory play for Yasmine?

Respond

What would you do to:

• Support Yasmine’s interests further? e.g. supplying other materials to develop her ideas further in different contexts?
• Encourage Yasmine to talk about what she’s doing?

What next:

• Do you need to encourage more of this kind of exploratory play and learning for the young children in your setting?