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Organized Make-Believe Play
October 28, 2009
Organized make-believe play or "Tools of the Mind” is a curriculum based on the concepts proposed by Lev Vigotsky. There are a few schools in Hawaii that base their curriculum around Vigotsky’s theories. These schools, in my opinion, are very child friendly.
The thought is that at 4 or 5, a child's ability to play creatively with other children is a better indicator of her future academic success than any other indicator, including her vocabulary, her counting skills, or her knowledge of the alphabet. This is contrary too many curriculums whose focus is on academics.
Also, there is an emphasis on Dramatic play as the training ground where children learn to regulate themselves, to conquer their own unruly minds. If at the younger ages they become in control of their minds, they will be successful and able to regulate themselves in later life.
In dramatic play children are guided by the basic principles of play. Make-believe isn't as stimulating and satisfying if players don't stick to their roles. When children follow the rules of make-believe and push one another to follow those rules, they develop important habits of self control.
I really enjoyed this article and agree with its principles. When watching children play, it becomes evident, that these practices are natural to child.
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Caring Spaces, Learning Spaces continued…
Helen Gordon Schools
The Helen Gordon Child Development Center at Portland State University is unique and fascinating architecture. The article asked, “How do we become intentional about creating a symbiotic relationship between the physical space and those who live and learn there?” This is a wonderful question. The school was designed to captivate children into sense of wonder and intrigue. Looking throughout the school, the colors and textures used seem to fascinate even an adult.
There are three key ingredients:
(1) The physical space, particularly those that are often taken for granted, such as entry ways, pathways, and transitional spaces,
(2) The interior design, including the aesthetic qualities of color, texture, lighting, and items from nature, and
(3) Documentation, including photos, representations, narratives, and quotes that capture the learning of those who live in the space.
The aesthetic qualities of this school stand out. The aesthetic qualities evoke emotions. Within the physical spaces of the Helen Gordon Center, we find a variety of aesthetic qualities that ignite the senses and evoke powerful emotional responses
“Classrooms, like wine, are known by their smell and tactile qualities as well as by their sight” (Eisner, 1998, p. 68).
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http://www.designshare.com/index.php/projects/yuyu-no-mori-nursery
The school I decided to write about is the first combined Nursery school / Day nursery in Yokohama City; it was given national attention as a model combined schools for infants in Japan. The school environments are unique on three design concepts; to enable child-centered nursery, teachers’ warm engagement with kids and promotion of children’s development.
School environment enabling child-centered nursery
Bases of teachers and nurses with emphasis on engagement with infants
Diverse environments according to children’s stage of development - circular play system
Facility planning
- Site planning. The school is located at a quiet residential area.
Diverse environments
- Play as their day life. For children, play is their life and they develop bases as a human through play such as intelligence, sentiment and sociability.
The school is a child-centered facility beyond framework of past nursery school and day nursery.
School design in consideration with children’s play and activities
Open ‘nurse station’ to children and adults
Comfortable place for children to stay for long hours
Space parents can relax and communicate
School design which is open to public
Commentary:
The school construction was financially supported by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Sports for the nursery school part and by Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for the day nursery part.
Exterior and Interior appearances are beautiful, breathtaking and stunning. I would love to go there!
Design Patterns:
Welcoming Entry: They have a beautiful cherry blossom tree in the front entry.
Student Display Space: Children’s work is displayed in the entry area
Science Labs, Art Labs, and Life Skills Areas: These are areas or centers that the children can explore in
Art, Music, and Performance: They use the big main staircase as an equipment for theater
Physical Fitness: The belief is early childhood is the time to develop physically
Casual Eating Areas: Wonderful eating area the children use once a week.
Transparency: Windows are low so children can see other classrooms.
Indoor-Outdoor Connection: This is the most important aspect of the school. Children go in and out easily.
Furniture: Soft Seating: Flexible Spaces: Cave Space: Daylight and Solar Energy:
Natural Ventilation: Local Signature: Connected to the Community:
I have noticed that my classmates that write shorter, more concise blogs, full of more personal ideas than just summaries, have more responses. I am trying to not summarize as much as convey themes. What do you think about this? Has anyone noticed the same trend? Reading the information about this school made me want to go there. Has anyone ever been to this school?
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Hi Judith,
ReplyDeleteThe article about organized make-believe is interesting to me as well. This is actually based on a program currently being implemented in early childhood programs across the nation. Essentially, the program dictates different types of pretend play scenarios and the teacher's responsibility is to model each of the roles -- for example, if it is the restaurant, the teacher models the role of the waiter, customer, cook, etc. Then, children pick the role they want to play from the modeled role in order to play in dramatic play.
Since children are not trusted to think and play without teacher guidance, are the tenets of Vygotsky really part of the curriculum? Does the disconnection between Vygotsky's theories and the curriculum give educators another way to critique prescribed curriculums?
I have been to the Helen Gordon Center but the not the center you discuss. How might viewing these centers give you a lens to consider your own program? Does it reveal things about your center you have not considered before?
I think all the blogs are different and allow each of you to enter into response and reflection in your manner. How does the difference inspire you?
Jeanne
Hi Judith. Where have you been? I heard you were out there, but this is my first time reading your blogs. It must be me and my tunnel vision. I encountered your blog response observation within our first month of class. I attended all of the hybrid classes until just recently. By our 2nd or 3rd class I was bemoaning the fact that no one was responding to my blogs. "Nobody likes me, and I have no friends," was my complaint. A friend told me it was the Darth Vader quotes I have posted. "They think they have to come up with a Sith answer" was his reasoning. Oh well, I still have Jeanne. The day she stops responding is the day I'm in serious trouble. Anyway, you did a thorough review of the Yuyu-no-mori Nursery School and Day Nursery. You got way more info than I. Thank you for commenting on my second to the last blog. I appreciate your suggestions about parent participation. I'm a Head Start teacher on a military base, and our families all qualify for free preschool based on low income. Because of that, we have to make sure that the items we ask them to bring in don't involve financial output. We get lots of paper rolls, milk containers, and egg cartons. And as long as we provide the materials, many of them are happy to volunteer at home, assembling, gluing, and sewing items for the classroom. I like the idea of using baskets instead of plastic containers to hold manipulatives and other small materials. I have a ton of baskets I was ready to give away to Good Will. Now I know what to do. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteCarol
(PS. I love your scenic view of Waimea Bay. It's my daughter's favorite beach. Whenever she makes it back here from New York, we always go there).
Hey Judith,
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading about the center that we were assigned to read. I like those three key ingredients that you need to think about to create a learning environment in the classroom as well as outdoors. The first ingredient was the one that I was really interested in beacause I never really pay attention to pathways and entrances. Now because of this article I really look at all those areas. I liked reading about the first school you choose with the infants. I liked that they really feel that play is essential and is in their every day life. There were so much different schools that we could have read about. They were all different and unique in their own special ways. I liked that! It would be really nice if we could visit some of these places.