In her book, Play Matters (2nd Edition), Kathy Walker proposes:
“One of the teacher’s roles is to provide a rich range of opportunities for children to explore, investigate, involve and engage in purposeful, personalised and meaningful experiences, so that a number of different types of play, thinking, reasoning and understanding can occur”.
Providing children with rich learning opportunities directly linked to their own emerging interests, socio-cultural experiences or elements of their environment (the third teacher), should be fundamental to curriculum planning.
One of my favourite methods of intentionally providing a provocation for play, based on the criteria mentioned above, is to create small ‘table-top’ playscapes. The purpose of this post is to share some of the play-scapes I have created over the last few years with the hope that I might provide some inspiration to fellow educators in the early childhood field. In most instances, it has taken some time to collect many of the elements found in each playscape, but the effort has definitely been well worth it in terms of the enormous joy and opportunities for engagement and learning they afford the children.
Some of the playscapes shown below have been presented in previous posts so you may find additional information about them by clicking on the link below the photograph. 🙂
MULTICULTURAL AND INDIGENOUS PLAYSCAPES
Indigenous Playscape
Chinese Playscape
Japanese Playscape
STORY (LITERACY) PLAYSCAPES
A Nice Walk in the Jungle
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
ADVENTURE PLAYSCAPES
Pirate Playscape
Space Playscape
NATURE PLAYSCAPES
The Frog Life Cycle
SEASONAL PLAYSCAPES
Summer Playscape
Autumn Playscape
Winter Playscape
Spring Playscape
If you are concerned about children ‘trashing’ a playscape that you have gone to great lengths to set up, then this post may be of help to you ~ View here
I hope you have enjoyed this playscape journey and have been able to find some inspiration for future planning.
🙂
Hello,
I love these ideas so much! It would be great if you could release them in a book or something!
Oooo, that would be fun Donna-lee! 🙂
what a great collection and I love how you have included the extra article on respecting the environment and age appropriateness
These are so inspiring! My daughter is a little young yet but I am so intrigued with this concept. Thank you for sharing your truly amazing work.
Really love the Season landscapes
I love your playscapes! In my room, our ‘imaginative play’ tables attract children, and keep them absorbed in play like nothing else (except perhaps playdough and other sensory stuff!)
(Where did you find those little felt figures in the indigenous playscape?)
Thank you for sharing all your ideas!