“Childhood is not a race to see how quickly a child can read, write and count, childhood is a small window of time to learn and develop at the pace which is right for each individual child.” This quote is central to our philosophy in Jasper room, we have been developing the ideals behind allowing our friends to foster their creativity through different mediums and expressions.
Their focus this week was on practicing their fine motor skills in terms of stencilling, it was intriguing to observe the many concentrated looks as they manoeuvred their many different art mediums and began to create a variety of different types of work. Some of our friends dived into numbers and letters while others opted to create animals. The use of these stencils allowed our friends to develop their pincer grasp as well as building upon existing knowledge in terms of grasping the concepts behind how to form letters and how words are formed from these individual letters. Starting with something as simple as stencilling allows the children to make connections and gain knowledge in transformative properties.
This focus behind transformative properties also merged into other types of play in our room, the concept of Lego building has been paramount to our room when it comes to everyday play. The children are so intrigued that we began to question why Lego was so central in their play, they answered unanimously saying that ” they could make and create whatever they liked and that changing their ships into new models was fun”. This process of questioning and diving deeper into understanding the children’s play allows us to gain a better understanding when we plan in terms of making connections to the curriculum.
Belonging for young children is being in a place where they feel comfortable enough to play without having to look over their shoulders seeking approval or dodging disapproval, to explore without fear, to redefine their space and to use materials found around them to create for themselves a sense of wonderment. This is what we hope to exude in our daily activities in our rooms and to instill a sense of freedom in allowing the children’s individualities to shine through.
We hope you have a fantastic weekend and Happy National Children’s Day to all of our friends who we enjoy getting to interact with on a daily basis ?