Last week in our blog, we wrote briefly about what dizzy play is and how it is benefitting our mighty learners independence. After much observation and discussion amongst our Shale educators, we have decided to harness this type of play and apply it to our program. After spending these past weeks getting to know and understand our new room dynamics and community, we have observed that the interest for our children is in all types of movement. Through the coming weeks we will be exploring the topic of ‘movement’ in all multimodal forms (body, materials, art, gross motor, etc). This will include a lot more dizzy play. To get you up to speed, dizzy play can be described as children gaining experiences that cause them to lose and regain control mainly with their bodies. It is experienced in multiple ways such as testing their own boundaries, expressing a burst of energy, and sharing a joyful moment with peers. In the Alberta Curriculum Framework it refers to dizzy play in its section on The Children’s Dispositions to Learn; Play and Playfulness.
“Children take pleasure in being on the edge
– engaging in rough and tumble play
– experiencing exhilarating physical release
– playing at games of disrupting and restoring order
Children take pleasure in sharing the joy of laughter
– making nonsense
– clowning and physical humour”
Alberta Curriculum Framework, PPP, Page 106
We are often seeing dizzy play happening throughout the day in Shale, and likely at home! You can often hear excited howls from Roslynn, Sam and Soren as they interact with peers and materials or Kane doing his best ‘roar’. Dancing has become an infectious part of Shale rooms culture and Katie, Ellie, Kate and Jackson have all the moves. When this sort of play erupts, it allows an opportunity for shared laughter and joy amongst the children and the educators. These are all examples of the dizzy play we experience in our small community. You will see that we as educators also engage in this dizzy play by doing things like dancing along, spinning the children to the music, or even facilitating some simply rough and tumble play indoors and out. It’s important to recognize this type of play, value its benefits and provide a safe space for it to happen. The Alberta Curriculum Framework asks, “How do you value and respond to rowdy, physical dizzy play?”.
Have a great weekend – try some dizzy play of your own!
Young, Sarah, Cassi, Michelle