Let there be light

Today was my second workshop... this time with the educators taking the advanced course... so these are the educators I worked with last year and also visited Sweden... the aim is to continue the learning journey.

We started the session by discussing what had been happening between last August when I saw them in Stockholm and today..
it was great to hear that they and parents had noticed differences... the children were more calm, more focussed and more creative... although there are still many parents who are pushing for the traditional academic approach instead of this play approach...

The educators had a greater appreciation of the potential of all materials - junk was no longer merely junk but a possible tool of learning through play.

Our main dialogue was about how could we support the parents who wanted the traditional academic approach to value the play approach... and by the end of the session we discovered that this could be done through us playing and analysing the play, and also by creating plans where we created play opportunities for the children and broke it down into the learning areas by curriculum, the learning aims of the play and how the play and learning could be extended through further experiences. This would definitely help parents to understand and connect the learning to the play and value it in another way.
It is also why we play first and analyse the play first so that the educators understand that there is learning in the play and not that we are making learning playful/fun.
The aim is also for the educators to hold play workshops for parents so that they can try this out for themselves too... so on saturday we will have a full day of messing about with materials and then exploring the learning as a way to support them how to do this with parents.

Today our hands on learning was an introduction to light and shadows... there was no purpose other than to explore... as next time we will play with the shadows and light in a more intentional way. First is the idea that the learners must feel comfortable with the medium.

The above film is an exploration of light on the ceiling as you can see....
OK I was going to upload lots of films about today... but I see that it is taking too much time to process a film... so what I will do is put a film together and connect it to Youtube... this might mean waiting until I get back to Sweden to share all the films I am making... but sadly my internet connection is just not allowing me to upload things... I keep trying... so you never know I might manage before then
I am putting together a series of 3 minute films about Jenin through the lens of early childhood education... I will let you know as soon as I am successful with sharing them...

so instead of films... here are some images of today's light exploration - session one.

shadow size, movement... to working out that this would be a great way to talk about how the sun moves in the sky and creates shadows in the city...

more shadow and construction exploration... with a light background

using plastic with permanent markers to draw details

using sticks to create criss cross patterns

drawing on plastic to create shadows (this i laminate without paper inside)

shining a torch through a plastic bag onto the ceiling

nature materials and storytelling (the storytelling is more apparent in the films... when you get to see those eventually)

experimenting with light, movement and photos

Next time we will play with light more... I will introduce more materials to experiment with and will connect to storytelling in different ways...

We will also make an activity/play plan based on this experience.

This post comes to you with the sound of guns in the background... not that you can hear them... but I have for the last 20 minutes... its a different reality than my usual one.