Children Park... my reflections from Expo 2015 Milan

This weekend I visited Milan, Italy... a weekend away with my husband, and also a chance to check out the Children Park at Expo 2015 Milan that had been designed together with Reggio Children (a huge pull for me to visit).


I have to say I ended up being a bit disappointed by the Children Park - with all the money that had obviously been invested my overwhelming feeling was that Italian children must like lining up more than Swedish children... as this was a set up that required lots of waiting - and not a park that can be sauntered through and explored organically... but in a very fixed way with rather set outcomes - which surprised me enormously.

Each section or activity started with a sign - the first instruction ALWAYS being "queue up".
When we visited we were stopped by security... "no adults... only those with children" - a playworker there hurried over and welcomed us... NO-ONE was there... the reason for no adult without children is to give children priority - since there were no children (a few came later) we were allowed to come in... and the workers got a chance to put their training to the test.

The first session was smells... the bells cam down and you got to smell a herb, then you were released by the bell (not something to do if you feel claustophobic as those things do not go back up so fast and it feels like you wait a while inside them) - you went to the herb garen inside a perspex bov with round holes for touch and smell to see which of the three herbs was inside the bell... pressing the button of the one you thought it was... This was not so easy - two I got easily, one I could smell nothing inside the bell and the last I am convinced was wrong as it smelled of lemon verbena and not basil... two very distinctive smells.
This is an activity that can VERY easily be replicated without such pomp and in a more organic way.

The next activity was collecting water dripping out of tubes in the center of the flower/roof - at the sound of the beep you empty the water into a sink, the playworker than pressed a button and the surrounding flowers got steamed... I can imagine that this will feel lovely on a hot summer day...

The next activity was standing on a sensor and being weighed... a collective weight... and that it was the same as x number of squirrels etc... and then of how a squirrel eats, poops out a seed that grows and then provides the fruit that another squirrel eats and poops out. Loud in your face screen time.

The corner activity was a screen with seats for children to sit and watch films.

The next was my favourite where you wnet inside and your shadow on the screen started to grow into a tree. This was lots of fun.

The next activity was riding bikes - the more that pedalled at the same time the more water and music that was produced. I loved the trikes and different sized bikes and the fact there were opportunities for those in wheelchairs to pedal too with their arms/hands.

The last hands on session was the task of fishing up plastic balls with a magnetic rod (strong magnets that had a tendency to get entwined and stuck with each other when adults were fishing... I wonder what its going to be like with children???)
You then open the ball (hard to open) and there was a message inside. The idea was to keep the message/drawing created by a child and then go to the table and create a new drawing a message to put in the ball... before sealing in the ball the message could be scanned... and a few days later, after being censured by Expo authorities, it would be out up on the screen surrounding the ball pond. The sealed ball could then be put in the tube by the pool and it would be shot up into the air through a tube in the centre of the pool to land in the water.

You then left the arranged area of the park and could play on the giant fruits... for me this might not have the great impression that they were hoping for, as I libve right next door to a fruit park here in Stockholm with a banana slide and strawberry spinners... so these odd pastel fruits just seemed a bit odd... but it did not stop me testing them out. It would have been interesting to have seen children play on them.

In fact it would have been interesting to see how the entire park was used... and also to see if there is a cultural difference in waiting... but coming from the UK... land of great queuers... I still feel this is not a favourite past time of children.

So, yes, I was disappointed. I had hoped that the interactions would have been more about awakening curiosity rather than a funfair type of learning... if there was learning. But to be fair I did not get to see many children interact (just one family came later with 2 children... there were a few other adults as well) - and it is through the observation of children that you see where the learning is.

The staff here though were very good... and if one was to judge the Children Park of the staff then yes, Reggio Children did a FAR better job of those that trained the staff in the wine-tasting area of the Italian Pavillion - where they stood around and watched you rather than came and explained what the wines were and what sort of choices could be made... from this point of view more was invested in the children.

I do think that there were other areas of the Expo that suited my approach to children more... small pockets here and there that offered me inspiration - and very much so when I visited museums in the city during the rest of my stay.

More posts from Expo - the inspirations... and from my Milan trip will come in the coming weeks.

Listening 7xTEDTalks

 Seven TEDtalks - one for each day of the coming week.... and all connected to listening.
I hope you take the time to listen and to be inspired.


5 Ways to Listen Better - Julien Treasure 
the importance of listening skills as part of communication.

Evelyn Glennie shows how to listen a wonderful TED talk about a deaf percussionist explaining how she listens.

Listening to Colour... Neil Harbisson what happens when a totally colourblind person uses technolgy to hear colour. Very interesting.

Want to help someone? Shut up and Listen - Ernesto Sirolli - how Ernesto talks about helping others can be a great approach as a teacher with children - to listen to each person.

Metaphor and Metacognition -Alise Shafer Ivey - one of my favourite TEDtalks - listening and creative thinking with young children.

The Linguistic Genius of Babies - Patricia Kuhl - a fascinating talk about how babies listen and learn language - and how important human interactions are for language learning...

Why architects need to use their ears - Julien Treasure - I had to share another by Julien Treasure as I feel this is so important... your third teacher should also be helping children (and you) with listening. How are the accoustics in your setting? Do they aid listening? Does the design enable focus to listen too?

Gingerbread house

As part of the Hansel and Gretel exploration we have been making a gingerbread house... (pepparkaka in Swedish)

Last week we measured and painted the paper brown... the children working out how to make brown... and then using their bodies to cover the paper. They also decided that there should be three windows... a circle, triangle and square.

Today it was backed with plastic, to give a little extra support and then attached to the wall... I am secretly quite pleased with the look of how the uneven wall makes it look like there is a chimney!! I have not mentioned anything to the children, as I wonder if they will make the same connection.

This week we will be making decorations to turn the pepparkaka house into a house of sweets! I have an idea of adding flavourings to the paints to give it the extra sensory painting experience...

The walls are supported by shelves - which the children can use inside of the house... so it is a bit like a den/hidey-hole. The house is in the same room as the forest that is developing/growing there - keep an eye out on my facebook page as I tend to leave a few extra photos there too...

I wonder how the children will play with this... will it be just for a witch... or will other play be inspired? Only time can tell. The children will no doubt use their creativity to invent the play inspired by the room.

Creativity

This evening I will be co-hosting another #ReggioPLC global twitterchat together with Diane Kashin who writes at Technology Rich Inquiry Based Research. (and this time last year I was packing my bags to visit Diane in Toronto - where we talked and talked and explored many areas of early childhood learning together, and she shared some settings in Ontario that opened themselves to me... sharing their journeys of discovery and learning with me with minds eager to learn about other perspectives of early childhood from Sweden. - AND I am also feeling excited by the fact that in a month's time Diane will be coming to Stockholm to continue this exchange of perspectives in real life and not just through facebook, twitter and blogs..)

Anyway back to this evening's chat about creativity

I think very often when we talk about creativity there is an automatic connection with the arts... but creativity is so much more than this... 
I have written several times about creativity and if you are interested and have the time then please check them out... there are in fact 181 posts (this will make 182) with a creativity connection... but the below posts are some of those that explore WHAT is creativity a little more

Listen with dance - yes there is art and dancing involved in this... but for me this is about the creativity of the teacher... about looking for ways to support children's learning and development in new and interesting ways.

Light Play - using the overhead - but more importantly time for me to play with the materials... if I am to be a creative teacher then I too need to have time to play.

Empty Spaces - explores how the third teacher/the setting can be a support to creativity... do we have too many things available, does that hinder creativity, does too few have the same effect?

Children learning together - this is another post from my trip to Iceland (like Empty Spaces) - and show's how children are creativ in their play... how they learn through testing things out - BY THEMSELVES - and that this is creativity as it is original thinking for them... even though as adults we know it has been discovered before. I think sometimes we forget just how much original thinking children have.

Light and Play Installation - another post that shows that we as teachers need time to be creative - and to dare to test this creativity. I had no idea whether or not this light installation would work... it was an experiment... which turned out not only beautiful, but there was so much learning.. for the children and myself.

The many hops of hopscotch - creativity can be as simple as children working out many different ways of hopping

Rainbow power - creativity is also having the confidence as a teacher to not plan everything... to listen and to respond to the children. In this sense creativty does require that you have a knowledge/idea bank filled with possibilities, waiting and ready - and to equally be able to pull these ideas apart and reassemble them in a way that is suitable to your own group of  children.

Traditions - reflections on them - creativity on the part of the teacher is also required in questioning traditions and why you do the things that you do. To find the right questions, to be open to all kinds of answers... to discover new ways of exploring traditions in order to make them more relevant and meaningful.

Does Boredom give birth to creativity? - and important question... what is creativity, what is boredom...

Paper Exploration - using materials in different ways from expected... allowing the children to explore mediums... giving children the potential to get creative in ways that we cannot imagine.

The Competent Child - by stepping back and giving children time, and believing in them allows them to be creative in their problem solving.

The importance of rest time on creativity - a post exploring how rest time is important for children/adults to be creative (rest and sleep will always be important for me as my husband is a sleep researcher and I have had the chance to learn a great deal from him on how the brain works and develops and the importance of sleep and rest in this process)

construction - there is always a great deal of creativity in construction... not only in the constructing process but also in the choice of materials presented and how they are presented.

Creativity and the artist - explring that creativity is so much more than art

What is creativity? a post written on my reflections of participating in Boulder Journey School summer conference in 2013

Sometimes I think we really do gives ourselves as educators far too little time to excerise our creative muscles... to play to "mess about" as David Hawkins recommended we do. I also think that sometimes we are so busy trying to encourage people to think outside the box that maybe we have missed the point... that young children have not yet been put in a box to need to think outside of... as my daughter said "I don't think outside of the box, because my box is bigger on the inside and travels through space and time". Of course my daughter loves Dr Who and this is a reference to that... but it got me thinking... we are so pre-occupied thing that everyone has the same box that we have not even considered the fact that all these boxes could be radically different from each other and also contribute to a collective creativity.
Of course I do understand what the phrase is referring to... but I am begiining to think more and more that this refers to us adults and to children conditioned by schooling to think in a specific way. As Loris Malaguzzi talked about the hundred languages (hundred meaning many, rather than specifically just a hundred) - may there are a hundred boxes of creativity to explore too... and that thinking outside the box means we might just be missing a whole load of creative potential that young children have in their unique boxes... before they are formed to the "one box" (one language) of school.

As teachers we are obviously adults that have been conditioned into the one box thinking - but maybe we should not be just thinking outside this box... but maybe rediscovering our own original box. A place of unique creative safety - and then start communicating with each other and sharing the contents from our creative boxes so that we can expand and grow.

How can we support educators (and I will write that rather than teachers... as we are many working in early childhood that are not official trained teachers, but are still part of the educational process)

How can we find our hundred languages, our hundred boxes of creativity, our hundred ways of listening ?
How are we given the time and play/messing about opportunity to reconnect with the creativity of our childhood?

Making a gingerbread house with paint....

As part of Vindens Hansel and Gretel exploration the children have started to make a pepparkaka (gingerbread) house
Yesterday the children measured and designed the house... discussing how many and what shaped windows there should be.
 The children suggested that three windows would be good... and the were all in agreement... it became more tricky when it came to window shape... there were those that wanted three circles, those that wanted three square and those that wanted one circle, one triangle and one square. The children kept changing their minds, or calling out to all options and it was becoming far too hard to work out how to solve this window shape issue.

So on three pieces of paper I quickly drew the shapes - gave the children their name cards to put down next to the window arrangement they felt would be best. It started of with one by the squares, 2 by the circles and 5 for the mix... the child who chose the squares soon moved her name to the circles, explaining she was changing her mind.

We then counted the numbers of names by each window arrangement... it did not take many seconds for the children to see that the arrangement with one of each kind of window had the most names.

I asked how many more children had chosen the selection compared to the circles... the children started to call out names... so I flipped the cards over so that the focus was not on the names but on the quantity. I still needed to phrase and re-phrase the question a few times before it clicked and they all worked out that the difference was two.
We talked about how they were using mathematics... and how the shapes were also a part of maths... and that maybe this house was going to be a mathematic witches house...

Today we painted it brown... but how to make brown? Black and white was suggested... so we mixed them and discovered that it made grey. What next? Try green said another child, still not brown... so then we added, red, black and finally yellow before getting the brown the children wanted.

The pepparkaka brown was dumped onto the paper as well as squirts of all the above colours...
then the children started to mix with their hands, legs and feet - with squeals of delight, songs of exploration and eager sharing of experiences...

We are lucky to have a shower in our art studio - right next to where this paper is on the floor... so the children can step straight into it to get clean.

There is a whole load of OMG feeling running through my body during this kind of painting... as it is so high energy and there is paint slowly covering more and more of the children... but it does always seem to flow and you feel sort of exhilerated and exhausted afterwards.

Several of the children helped me clean the floor afterwards - loving every moment of playing Cinderella... while the rest of the group played with a wonderful calmness after the buzz of painting - somehow content with life after the sensory exploration of paint.
 

Pippi Longstocking inspired role-play area

There is a surprise waiting for the children on Monday... the role-play area has had a make-over...
Now we have a Pippi Longstocking inspired area...
and for several reasons...

1.   Pippi Longstocking turns 70 this year
2. We have plans for a Pippi celebration on National Preschool Day - which is actually Pippi's birthday too. Pippi activities on the square.
3. The Pippi stories celebrate childhood and the competence and strength of children.
4. From a gender perspective Pippi stories share a strong female role-model. 
5. The children in Molnet are in the middle of a project about "same and different" and they have been taking a closer look at the "room where you eat" - sharing with each other a photograph from each child's place of eating... so of course Pippi's place of eating was a natural addition to the play possibilities of this project.

It will be interesting to see how the children react and play... and more things will be added based on our observations of the children's play... to deepen and extend it.

I painted some extra shelves on the background with the hope that some of the children will be inspired to draw more things to put on the shelves and therefore contribute to the look of the role-play area.

There are also intentions to get scrubbing brushes that the children can attach to their feet so that they can play cleaning the floors, just like Pippi does.

Play and learning

For me it is natural that children learn through play...

BUT what is this play that they learn through?

How is it defined - is there good play, bad play or some play that is more rich in learning potential? And is there a line between learning and play - or maybe a zone for optimal learning in play... or should it be optimal play while learning?

How much can children learn by themselves in their own play together... where is the pivot in the child/teacher learning/play balance? Can a teacher enhance play too much, control the play too much so as to deepen the learning that is going on?

Do we teachers have to much of a learning agenda in children's play as a way to prove to the world there is real value in play?

Are we possibly hijacking children's play in our attempts to save it?

I have blogged quite a bit about play in the past... here are some links in case you would like to explore more...

• winter mud play  - does allowing children the freedom to get messy enable their play to be richer and more fun/meaningful. 
• Play Space in Jenin - how important is it to create play spaces for children? What value does this have? is playing on the street of equal value? Is a rundown playspace more of a disappointment for children than having no playground, where play is on the street/nature?
• Empty Spaces - what does the third teacher really tell the children... how do the children feel most value... by having access to lots of toys and materials, by having access to a few well thought out ones? or what about the cardboard box approach I have seen in various places where the children just have cardboard boxes and tubes etc to play with?
• Reflecting on play  do I see the children's play in the same way as the children... can it be measured or compared... this was an attempt to explore that a little...
• Play reflecting on the play in my childhood compared to the play of today...
• Children should be seen and not heard - do we see and children too much and therefore not allow them access to true free play?
• Toys how do toys influence the kind of play that is played...
• Even harmless games can be evil - a translated blog post about war/fighting games in preschool etc 
• art-children - reflection - children  - a post reflecting on children, play and art... and having visited the Modern Art museum today I found myself not enjoying the experience so much... having worked hard to create and environment that allows, I suddenly found myself in a an environment that restricted... you could only experience the art through your eyes... the rest of the senses then? Don't touch don't touch all over the place and staff that seemed to fear young children... "don't touch" they kept saying... even though they were not touching...
• Work and play - elevating the status of play - are we doing play a disservice by calling it children's work... 
• Feel the rain - is play taking the time to listen to the rain... to take the time to realise that today's play is not about what I first thought but a reaction to what we hear and see together...?
• What happened to play?  exploring play -... and the length of time children have access to play in their school...
•  individual needs of child play -     OK in this post I make a pizza reference 
•  Freedom, free , freeplay exploring what free play is, and if it can exist.
• more thoughts about play - here I interviewed my children about what they thought free play is...
• what is play more thoughts from my children about what is play...
• Do children play enough? this is my last link... of course there are more play posts to explore (56 under play 61 under outdoor play... of course some of these will be one and the same post)

  So now I am just going to leave it there... with questions... because really, I just need to think about this a whole load more.... again.