Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of us at the Shop of Possibilities, we're taking a little break but will be back with more playful projects in the new year.

In the meantime here are some photographs from our Christmas session on Saturday to get you in the festive spirit:

The Christmas elves gather in the shop...

Collecting leaves for the Christmas tree.

And a few branches.

 

Searching for the right leaves...

Ellie starts to make the tree.

 

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The finished tree!

 

Thursday Fun

Batman makes a visit to the Shop of Possibilities

Getting ready for a game of dodgeball

Basit shoots at his target!

Swords and shields

Mapping and spaces!

A relatively sedate afternoon at the shop and everyone seemed to be focused on space. David negotiating and mapping out the floor space with the help of Gemma.

 

 

Meanwhile Ellie and Patrick make a model hospital complete with a shower! & a paramedic in his very own ambulance. They were on standby but thankfully Saturday remained injury and accident free so our little paramedic friend got an easy shift.

Hoops

Elijah built a great basketball hoop this weekend, once he'd built it his work was done and it was left for the girls to shoot.

Jasmin wasn't satisfed that it was challenging enough so the games got increasingly harder and more interesting

 

Once they got bored of the balls they changed the game up and tried jumping through hoops to score instead!

Extreme Dodgeball: A Group Invention

Two teams on two opposite sides of the room. It began as boys vs girls.

The aim was to throw the balls as quickly as you could, hit a player of the opposite team and get rid of the balls in your half of the pitch.

Shelters were introduced as the game got more intense.

As were rackets to extend your reach and hit the balls away quicker.

 

The inventors of the game were also the players, and the rules and instuctions of the game were consistently tried out, tested and negotiated as the game grew in intensity. This was largely unspoken, and suprisingly uncontested, resulting in a true collaboration between all the players.

Rough and Tumble

 

The session began with all hands on deck to make a giant punch bag, which you can see one of our staff members sporting quite nicely in these photos! The children then played around with this, seeing who could do the most impressive kick or punch to the bag.

 

Then we made the cushions into a soft landing for stunts such as falling backward on a chair...

 

Then as a landing pad for wrestling moves...

 

...gymnastics: including a whole lot of jumps, cartwheels, spins, forward rolls and dramatic falls...

 

While there were a few moments where I held my breath and hid behind my hands, mostly I was impressed by the energy, creativity and enthusiasm the children brought to this. I was also confident in the childrens own ability to judge what they could or couldn't do We were also really pleased to see them considering their own and each others safety - testing things out and gradually and trying more daring moves as the afternoon progresssed.

 

Playing with Water

I'm glad children aren't bothered by the cold like a lot of adults are, if they were we wouldn't have seen such brilliant games using water today. I brought along a stack of plastic cups and put them amongst the rest of the objects in the shop, they were instantly built into pyramids and knocked down, then built into towers and knocked down and so on.

 

 

But then the focus soon became much more about the cups as containers - filling them up with water from bowls and watering cans, arranging them in different formations, then knocking them down and filling them back up again. Reon in particular was taken with this idea and spent a lot of time trying out different things.

 

 

Others then started to join in, sourcing anything that could be used as a water carrier.

 

And then new games were invented. Have a look at the video below to see Reon and Tyra's game (and who won!)

 

 

Others then used the cups as dominoes, exploring whether or not they would tip one another over. When that didn't happen, kicking them over was the next best solution!

 

It is really interesting when there is one clearly dominent interest amongst the group during a session. Then seeing how long it is explored for and how many different games and activities can come from the same idea is really enjoyable. Also how different children get involved and then change the game slightly, work together, take ideas off on their own. I love those times that when you leave children to play on their own, you can see them working through an idea or a problem that you can't understand but can clearly see that they are driven enough to keep exploring and keep creating.

Junk and Treasure

 

The Shop of Possibilities changes every week: new objects are introduced to the space then used, transformed and appropriated by the children. Here is what the it looks like at the moment.

Not a shop. So don't come in if you want to buy.

 

If you have any unwanted items that you would like to dontate to the Shop of Possibilities please do get in touch. Your junk could be our treasure!



Best Use of a Broom

 

 

Seeing imaginative uses of everyday objects always interests me, and this simple game created by three of our regular visitors is a great example. The game is difficult for all of the players, especially the one that is spinning in the middle who can be prone to getting dizzy quite quickly. The children tested out different versions of the game as they were playing - different speeds, different types of jumping and different surfaces. The video above is a small snippet of this activity and hopefully shows how much energy the children put in and how much enjoyment they got from it.

Swashbuckling Saturday

 

'Sword Fights' were the game of the day, with giant cardboard tubes being used as weapons. The first rule was that you couldn't hit another player, only their sword. Negotiations were continually made between the players, other rules coming in as the game progressed. Boundaries were set, then broken, set and broken again. Other games were merged into this one, at one point it became swordfight tag and the energy levels remained high throughout the session.

 

But then some of the children prefered to take it easy...

Packing a Bag and Following a Cat

The Shop of Possibilities received an unexpected visitor this week. 'JJ' the cat came to say hello much to the delight of the children. Emily, Jasmine and Tyra packed a suitcase and decided to follow JJ on his travels.

 

The girls made sure they packed all the essentials: marker cones, a metal tin, a cheese grater and a plastic bowl.

The girls were highly imaginative and enthusiastic with their play. Each became more and more involved in the story they had created, and they all continually added new elements into the game.

 

JJ the cat was also delighted with all the attention he received.