Merry Christmas Everyone!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Thank you for reading our blog over the past year, we hope you have enjoyed it. We'll be taking a little break over the festive period but will be back with more playful projects and photos in January.

 

Here's a few pics from our Christmas party at the Shop of Possibilities to get you in the festive spirit:

 

Tamzin and Patrick stand proud alongside their Christmas card competition entries

Santa hats and tinsel

A skipping santa

Christmas craft

Christmas bling!

 

See you in 2014!



Play Pieces: December

This year has certainly flown by! We've got up to all sorts at the Shop of Possibilities and Play Local this year, and here is our final Play Pieces of 2013.

 

We practiced our gymnastics

Got stuck to walls with tape...

...and then had help to get free

 

Go Kart!

An example of when an adult initiated 'project' can become a starting point for lots of interesting play. It highlights that sometimes an adult intervention can become a starting point for the children and give them something new and different to think about and play with.

 

Below shows Elijah's slightly wobbly Go Kart, the children that gravitated towards it and how they played with it afterwards.

 

 

Christmas Arrives at the Shop...

I have never heard squeals of joy quite so loud as when a some of our regular children arrived at the Shop of Possibilities on Tuesday to a table full of tinsel and a wall full of decorations...

 

As a child you're probably not supposed to actually play with the Christmas decorations, so it was fun seeing the children rummage around in the tinsel and wrapping it around themselves before they decorated the space with it.

 

So the Shop of Possibilities now has a temporary and environmentally friendly Christmas tree, plenty of paper chains and tinsel everywhere. All ready for our Christmas Party!

 

The temporary tree

Santa's little helper decorating the room

 

Making paper chains

The decorated tree

Rainy Day Play Time

 Rain doesn't stop play here. In fact we saw a lot of really interesting and unexpected play happen whilst the rain was falling and the wind was trying to knock us over...

 

It began inside with some balancing and jumping:

 

 

Changing the Playground

The children on Elmington estate have been working with artist Laura Carle throughout November. During her last session they all worked outside building various types of structures mainly with wood and tarpaulin. Throughout their time working with Laura, the children have built up skills in making, but also confidence in creating, demonstrated here by a spontaneous action carried out by a couple of the children using tape and the fixed playground itself. Have a look at the images below to see how this action dramatically changed one of the fixed elements of the playground:

 

Buckets

An entertaining, noisy and active start to the session last Saturday. Knocking down as many buckets as you can, you had to stand behind the line, you got bonus points if the bucket fell directly on top of another, and each turn you had to step back the same number of steps as buckets you hit. Here's what it looked like:

 

 

Play Pieces: November

The days are getting shorter, but the play goes on! Here's a quick round up of what's been happening throughout November:

 

Some making and destroying...

A bow making station

We were attacked by zombies...

Laura Carle: Cardboard Sculpting

Play Local takes over Elmington estate TRA hall! With artist Laura Carle returning with lots of cardboard to make giant sculptures:

 

 

Children, Adults and Playfighting

“We want to do it exactly the same again but without the talking.” Verbal feedback from Lexis, Play Fight Club Attendee

Laura Eldret's first explorations into children’s play fighting were part of the Play Local programme at the South London Gallery. She began by helping shape a series of workshops on Sundays during January and February 2013 with sessions that soon became known locally amongst children as ‘Play Fight Club’. These initial workshops, which took place inside the Tenants and Residence Association Hall on Wyndham and Comber Estate in Camberwell, explicitly allowed children to play fight within zones of varying intensity and with pillows and crash mats providing cues for a significant range of physical exertion.

 

 

The Body Skeleton

This half term the Play Local team visited Elmington estate. We took over the Tenants Hall, pushed aside all the tables and chairs and set up lots of wood and tools. Instantly Daniel took a liking to one of the old chairs which had its seat removed, and for the whole two hour session he worked away on what he called a Body Skeleton. A structure that you wear over your head to keep you standing straight. It also has some handy little arm rests too.

 

The original chair

Removing the unwanted parts

Adding some custom made sections

Securing the additions

Trial run

The finished piece

Artist Laura Carle tries it out!

Play Pieces: October

As October draws to a close, here is a round up of some play moments that have happened throughout the month at the Shop of Possibilities and Play Local.

 

Playing with hoops

Who can throw the highest?

Climbing chair

Balancing chair

Playing Outside

The Shop of Possibilities sits within an estate on the borders of Peckham and Camberwell, it's quite a busy residential area but we are lucky to have some lovely outdoor green spaces to play around in.

 

With the release of a new documentary Project Wild Thing at the weekend, we thought we'd highlight some of our outdoor play, showing the kids getting a bit messy, digging around in the dirt and playing with water.

 

Making a splash

 

Cheers!

We have a very enthusiastic barman at the Shop of Possibilities, who often takes it upon himself to be in charge of refreshments. Today he wanted to make a bar and guided me through the set up:

 

"Let's put the grey bench in front of that wall"

 

"I'm going to use all the cups"

 

"We need juice and water"

 

"Can we have the radio on?"

 

"Where's the bunting? I want to put two buntings up"

 

Customers wait at the bar

The happy barman

Putting up the bunting

Customer waiting to be served

Closing time!

I am constantly amazed by the passion, energy and creativity of our resident barman.