Play Pieces: February

Lots and lots and lots of brilliant play has happened throughout February across the Play Local project. It's been a bit rainy and windy but the days are already starting to get longer and that means more children are coming back out to play. Here's some of the fun little moments we've caught on camera this month:

 

We've been chilling at the Shop of Possibilities

We've been playing with the rules some more

We broke the Play Local staff

And tied them up!

We worked really hard at our desk

Rope

Some fun photos from a slightly wet and very windy Saturday afternoon Play Local session on Elmington estate. A few children still braved the bad weather to come out and play though. Starting off with a bit of Tug of War...

Which George obviously won...

The boys look happy despite the rain...

Playing around with rope some more...

Then George experiments with holding his own weight with the rope attached to the climbing frame:

Looks like fun! Has anyone else been playing out in the rain lately?

David's Corner

David is a maker, he's always had this ability to just see the potential in a seemingly random selection of materials. You can see some of his previous play projects here these were from way back when Febrik did their first residency as part of the Making Play Project in 2012. 

Today saw the return of David's large scale making. He took over a whole corner of the Shop of Possibilities and lined it carefully with cardboard boxes, he went around furniture and into all the little gaps until he felt satisfied with the result. He often works alone, creating environments that can be inhabited by himself and occasionally they will attract the attention of other children too, however David always remains in control of the build!

A starting point

Making progress

Determined to get into every corner

Adding a doorway

Granny Style

Sometimes children want to play alone and sometimes they want to make the grown ups part of their game. Today became one of those days when Ellie decided that it wasn't good enough for the playworkers to help her dress up, they actually needed to be the ones getting dressed up!

Sarah helps Ellie fashion a long pink skirt

Ellie being shy for the photo

She starts to dress Sarah up in scraps of material

Street Drawing

It's so great to watch a child really lose themselves in their play, to see them get so into something that they aren't really aware of what's going on around them. This curious little play project by Abdul is one of my favorites, I felt privileged to be there while he was working through whatever he was working through, it was as if I was watching an artist lost in the middle of their process. Have a look at the beautiful chalk drawing he made in the series of images below, and there's a short video clip at the end to see him in action.

 

Stuffing

The Shop of Possibilities suffered a loss today, our trusty teddy Eeyore sadly lost his stuffing. He was a great friend and prop to many of the children and their games however he suffered a terrible accident whilst being used as an object to be sat on and pulled across the space on.

 

This loss of a clearly recognisable children's toy opened up lots of play possibilities, arguably much more fun, unusual and exciting than any play with the original object would have been. Yes, it could be seen as wasteful, but when you look at the hours of fun and inventive play that this destruction resulted in, it becomes that bit more difficult to be sad at the loss of the soft toy. By getting broken, the teddy became a collection of loose parts, with no clearly defined use or purpose.

 

Patrick assesses the damage

Then Ben decides Eeyore is unable to be saved

He starts to pull the stuffing out

And they decide to stuff Elijah with the stuffing

Wheely Chair Games

I am still intrigued by how much fun children can have playing with such normal everyday objects. Today's fascination was with a wheely office chair, and to be honest I think the fascination is totally justified. The children set up a simple, exciting, slightly dangerous, super fun game where one of them sat on the chair and got wheeled really fast into a sofa and a pile of cushions.

 

Risky? A bit.

Fun? Definitely!

 

I think the expression of joy on the face of the child in the third photo speaks volumes. Isn't it important to give children the space to work out their own boundaries and how they feel about risk and safety? This activity felt ok within the space because there were constant instructions being shouted at each other depending on who was sitting and who was pushing. Faster! Slower! Spin me! Stop! Go! Backwards! It rarely felt like the children weren't in control or weren't listening to each other.

 

Fun & Games with a Tyre

We got a new loose part in the Shop of Possibilities this week, a tyre. I believe it is the first tyre we've ever had. The children noticed it straight away and went about putting it to good use.

 

It was worn...

 

 

Balanced on...

 

Rolled...

Boutique Chic

Emily’s new fashion collection was inspired by and made from items found at The Shop of Possibilities. Modelled below by the children and Play Local staff:

 

Play Pieces: January

Well January has been and gone very quickly, so here is our speedy round up of all the playful happenings at the Shop of Possibilities that kicked off the new year .

 

We started a band

Made some scary faces

Explored some strange loose parts...