Going Outside

Has anybody noticed that the weather is starting to get a bit better? As a result we've already been seeing more children coming to the Shop of Possibilities and more of them wanting to play outside. Here are some photos of a group of kids and a load of random materials they dragged outside and played around with throughout the session. They started off by  carefully choosing the materials they wanted to take outside, but once they were outside the group lost interest and it became more about individual children playing around with different combinations of objects intermittently throughout the afternoon.

Arinze's Corner

So two weeks ago we saw David take over a corner in the Shop of Possibilities, and since then Arinze has had a go at claiming the space with the same material but a totally different process. It's obviously impossible to tell what is going through a child's mind while they are playing but Arinze was certainly working through something in his head while playing amongst all the cardboard. The photos make it look like lots of fun (which I'm sure it was) but at some points he got pretty angry with the cardboard and was hitting it, kicking it and smashing it up. So if someone had come in at that point and had seen that isolated moment they would have wondered what had happened to make him so angry.

However there were also moments of calm.

And there were moments that were more structured, where sorting the cardboard was a priority.

We asked Arinze at the end of the session what he wanted to happen to the cardboard, and he asked "Can we just leave it there?" So we did. Then next session he carried on where he left off. This time hiding amongst it was the most popular activity.

The cardboard has now been tidied up and is back in the corner waiting for another child to discover it.

Playworker Stories: Tarpaulin and Rope

We have a team of playworkers who assist on the Play Local project, they all help to run sessions at the Shop of Possibilities and the offsite Play Local sessions. They all live locally, some on the estates we deliver play sessions on. Many of them are under 21 and for many it is also their first job. We felt it was about time that their voices are heard on the blog, and so we decided to introduce ‘Playworker Stories’, a series of blog posts written by the Playworkers about a session, or particular play moments that they have found interesting.
 
The first in this series is written by Jamielee who is nineteen years old and has worked on the Play Local project for around nine months.

On Saturday 22 February we went to Elmington estate. The children had some tarpaulin and rope to use so they could make something out of it. George, one of the children, tied the tarpaulin to the fence and around himself and balanced with it.

Some of the kids enjoyed putting the tarpaulin over the climbing frame to make a tent. Then Daniel turned the tent into a bath and a bed.

Car Tyre Games

We seem to be collecting old car tyres at the Shop of Possibilities lately and the children have been using them for all sorts of different games. The tyres have been covered in chalk and turned into large mark making objects. They were rolled and raced. They were climbed on, balanced on, jumped on and sat in. Here's some images which show some of the ways the children have been playing with them. It was a lot of fun to watch and I think the children had a good time too!

Making A Mascot

It all started when we got given a load of teddy bears from a parent who lives on Sceaux Gardens estate... There were also some old clothes in the bag and once Emily found these she decided she wanted to make a giant teddy mascot for the Shop of Possibilities. 

They made the body by stuffing a top and trousers with Eeyore's old stuffing:

And then found a good head for the mascot in the form of an old Winnie the Pooh teddy bear, and proceeded to remove the head with surgical accuracy...

 

They fixed the head onto the body...

Then the mascot was complete!

 

Meanwhile, other children caught on to what was happening, and joined in with the action...

   

With perhaps slightly more sinister intentions...

  

  

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.