Toy Critique

Assignment 1 Play activity This assignment had been done with a group of 4 children with ages between 3 and 4?. Planning: In order to do the play activity I had to observe the children for two days. I wanted to know what are they more interested in and what they would like more. After the observation stage, I wanted to make sure that the play activity I had in mind, suited their age and stage of development. I also made sure that the activity is safe and that it included the PILES development and that it s based on future learning. I made a sketch plan for myself without telling the children about it and I see what I need for all that.

I consulted with the manager to see if the materials I needed could be provided by her. I explain to my manager that I would like to make an activity based on the children’s imagination. I had been observing that the group was interested in cars and animals, so that made me think of building one car close the real size, with the help of the children. They would then have to make an imaginary trip to the zoo, inside the car. I needed a large carton box, sellotape, paint and scissors. The manager agreed with the plan, but she suggests that on our way to the zoo, we should make some stops in different places like shops or public parking areas.

I checked to see if I had enough time to accomplish the activity, including the preparation and tidying up at the end. I talked with the children about what we were going to do the next week, and they seemed to like the idea very much. I put the plan together over the weekend and ensured that I have the proper and safe materials by the beginning of the next week. I then realised that I would need more than one day for the play activity. I decided to split the play activity into 4 daily sessions, of 25 minutes each. Implementation: Day 1: Monday

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We started by moving some chairs and a table closer to a wall in the room, so we would have enough space for the activity. I put a carton box on the floor. The children asked: Ch: “What are we going to do with this box, teacher? ” Me: “We are going to build a big car and all of you would have to paint it. ” After I drew the car, trimmed its shape on the carton board, I gave the children different colours of paint so they would paint the car. Me: “Now I want you to close your eyes and to imagine this car in whatever colour you would like it to be. I didn’t have time to finish my sentence because they all started to tell me at the same time what was their favourite colour for the car. Me: “Stop, stop, stop. No, not all together. C1, tell us what colour would you like the car to be? ” C1: “I want my car to be pink. ” Me: “Very good! You can paint the front of the car. C2, what colour does your car have? ” C2: “Orange, it’s my favourite colour. ” Me: “OK C2, you will do this side of the car” and I showed him the right side of the car. “Now, C3, tell me! ” C3: “I like my car to be blue. ” Me: “Perfect. You have the back of the car. C4? ” C4: “I want my car red.

It’s my favourite colour. ” Me: “Very good, C4, you will paint this side of the car” and I showed him the left side of the car. “Excellent, but there is missing something. Who can tell me what is missing? ” Ch: “The wheels! ” Me: “What colour are they? ” Ch: “Black. ” Me: “Very good! Each of you will have to paint one wheel. ” I put their aprons to each of them and they each took a paintbrush. They started painting and to talk about the car. The children gave the car a name: “Tina”. After they finished painting the car the children asked e what to do next. I told them that we were going to wait until the next day.

Day 2: Tuesday First thing in the morning, after arriving at the creche, the children asked me what we were going to do with the car that day. C1: “Are we going to play with the car, today? ” Me: “Yes, we will play with the car, but not like yesterday. ” I then told them to concentrate and imagine that they are going to get into the car with mommy, daddy, or his/her best friends and they would be going to the zoo. On the way to the zoo they would stop twice, in two different places. I wanted them to tell me what were the two places they were thinking about, what they wanted to do there and what were they see at each stop.

Knowing that they were having more than 2 places in mind, I asked them to speak in turn about their choices: - C1 told me that he would stop to buy ice cream and visit a fun fair - C2 wanted to play some football and to make a stop at McDonald’s - C3 wanted to visit a fun fair and eat at McDonald’s - C4 wanted to ride in an electric car at the fun fair and eat an ice cream I wanted to include each activity in the imaginary car travel so I thought the best way to do that was to plan the itinerary like this: - First stop at the fun fair and electrical cars - Second stop at McDonald’s for ice cream

I was not sure that we would have enough time for the fun fair on that day. Me: “OK. Everybody, let’s go into the car. C3, you will drive today. ” C3 was very happy about that. “Go in front of the car and tell everybody to hurry up and close the doors. ” I told them to pretend that they are going in the car and drive to the fun fair. They pushed the car (“driving”) towards the table (the “fun fair”). The table was in the middle of the room, so they pushed the car and circled the table twice and then stopped. C3: “Here we are at the funfair. ” The other 3 children started cheering “Hooray!

We are here. ” I was very happy and proud of them. They were really enjoying the game. I placed 7 small cars (“the electric cars”) on the tables. The cars had different shapes and colours. I asked each of the children to pick a car from the table and then tell me why they picked that car. I wanted to test their intellectual skills. C1 picked a blue sports car. He told me that blue is his favourite colour and that he likes sports cars. I asked how he knows that he was holding a sports car and he replied that the sport cars are very low to the ground. C2 picked a bigger, orange car.

He said that orange is his favourite colour and that he likes big cars because his father has a big car. C3 picked a small, red car justifying that small cars are for girls (she is a girl) and she liked red. C4 picked a minivan. He said that he wants a family car so that he could take his parents and sister with him everywhere they want. I was very surprised to find out that the children had good reasons for choosing a car and that the choice was not random. I then asked them if they know how an electric car works or what you have to do with in order to start up an electric car. They told me that one should et inside the car and drive it. C3 told me that the car runs on electricity. I let them play with their cars for about 2 minutes. I then asked them to leave the “electric cars in the funfair and return to their car and park it” close to one of the walls in the room. We planned to continue our trip, the next day. Day 3: Wednesday We started a little bit earlier than the previous days to include the snack time from the creche schedule into the game. I named C1 and C4 to drive the car that day. C1 was the driver from the parking lot to McDonald’s and c4 was the driver from McDonald’s to the zoo.

The children got into the car and “drove” circling the table 3 times and then stopping close to the table. They got out of the car and took a seat at the table. I told them that they were to be the clients and I would be the waitress. I explained to them what a waitress is and told them how to order. They asked me to bring their snacks from their lunch boxes. After finishing their snacks, I gave them a scoop of ice cream each. After the stop at McDonald’s, C4 stood up and said “Let’s go now. It’s a long way to the zoo and it’s getting dark. ” I was very surprised to hear that from him.

I was thinking that was developing an early stage of responsibility. C3 asked me where the zoo was. I replied that it wasn’t very far, pointing in the direction of another table in the corner of the room. They circled the first table twice and went to the second table in the corner. In the meantime I took 8 animals from a box of toys and I lined them up on the table in the corner as if they were in cages at the zoo. When the children got to the table in the corner, something happened and we had to interrupt the game. One of the children (C2) had to go home and I didn’t want to continue the game without him.

The others wanted to continue but I explained to them that we can’t continue without C2 and we would have to wait until the next day so we could be all together. I postponed the visit at the zoo for the next day. Day 4: Thursday C2 thought that we had finished the trip without him. He was happy to hear that we hadn’t continued the trip and that we had been waiting for him. I also told him that he would be driving from the zoo to the Montessori. After they had their snack in the snack break, I asked them if they could remember where we had stopped the day before. They all told me that we were going to see the animals at the zoo.

C1: “We have to pay first, teacher. ” Me: “Very well, C1. Yes, we do have to pay. ” They pretended to take money out of their pockets and give it to me. They gathered around the table so I told them to stay in line so we could walk around the table to see and talk about the animals. We had a dialogue about what type of animals they are, what their colour is, where they live and what they eat. I even asked them if the animals are happy in the zoo. The children were very curious to find out thing that they didn’t know about the animals. We talked about them for about 15 minutes. They all knew the names of the animals and their colours.

The habitat (where they live) and eating habits were new to the children. The answers were different, some of them were right and some of them were wrong. I was more than happy to tell them the right answer to any question. After the visit at the zoo, C2 said that is was his turn to drive and he was right. They got into the car again and “drove” around the table four times. They said that it was a long distance back to Montessori. C2 parked the car and we went in the back garden of the creche, for some fresh air. We sat down in circle so we could talk about the visit. I asked them if they enjoyed their visit at the zoo.

The children told me that they would like to go another time but to a different place. I also asked them if they had learned something from this trip. C3 said that she had never been to a restaurant and tell the waiter what she wants by herself, before. I told the children that we would do other trips in the future. Evaluation: Evaluating objectives for children In my opinion, the play activity had a very good impact on the children. It was, in fact, much better than what I expected. Their imagination is very well developed and the trip was a good opportunity to improve their learning outcomes.

They did what they wanted to do and how they wanted to do. I just provided them the foundation of the game and they took control of the actions. The following abilities were exercised by the children: - Mathematical learning, by using the shapes of the cars, size of the cars, relationship between objects when comparing cars and animals - Creative learning, by being free to express opinions, ideas and feelings, exploring and experimenting art when they painted the car, movement when driving the car and dramatic play when ordering at McDonald’s - Physical experiences when “driving the car” Linguistic learning when talking about the habitat of the animals and eating habits - Personal and social learning, by developing their self-esteem and autonomy while “driving”, team working, talking to each others about their ideas, sharing experiences and when C3 admitted that it was the first time she ordered by herself at a restaurant. The play activity can be used in the future to plan other discovery trips in other places like “visiting a museum”, “going to the gym”, “going to the swimming pool”, or if the children have other ideas for trips.

Evaluating the adult role My initial goals for this play activity were the developing of the child’s creativity, curiosity and imagination. I achieved the goals by putting the children in an out of the ordinary situation and then constructing different sets of events, upon the main idea, with or without the help of the children. During the planning of the activity I found out that children can actively participate in elaborating ideas, not only carrying out an idea. They were using their imagination and sometimes I felt that they were using it more than I did.

As adults we sometimes know how things should be, look like or feel, but a child doesn’t know that. A child is curious to learn about things he does not know, and is eager to experiment, not only asking others what is best in a situation, and to copy the behaviour he sees in adults. Maybe that is why I was amazed to find out the different reasons of the children when picking the cars, and how they related with their families (the human beings with which a child spends much of his time and tends to imitate).

The total cost of the project was minimal because I used recycled material along with things which were already at hand from the creche. In the future I would like to include either more learning and developmental outcomes, or doing a specialized play activity with one or two learning outcomes. I would like to see which one is more effective on child education. To do that, first I am planning to do a play activity extending the time length from 4 days to 7 days. After assessing that activity, I will then decide whether I would specialize the play on one or two learning or development outcomes, or introducing as many outcomes as possible.

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