Lets play in the sandpit

Date: 23RD April 2010

Resources: Sand, spades, diggers, leaves, iceblock sticks.

Activity: Sandpit area.

Children: F (4), L (3), C (4), E (3), M (2)



STOP

After morning tea, I went outside to help supervise with the other teacher at the early childhood centre. I stood near the sandpit while keeping an eye on the other children playing on the monkey bars. F (4), L (3), C (4), E (3), M (2) were busy playing with the diggers and the spades in the sandpit. F (4) says “lets make houses”, “no” replies M (2), F replies” yes you not the boss”. M (2) starts to cry so I climbed over to the sandpit and plonked myself down with them. I got the children involved by asking “okay what can we make today?” F (4) replies” I wana make a house”, “noooooo” screams M (2), “its okay M, you can make what you want to make okay”. She nods her head. E (3) wanted to make a big mountain by piling sand into a big mound, C (4) wanted to make roads, so he scooped the sand aside to make his “road” flat. F (4) who wanted to make houses used the bucket to scoop his sand in and turned it over. His sandcastle was his house. He made several next to each other. M (2) and I went to look for leaves and twigs that M (2) wanted to put onto the sandcastle houses. The other children that were playing on the monkey bars became interested and 4 more children came to join in at the sandpit area. They started helping by adding more “houses”. L (3) decided to go and get some blocks in the centre to represent “people”. M (2) went inside with another child and asked the teacher inside the centre if there were any iceblocks sticks they could use to make pretend “trees”. Soon the sandpit area had become a little “town” as interpreted by the children.

THINK

This activity saw how the children used their creativity and imagination to create objects and sand into a town as interpreted by them. The children I saw were sharing tools, communicating on what they wanted to do apart from the beginning between M (2) and F (4). By looking at this situation, I dealt with it by getting down to the child’s level and explaining to M (2) she can choose what she wanted to do, not necessarily what F (4) was making. M (2) was happy and started participating in the activity. I also explained to her that if she wanted to help F (4) make his “house” at a later time then she can ask F (4) if she can. By stepping in and diffusing the situation before it escalates, we used problem solving skills and the children learnt to listen to each others ideas and interests and to respect each other. This is shown as having a sense of belonging (Ministry of Education, 1996). This activity can be turned into something huge with the children adding more “houses” or another “town” and more children can participate too.

CHANGE

Ask the children to bring things from home that will be used for their “town” for example to bring in popsicle sticks or fabric they can use to decorate their “houses”. The centre does not have that many crafts resources for the children to use. It will be nice if there were some for the children to use as it can be frustrating for the children and me if we are trying to look for popsicle sticks and there is none available or pipe cleaners. Introduce blocks and "people" that are specifically for the sandpit so the children are not going inside the centre and getting them. It creates a mess when taken back inside. Set up more resources for the children to expand their learning by placing other tools or equipment in the sandpit area and for exploration (Ministry of Education, 1996).