Powerful Messy Play

Rethinking Our Practice- Art 

     Created by a small group of 3&4-year-old children

It's a collaborative work that pushed me to the limit of my comfort zone, but I did some self-talk as I noticed the deeply engaged children exploring the paint in ways that are natural for children. They were in a state of mind only reached while in play, they seemed so enthralled with the process as the paint dripped, splashed and blended together, this creative freedom seemed intoxicating. The children were pulled deeply into the experience, closely observing, thinking, then adding elements as if answering questions or playing out assumptions they held in their minds and hearts.

Often as adults, we see experiences like this a frivolous, wasteful and careless.

With closer observation and a shift in mindset, we can see that this experience is bursting with meaning. It is providing each participant with a sense of belonging, a sense of power, freedom of expression, and pure joy. Moments like this are of utmost value and should be the goal of every preschool environment.

Supporting these intrinsic needs in young children in our programs requires educators to reflect on their program culture and environment, then alter their practice and design.

Program Culture:
What do your policies say about powerful messy play?

How do you support and inform parents about the importance of powerful messy play?

What verbal, non-verbal and/or unintended messages are we giving children about powerful messy play?

Program Design:
How does our program design support or hinder the act of powerful messy play?

Who are we designing for?

How can we alter our classroom design to support powerful messy play?

Starting here will create a ripple effect that will take you and your team to a place of deep reflection, re-creation, and rethinking of your practice around powerful messy play.

by Lakisha Reid 
Founder of Play Empowers, 
Early Childhood Presenter and Consultant
Co-Host of Dirty Playologist Podcast Owner/Director/Educator at Discovery Early Learning Center 
www.discoveryelc@hotmail.com 

Learnable Moments

by Lakisha Reid 

There is some very interesting play going on around pipes. This arched piece has baffled a few. Its shape makes it attractive and also makes it difficult to handle. Once the child is able to successfully connect it to another pipe, they then attempt to insert objects. The downward positioning causes their mission to oppose the forces of gravity. Mission not accomplished...

As onlookers and facilitators of play, it is our responsibility to allow children to reach disequilibrium, a point in which their idea or belief is challenged causing them to alter their mindset. It is important that we allow the process to be the child's and realize that if we correct, explain, or fix the problem, we are robbing the child of truly discovering and experiencing the process of solving their problem.


Many times this process does not immediately culminate in a final understanding of the original challenge, but instead, makes way for bits and bits of layered understanding over time.

This layering effect fuels the intrinsic need for the child to return to the play to further gain understanding. It feeds their innate curiosity and drives them to continue to crave knowledge.

Allowing children to reach a point of struggle and make their way through it is the best way to support their learning through play.

HOW TO SUPPORT CHILDREN WHEN FRUSTRATION RUNS HIGH

Often this support is simply:

-Acknowledging their feeling of frustration "I see you are frustrated"

-Asking a question, " what is your plan?" being prompted to verbalize their plan often helps them hash it out and alter their approach.

-Giving them an out "Should we take a break and come back to this?" Sometimes a break allows a child to return to a problem with a new set of eyes.

The goal is to allow the frustration, allow the struggle, but support the process. Never just doing it for them, showing them how you would do it, or making it a "teachable moment", but instead seeing it as a "learnable moment" that spans a lifetime!

by Lakisha Reid 
Founder of Play Empowers, 
Early Childhood Presenter and Consultant
 Co-Host of Dirty Playologist Podcast  Owner/Director/Educator at Discovery Early Learning Center 
www.discoveryelc@hotmail.com

This Is Why We Are Here...

Years ago, I was given Jon Muth's beautiful book, The Three Questions, as a graduation gift. It was a gift from my then-boyfriend's parents (who are now my in-laws).

This beautifully illustrated picture book, based on Leo Tolstoy's story of the same name, is a  meditation on the meaning of life.

The little boy in the story ponders three questions, "When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?"

His friends offer many possible answers, all tailored to their own particular interests and habits, until he is led to the answer through a series of experiences with Leo, the old tortoise, a mother panda, and her baby (it's a truly beautiful story and one that can be appreciated on multiple levels - I urge you to pick up a copy and read it if you have not).

He is led to these truths, which I try to meditate on daily:

The best time to do things is now.

The most important one is the one you are with.

The right thing to do, is to do right by the one who is by your side.

I can't say I'm always successful.

Children are simply better at this, at being here in this moment, with whatever it offers. 

There is a lot of angst and worry and anger in the world right now. We, as adults, are walking around with a lot of weight on our shoulders. We think a lot about what's wrong, and we wonder how to fix the things we don't like, and we feel overwhelmed. 

A dear friend asked me if I'd be interested in writing a guest post on her blog and made a point to ask that it be "positive and non-political." This sounded like a piece of cake but I am ashamed to say that I have yet to complete this task.

I realized that I found this request to be far more of a challenge than I'd expected. I could never get very far into a post without connecting to something "bigger," and those "bigger" themes were always heavy. They were dark, they were angry, and I was frozen with my inability to work my way around this, to write the "right" things.

Now, look, there is a time and a place for anger, and I have many dear friends who are dedicated activists and their strong emotions are warranted and purposeful. Worry and fear serve their own valid purposes, too. 

But not properly harnessed and channeled, these emotions muddy our better judgments and intentions. They're distractions. This is not why we are here. 

If you know me, and you talk to me often, you know that my stance has always been that the most valuable thing we can do to change the world is to help shape thoughtful, empathetic citizens. People who are kind and giving; who help their community and think critically and independently and find their niche - the thing that makes them truly happy and allows them to give back to the community.

This has ALWAYS been my passion. I really believe this. 

But to do it, I need to show up, be present, do the hard joyful work. 

Kids know this; they live in the moment.

In The Dude and the Zen Master, Jeff Bridges and Bernie Glassman meditate on this idea that "people get stuck a lot because they're afraid to act...We need help just to move on, only life doesn't wait."

 The solution?

 "[Y]ou want to row, row, row your boat -- gently. Don't make a whole to-do about it. Don't get down on yourself because you're not an expert rower; don't start reading too many books in order to do it right. Just row, row, row your boat gently down the stream."

When I ground myself in that moment, when I push aside my adult agenda, when I row gently down the stream, the joy comes rushing back in.

It's not hard work, living and being present, once you allow that weight to lift from your shoulders.

It's joyful. And it's meaningful. And it's a very effective way to get some very important work done.

"Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. For these, my dear boy, are the answers to what is most important in this world.

This is why we are here."

Originally posted at Sylvan Taylor's Sprouts Playschool Blog.

Not A School

By Kisha Reid 

If you listen to my podcast, Dirty Playologist, you may have listened to the episode called "NOT A School" It's the one where I tell the story of an angry parent who shouts out to me... THIS IS NOT A SCHOOL! The most ironic part was that she was upset because there was no space for her child to attend. At the time, I was offended, hurt, and a little heartbroken. I had spent so much time and energy trying to convince the world that we were a school, that play was important and that our work was valuable.  It took me another three years to get to the point where I came to terms with the fact that we, in fact, are not a school.  Yep, I said it, WE ARE NOT A SCHOOL!! At least not in the typical sense of the word.  Do children learn here? Yes, in every single way, during every single second, but that is not what makes a school.  So what are we then?

We are a venue through which authentic childhood is practiced. We provide a safe, richly stocked space both inside and out that supports the intrinsic needs and desires of children. The role of the adults in the room is to love, trust, and care for the children. By loving the children we understand their needs and support them, by trusting the children we allow them to act out those desires with little interference unless in times of real danger, by caring for the children we physically and emotionally provide what they need to explore their interests in the most meaningful ways. 

I have not yet figured out what to call us, but I know we are NOT A SCHOOL! And I am OK with that, in fact, I am proud of that. 

by Lakisha Reid 
Founder of Play Empowers, Early Childhood Presenter and Consultant, host of Dirty Playologist Podcast and Owner/Director/Educator at Discovery Early Learning Center 
www.discoveryelc@hotmail.com

Power & Freedom #2: Throwing Sh*t off a Ledge

(posted originally at The Childcare Brofessional)

The outdoor area for the Nursery at my school is much bigger than my original 2 year old program.  My favourite thing about it is that part of it is on relatively substantial hill that the children can go up, and look down on the play area, the rest of the school and neighbourhood.  As I am getting to know all the children in the nursery, a group of them have repeatedly wanted me to go up with them on one part of the hill.  There’s a walled off ledge here, and a path under and along side it.

Up on this part of the hill we’ve spent time just sitting and watching the action below, making pretend sneezes to laugh about, playing with ropes I tied to tall tree branches and more.  It’s a great place to get away from the commotion and fluorescent lights inside.  I do my best to not hog the spotlight of the play but since I am new to the nursery, and I want to build good relationships with the kids  I am leaning more into my funny, entertaining new-adult-in-the-room mode.  As the relationships get in place I will increasingly pull back from the center of the action and let them get on with their play more and more.

Yesterday one boy suddenly decided to start to throw everything he could off find of this area and off the ledge.  A small dug up dead bush, plastic cups and plates, two logs almost as big as him and two big plastic crates.  It was getting on the path below and it looked messy.  He was having a really good time!  I wish I was able to take a picture of all this so you could see what I am talking about.  This is notable to me because I distinctly remember when I would’ve stopped this sort of play straight away.  I would have thought it looked destructive, messy and if allowed to continue, might lead to Lord of the Flies situation.  Children need to obey our orders to not make needless messes.  I don’t say this only to pat myself on the back for my supposed enlightenment but more to be honest about the path I’ve been on working in early learning.

Learning to trust children more and tolerate more mess, I observed as I let him continue with the chucking everything in site off the ledge (there were no children below and if any were coming I would’ve asked him to wait until they passed).   Since I do not yet know this boy, and our setting is in a working-class, immigrant area and many of the children aren’t given many opportunities for messy, risky, big body play my assumptions about his play started off honestly pretty paternalistic.  He hasn’t had opportunities to explore the trajectory schema (good on me for letting him do so).  Not that I think I was wrong at all here, but it puts his supposed setbacks in the foreground of the situation.  After a few minutes I think I looked at it more positively.  This boy is developing full body strength as he actively explores weight, gravity, trajectory.  He is feeling powerful, something every human needs, using his body to send this stuff through the air, and most of all he is really enjoying throwing sh*t off the ledge!  Allowed power and freedom to play how he liked, this boy was engaged in most every single Characteristic of Effective Learning and his Laevers Scales were strong fives.  

Do you remember how much fun it was to throw things as a child?

Many of our assumptions about, and rules and expectations for children needlessly interfere with children’s hardwired plans for their healthy growth and development.  I won’t delude myself into thinking anybody reading this isn’t already part of the choir but what would be gained from stopping this boy from enjoying this activity?  I think the only real answers are concerns over safety (besides getting to know the kids I was up there to make sure nobody would get hit), “respect for the toys” (nothing was broken),  but if we are really being honest, it is about breaking the child’s will.
I don’t think many would be happy to look at this way but again, I remember how I used to look at children.  I remember what I felt and thought when I first started working with kids in the US without any understanding of early childhood development.  I simply did not understand the biological and psychological reasons behind much of their behaviour.  I started working in a preschool because I “liked kids,” but I now know I was completely ignorant about them.  I saw a large part of my job as providing consistent limits, expectations and consequences so they would eventually, somehow follow adult expectations of behaviour.  This was how they would be socialised into well-functioning adults.

I saw children through what I call the all-pervasive “cute, empty-headed beasts” lens of childhood.  If we don’t know about children’s development so much of their behaviour will then be inscrutable and maddening.  It is something to be managed, corralled, punished, praised, bribed and manipulated until they eventually live up to adult expectations of behaviour.  If I remember correctly, I would have worried “how else will children know how to behave?”  If this boy thinks it’s okay to throw the toys off this ledge now, how is he going to learn to delay his gratification enough to get through the hardships of adult life that are to come later?

The answer to this very legitimate concern is that children in stable loving environments full of secure relationships with adults and other children will naturally grow into stable, loving adults who are secure in themselves.  It is not complicated but it does require faith, trust and respect for children in a culture that thinks these are outlandish ideas.  Babies and young children learn how to be decent adults by the example of being treated decently by adults.  As Magda Gerber put it, “Personality characteristics such as generosity, empathy, caring and sharing cannot be taught, they can only be modeled.”

I  put sh*t in the title of this piece because I think much of the reality of children’s play can be a bit distasteful or controversial to our adult senses.  Children’s play is not always respectful or part of polite, adult society.  We can get trained on and read books about schemas and understand it all intellectually, but genuinely being okay with things getting thrown through the air is and the path getting messy is an entirely different ball game.

If our settings are supposed to be for children’s growth and development, I am going to let this boy and and any other child throw sh*t off the ledge and engage in other behaviours that might challenge some of our adult hang-ups around mess, risk, and safety.  To be clear I am not saying I have the monoply on “best practice” here.  I am not arguing anybody needs to go to work and to pretend they are okay with behaviours that they are not (it won’t be sincere and you will drive yourself nuts), nor is this saying children don’t need age appropriate expectations and limits, but I am advocating people engage in some serious yet gentle reflection and find their growing edge of comfort with these topics.
Who are our settings for?  What is the worst that could happen if you let that child follow their urge to put the sand in the water table?  Stand on a chair to make their block tower higher? Not come to your mandatory circle time and instead carry on with their play?  Take the play dough outside?  Roll a tire down the slide?  And of course, what is the best that could happen if we let our children have more power and freedom in how they play?

Let Loose!

By: Kisha Reid

Bits and Pieces of Loose and Lost parts are all the rage right now at Discovery Early Learning Center.  Treasure hunting is what the children are calling it and it's filled with imagination, detailed storylines, and loose parts as props to extend the narrative.

I have only noticed this way of play since I let go of providing invitations and displays of loose parts in themed baskets, trays or whatever way I was presenting the materials.

Loose parts are just that, LOOSE and they are found in all shapes, sizes holding a wealth of possibilities in every corner nook and cranny of our indoor and outdoor classroom.

Finding, collecting and gathering these materials is chalk full of whole child learning. When children hunt for materials they are mobile, actively engaged and working towards a goal, they assess materials for their value in their play. A game of shipwreck calls for loose parts that hold a certain set of characteristics while a game of house has a different loose parts agenda.

They use their large and small muscles to transport and collect materials building on to their script as they go. This sparks language and takes children into a sort of heightened state of imaginative play where they are embedded into the script in such a way that it feels so real.

They sort, classify, and count materials, they think critically about the alternate uses for open-ended materials and extend their ability to play symbolically, holding fast to their ideas and points of view.

This process of collecting or "treasure hunting" seems to be vital to the building of their play. It's like they build up to a climax where their reach that zone, the zone where they all buy into the storyline, they are fully in character and what seemed hard or challenging is now the possible, what seemed above their physical and developmental potential becomes second nature.

It takes time, it takes space, and it takes adults who do not feel the urge to over organize.

We can provide a pretty array of loose parts for children to play with and explore, or we can design spaces using the loose parts concept in all areas of the space allowing children to explore parts that are truly LOOSE.

So what does this mean? 

• Allow children to mix and move materials from one area to another 
• Allow materials to travel from inside to outside 
• Provide creative tools for transporting ( bags, boxes, buckets, baskets) 
• Don't feel the need to arrange or display loose parts perfectly. 
• Let loose parts at play stay at play ( no sorting at the end of each night) 
• Provide loose parts with a variety of properties ( size, shape, weight, purpose etc) 
• Replace closed-ended toys with open-ended loose parts. 

The benefits outweigh the mess! 

• Language development 

While at play with loose parts children have to share their ideas, the uses and purpose of each part and how it works in their play scenario. They have to build the play script part by part as new materials are collected and introduced to the play. 

• Mathematical concepts 

As children gather a variety of loose parts they are having real life experience with "stuff". This naturally supports sorting, counting, classifying by characteristics such as size, color, shape or purpose. Children embed mathematical ideas and data gathered from the hands-on experience with these materials. 

• Scientific concepts 

Large loose parts require creative ways of transporting. This often beckons scientific thinking, simple machine creation, and testing of ideas and theories. concepts such as gravity, balance, weight vs strength, textures and more! 

• Physical development 

Loose parts play is PHYSICAL running, digging, lugging, balancing, and sorting.   Children are active and a-buz as they collect and play with large and small loose parts. 

• Connection 

Loose parts seem to generate a hive mind type of play, a play where children are all collecting, piling, scripting and engaging in the same developing play scenario. This type of play develops a sense of connection and almost an unspoken agreement to keep the play alive. Large parts require many children to work together, share ideas and set plans as a group. After reaching their goal they rejoice as a group allowing their collective success to pull them closer as play partners. 

• Meeting natural urges in play 

Children's natural urge to collect, connect, position, contain and transport are met through loose parts play. 

• Social concepts 

When children play with loose parts they are met with the task of sharing their ideas, contributing to the narrative and accepting the points of view and contributions of others. They have to compromise and negotiate. 

• Imaginative play 

Loose parts provide endless possibilities. Children play symbolically as blocks become telephones and boxes serve as spaceships. Loose parts come alive when met with the imagination of a child. 

LOOSE PARTS IDEAS LIST: 

Here I have compiled a short list of loose parts to get you started! The possibilities are endless! 

Natural Loose Parts 

Rocks 

Bricks

Logs 

Leaves

Sticks

Large branches

Dirt/sand/water 

Shells 

Pine cones

Bones

Corn

Corn cobs 

Tree cookies 

Small and large logs 

Bamboo cutoffs

Seagrass 

Mulch 

Hay bales 

Nuts 

Seed pods 

Sea glass                                  

Other Loose Parts 

Blocks

Wooden bits 

Marbles

Tires 

Large pieces of lumber 

Buttons 

Tubes 

PVC pipes 

bottles, cups, jars, buckets 

Boxes 

Shoes 

Rope 

Balls 

Bowls 

Hose cut offs 

Dominos 

Board game parts 

Bike parts 

Keys 

So let loose with LOOSE PARTS PLAY and watch as your children develop as players and people. 

Learning That Sticks

My fondest memories of school had to do with projects. 

Time spent on a task with friends or moments of deep connection. I also remember the REALLY BAD times.. times when I felt insecure, powerless and frankly misunderstood. These negative and positive events are etched into my brain. The stuff in the middle is lost, my brain has trimmed it. Really, that is a real thing, did you know your brain prunes what is not important?

 I remember sitting in Kindergarten on a rug listening to my teacher sing Puff The Magic Dragon. She sported a jean shirt, and a red afro.  I remember Micro City in 5th grade, we got to plan and create our own business from advertising to sales.  I remember government class when we got to act in mock trials. I remember homecoming week when we got to build themed sets in the hallway. Those are the times I learned, the times when my heart was filled with joy and I was motivated beyond belief to think critically, to gain new knowledge from experience and to connect with others to reach a common goal.  I couldn't wait to wake up and go to school when we worked on group projects, I'm social and it triggered something in me, I became secure, powerful, and totally understood. Through these projects, I learned that I had ideas! I had leadership skills, I was creative and fully capable of learning. 

Learning is the stuff that does not get trimmed, it's the stuff that shapes who you are. If this is true then why don't we fill schools with busy children working together on meaningful projects, sharing ideas and LEARNING?? 

 Stop wasting time on pruned "learning"  like busy work, worksheets, and listening to lectures and instead, fill our days with more authentic learning, More doing things, touching things, connecting to people MORE LEARNING.. REAL LEARNING... Learning that STICKS!