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Guest blog: Read what former Head of Pre-Prep , Amanda Burton Smith, has to say about observing children in their play at Feltonfleet School with Froebelian principles in mind.
From our collective learning on the Froebel short course and the training provided by the Froebel Partnership and Froebel Trust, our Pre-Prep team at Feltonfleet School have begun to observe children in their play with Froebelian Principles in mind.
Symbolic representation through block play, an activity referred to in Froebelian terms as an ‘Occupation’, is an area of continual professional interest for us. When observing and listening to this young child, sitting on a pile of blocks moving himself side to side holding a pole, we discovered that he was playing ‘riding a motorbike’.
When I asked what the block he was holding was, he told me it was the food he was delivering. This resonated with the principle of Creativity and the Power of symbols. The child has chosen to use the loose parts and blocks to represent his own experiences.
The principle of Unity and Interconnectedness were evident as he linked his play to the role of the food delivery motorcyclist. It was only by providing him with time, space and resources and asking him about the additional block, that we were able to understand his play.
When learning about the lifecycle of a frog, a child expressed his interest, talking about having seen frogspawn and tadpoles outside of school. He then created a pond out of blocks with frogspawn, tadpoles and froglets, respectively represented by glass beads, golf tees and bobbins.
In his child led play times to follow, he created a crocodile with a tummy that opened to reveal plastic frogs, froglets and frog spawn inside, that he said the crocodile had eaten.
I talked to him about his interest in the frog life cycle, tadpoles and frogs. I shared that I had a childhood interest in pond life and that I really liked newts. He was not familiar with newts. I explained them being like lizards, which he understood. We looked at some pond life books together.
Our learning on the Froebel courses made us realise that this child enjoyed communicating his knowledge and interest in reptiles and amphibians through symbolic representation, predominantly block play. We observed and connected his schema to include creating ‘enclosures’ of blocks that would contain some form of creature.
He later went on to create a ‘tomato frog’ life cycle at home, painting the spawn, tadpole and frog onto three stones, transferring his representation from blocks and loose parts to paint.
As a staff team we have learnt so much from our Froebel training that enables us to observe in more depth to understand how children are connecting their interests in their play. Many of the Froebelian Principles were in place here before we recognised them as that, we just have a better understanding of their importance in early childhood and our role in enabling time and space for this learning to happen.
Engaging with Nature takes a high priority in the lives of our young learners. We have provided a Forest School experience for the children for over five years here and more recently linked appreciation for the natural environment to our learning about Froebel.
Froebel said a child should experience nature ‘in all its aspects – form, energy, substance, sound and colour’. Protecting time in the week to stop, hear, smell and feel nature with a mindful moment in Forest School revitalises and re-sets us all amid a busy week.
