Ever wondered why some young children seemed fascinated in wrapping up objects? Or you might have kids that love burying things or hiding objects out of sight? It’s called an enveloping schema, and it’s one of the most common schemas that you will witness in young children. An enveloping schema is a child’s interest in …
Schemas are repeated patterns of behavior that children exhibit in their play. There are nine schemas that are understood to be the most common in children’s play. These are: Trajectory Transformation Transporting Rotation Positioning Orientation Enveloping Enclosure Connection In this post, I’ll give you a brief overview of each of these 9 schemas. I’ll talk …
Rotation schemas are really common, and many children exhibit this repeating behavior pattern. I’ve taught in the early childhood phase for 12 years, and in that time I have trained myself to first look out for schemas, and second to act on them. Rotation schemas can be supported through so many different activities – whether …
If you’re a fan of Red Light, Green Light, and you want to find out some more games that are pretty similar in every way, then you’ve come to the right place. Some games just like Red Light, Green Light include: All of these games include some of the main features of Red Light, Green …
Tag is pretty much running around chasing your friends, and that’s all there is to it, right? Wrong! There are a huge number of variations of tag. There are games that involve contact, non-contact, one person ‘tag’ games, team games, ones that involve dinosaurs, cops and robbers, and so much more! In ten years of …
Everyone knows the classic children’s game ‘Hide and Seek’, but did you know there are at least 15 variations that children will be able to understand very easily, and that they will quite simply love to play. I have taught children from the ages of 3 to 5 over the last ten years, and in …
Getting maths into the outdoors is one of the biggest concerns many practitioners have. It is probably the thing I am asked about the most where maths is concerned. This post is by far the most comprehensive quantity of high-quality outdoor math activities for children aged 3 to 6 that you will be able to …
It seems kind of intuitive to us all that risky play comes with lots of benefits. When we see children climbing trees, rolling down hills, jumping off logs, and just generally having good physical fun, it just seems clear that good things are happening. But what are the main benefits of risky play? The benefits …
Risky play is all the rage at the moment on social media, which is great because it has tremendous value for children. There is also quite a bit of fear about it, mostly because people don’t know what it actually looks like, and what it entails. So what exactly are risky play activities for children? …