Changing Play

Today, on several occasions, I noticed that the play the kids are engaging in is changing.  At the beginning of Kindergarten, there is a lot of "parallel play", kids playing with the same toys beside one another but not really interacting with each other too much.  Since Winter Break, I have noticed a very significant shift in the play.  Now, most of the time, the kids are playing cooperatively with one another.  Much of this is developmental, the kids are now seeing their place in the larger group and are more able to accept others' viewpoints and ideas.  They have learned how to compromise, problem solve and explore ideas together. 

This afternoon, we had the playground to ourselves for a while and I noticed a shift in the play here too.  The kids were more interested in playing organized games (grounders, tag).  The kids generally stuck with their game of choice for an extended period of time.  Earlier in the year, each game lasted a maximum of about 5 minutes.  Today, some kids continued for our entire time outside.  Earlier in the year, many children would "quit" if it was there turn to be "it".  Today, everyone understood and played by the rules that they established.  It was quite remarkable to observe how much this group has grown and matured in such a short span of time.  

I read this story today.  It is a beautiful tory of a girl whose imagination takes her paper dolls on adventures.  

Afterwards, several kids expressed an interest in making their own paper dolls, so we got to work.

Another group was excited to try "melty beads".  This is a really good activity for building fine motor development (for strengthening those little muscles in our hands that help us with lots of different tasks).  It can also be a bit frustrating for some people because it's a very fiddly activity.  We talked a lot about what to do if we're feeling frustrated.  I loved listening in on the conversations.  There were lots of encouraging words being offered to one another.  Music to my ears!