Looks like small world play but in actual fact it is a fairly sized room transformed into a giants games board. We didn't know what the game was before we started but we had our expert under5s and parents to help us discover some of its possibilities. It is a work in progress we will be refining it over the next few weeks. 
Add Comment  I love the simplicity of these creative play sessions. It is a joy to see young children and their grown ups playing with everyday objects in such imaginative ways. If only the box was big enough for the grown ups to get into too! It was really exciting this week at our Spontaneous Communities workshop as we had a really fantastic turn out. I think we had 10 families along which meant the energy in the room sky rocketed! Mandy had planned a brilliant session using clay, toys and recycled stuff for the group to play with. A mad metropolis sprung up out of the ground with tubes, funnels, cars and all sorts of creatures all vying for a bit of space in the great clay mound. For those that found the city life too hectic they took themselves off and built satellite towns. It was like watching medieval town planning in motion. An amazing day to document. There were so many good pictures from the day that I couldn't choose, so I have put most of them here in a slide show. The title says it all really. Not quite ready to put the fairy lights away from Christmas, myself and Mandy transformed the Sure Start learning centre into a fantastical other worldly tent using different coloured and patterned cloths and of course the disco ball. The families came to explore and used laundry airers, fabric, pegs and ribbons to create their own mark on the space. We sang songs, played with scarves, pegged things, made homes for teddies and transformed ourselves into strange bird like creatures. This workshop session is an part of the on-going project called Spontaneous Communities and is part of the Norfolk and Norwich Festival 2012.  Out of nothing a huge city rises up. So tall is the building that it, quite literally, touches the sky. Built on wide foundations the tower reaches upwards to a point. This is a crazy metropolis where creatures inhabit small spaces piled on top of one another, food and bedding cascade down the sides and the tops are lit with torches to warn low flying vehicles of its presence. The beginnings of this structure encountered a few surprise demolitions but our group overcame these and worked as a team to create the tower you see before you. This is a work in progress......          These photos, taken earlier in the week, are from a session led by Mandy Roberts and myself. Again we used music and singing to create a playful safe space for the participants to then go on to explore the objects and materials. This group was really interesting to document as each of the responses were very individual. One boy was immediately engaged in the boxes as a house and had a washing machine, bedroom and living room. He adorned and decorated his space and used it for imaginative play which involved doing an awful lot of laundry! Another child created a "monster truck" and another happily played with the materials; popping bubble wrap, stacking cotton reels etc with no intention of "making something". As these sessions continue it is fascinating to observe children and adults playing with materials with no fixed ideas of outcome. Check out Mandy's blog post for our session on Tuesday.  | sophiefox:blog
monthMay 2012 labelAll |
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