02/03/2021
Open-ended play such as these suggestions is so important to allow our little ones to freely exercise their imaginations and creativity!
My supervisor was coming in to observe my preschool classroom and I had different invitations to play set up for the kiddos to explore. She sat down at a table with different materials like pom poms in containers, glue, tape, scissors, and paper in different sized circles. This was the build your own snowman table.
Within seconds of sitting down she started to critique their work. “The big circle goes on the bottom.” “No, no, hunny, those are for the snowman’s eyes.” One child left the table, leaving his work in progress. Another child adjusted their snowman to look at the supervisor insisted it should. My heart sank.
Kids are so creative, inventive, and curious. They can play for the sake of exploration rather than with an end product in mind if we let them. Adam Grant calls this researcher thinking. When we approach something with curiosity rather than for a certain outcome. It allows us to observe what is, make adjustments, and build resiliency.
When we are focused on outcomes, on product versus process, we teach kiddos that end result has a higher value than what they’ll learn on their way. Let’s make observations, let’s deepen their curiousity, and allow them to make mistakes and try again. We can hold space for the frustration that arises in the trying and learning rather than rescuing them from it.
What are some of your favorite phrases when observing a kiddo’s play?
