AnjiPlayDate, week #5: The play digs deeper

The play got a deeper focus and much more intentionality this week.  Check it out!

 

 This older participant has created two play story notebooks.  The photos above and below are today's entries in her two notebooks.

I love that this guy was trying to sit on the tunnel as though it were a horse.  (It didn't hold him up!)

When I asked this young one about his play today, he told me that he had gotten eaten up by those caterpillar things.  Then, since I had missed seeing that when he was first playing with the caterpillar, he was kind enough to demonstrate exactly what he meant by that phrase:
 
 There was also some great clay play today.  Here, he's figuring out the effects of poking the tip of the block into a little piece of clay:

 And this little one is trying to pick up clay with the open end of a clothespin (he tried to pick up lots of things with this tool today):

 I'm not sure what she's making, but this is a realllllly long skinny string of clay!

 This artist told me exactly how he made this flower (which he tells me is a tulip), "I made a bunch of semi circles, lined them up, and then rolled them all together!"

 He also made some candy canes:

 And this sailboat.  The blue blocks below are water.

 Here is his play story of his sailboat.  I asked him what the yellow spot in his picture was and he said, "it was just a block on the table behind the boat."

 

 This week's block play examples are all in video.  First of all, I loved watching this toddler's climbing capabilities and then his balance work as he walked over a pathway of blocks was also impressive:

 
 
at the end, I was so excited to see him try out the sloped block, but it wasn't quite stable enough and he fell. Mom was ready to step in and comfort him and he was able to calm down and feel better soon. Minor mishaps like this are a fairly standard part of Anji Play (and, indeed, childhood!) and help kids to gain a better understanding of what structures are "safe" and which need to be adjusted in order to be safe.
Lastly, I'll share this video of this little guy:
 
According to his play story, this wheel was a "cutter."  It's apparent from the video above that he has a specific purpose in mind and I didn't want to interrupt his "flow" to ask him about it, so I was pleased to see that he'd incorporated it into his play story.  I also love how near the end of the video, the wheel turns into something he can sit on.  I wonder if, when he went to the cart, he was looking for a spool large enough for him to sit on more comfortably?

Please note: "Anji Play,” refers to a specific philosophy and comprehensive approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin in Anji County, China. I use the term "Anji Play" to describe my programming and throughout this blog with the explicit permission of Ms. Cheng because our programming has been developed as part of a close collaborative relationship with her and her team of Anji Play educators. If you are interested in learning more about how you can bring Anji Play to your community, please visit www.anjiplay.com

AnjiPlayDate: Week 4

New participants arrived, repeat visitors build on past play.

We had our biggest indoor crowd yet (52, I think?) and still the room, while full and busy, didn't feel overwhelming.  (at least not to me--parents, did you feel crowded?  Should we start spreading out into the main library areas?  Chime in in the comments section!)

This week, the red tops saw a large variety of play.  They were used to spin toys around in:

 And spin kids around in:

 (check out this awesome static hair!)

 And here one was incorporated into making a "duck":

early construction of the duck:

 

Here is the play story for this duck:

And here they became turtle shells:

 

the blocks made tall buildings:

 rocket ships:

 And these fabulous structures:

 These siblings worked very hard on their house.  They spent a lot of time discussing the colorful scarves that they were adding.  Check out their play stories!

 

The clay is being slowly broken down into smaller bits.  This kiddo spent a very, very long time working at the clay table to create this amazing road.  His persistence was incredible to watch.

 

 

 

another method for drilling into clay:

Here were some more unique play ideas today:

 This little one loved putting this pen into this tube, over and over and seeing it pop out of the other end if he pushed far enough that it popped out from the bottom edge of the tube.

 She told me she was in a boat.  The ball is a wave crashing into the boat and the scarf is her oar.

 He enjoyed jumping with this rope until the hook popped off the wall (just attached with adhesive, no big deal) then he played with the hook trying to put the pieces back together for awhile.

 

One more fun story from this week:  

The same little guy from last week was putting this plastic bucket on his head and enjoying running around the room, softly crashing into people and tables and anything in his way.  Then, he stopped and tried putting the bucket on a friend's head:

She wasn't too sure if she liked it, so he put it back on his head.  A few minutes later, he head-butted her with his bucket and she cried.  About15 minutes later, I noticed she'd decided to try it out again on her own:

Please note: "Anji Play,” refers to a specific philosophy and comprehensive approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin in Anji County, China. I use the term "Anji Play" to describe my programming and throughout this blog with the explicit permission of Ms. Cheng because our programming has been developed as part of a close collaborative relationship with her and her team of Anji Play educators. If you are interested in learning more about how you can bring Anji Play to your community, please visit www.anjiplay.com

AnjiPlayDate: Week 3, a snow day

Snowstorms change the dynamics of this indoor program!

School was cancelled today because of a snowstorm, but the library remained open and a few intrepid families showed up and had a great time at this week's Anji Play Date.  The group was both much younger than usual AND also included two school-age siblings that normally can't attend because they're in school  Attendance was also about half the usual and most people showed up later because of the bad roads, so we didn't start with our usual review of the previous week (at the beginning of the program only two parents and two kids, none of whom had attended Week 2) but just dived right in to the play.

The markers themselves were lots of fun this week.  I lost track of how many times they were dumped onto the floor!

 Even the marker bucket became a fun toy helmet!

 I believe this red rope designates a "sidewalk" here.

 Several young folks dressed up as "robots" with the cardboard tubes. This is one of their favorite ways to play with the pop-up tunnel if they're lucky enough to have it to themselves.

 Great balancing on this spool!

More great balancing and pathfinding on blocks (and a spool in the background):

 

A play story from this week:

Please note: "Anji Play,” refers to a specific philosophy and comprehensive approach to early education developed by Ms. Cheng Xueqin in Anji County, China. I use the term "Anji Play" to describe my programming and throughout this blog with the explicit permission of Ms. Cheng because our programming has been developed as part of a close collaborative relationship with her and her team of Anji Play educators. If you are interested in learning more about how you can bring Anji Play to your community, please visit www.anjiplay.com