Evolution & Play...
One of the greatest things about multi age play, loose parts and a playwork way of working is the very real examples of children holistically learning and developing ideas as nature and evolution intended... By trial and error, in play and without adult but rather peer guidance.
A great example of this are the semi circular plastic objects pictured below. These are actually repurposed sections of a pre fab slide a playworker brought to this play space a couple of years ago. Funnily enough no child has ever tried to piece these together back into a slide. But they have had a myriad of uses.
Probably the most remarkable is the use you can see pictured. A long while ago now some industrious children put good divergent thinking to use and worked out (with no adult suggestion) that they could be connected into various fixed structures, and be used as essentially floating seats. Once you sit in them the downward force locks them in and they cannot move. This alone is a great outcome for loose parts and free play. They are now reguarly connected into any structure that has a suitable gap between two support beams.
However, even more interesting is that over the years, with no additional guidance or adults saying to younger children "look what you can do with those" the children, by falling within the Zone Of Proximal Development of their slightly older peers have observed, learned, mimicked and in some cases even refined their usage. This is a perfect example of how the affordance of play and the environment gives subtle permissions the children innately and holistically pick up on.
This is just one example of how a play environment operates as a village or tribe in a cycle. Children come in, take in ideas, rise to challenges and develop by being pulled forward by those older that them or more skilled than them, and pulling forward those younger or less skilled in their turn. Play in effect become a culture.
The children pictured below witnessed older peers today early on. When the older children moved on they moved in. They had to work together to lift the heavy pieces into place. The goal... Just chilling out up high. Perfect.
Angus Gorrie
