Enhancing Learning

Have you made a reservation sir? Talking & Learning in Hotel Pretend Play

17/8/2017

When we set up our play pods we understand that children may have lots of experience in this world (shop or cafe); they may have limited experience (pizzeria or florist) or they may have no experience at all (airplane or news desk). Of course this varies considerably. The hotel play pod was one of the set-ups that we knew children may not have experienced. But this is actually key to pretend play. We are not sure what is more exciting to watch. The rapid expansion of play after a little bit of ‘big people’ support for a child who may never have stayed at a hotel or the joy of a child being able to replicate over and over an experience they enjoyed.

Hotel play suggests two immediate roles - the receptionist and the guest. Two great (potentially new) words to learn and then the exploration of the different conversations both roles can engage in. But there are so many other opportunities - the cleaner, the valet, the concierge (remember our common theme is having ‘big people’ model and extend play if children are ready for these more specific roles even without experience of them). Have the guests actually driven up to the hotel (or have they arrived by plane). A welcome smile for hotel staff is needed to greet the new guests and check if they have made a reservation?

Receptionists are busy typing details into a laptop or making notes on the booking form such as name and phone numbers. Then there is the allocation of room numbers, handing out of keys and provision of detailed instructions - where to find the elevator, how to enter their room using the key or swipe card, how to order room service using by dialling 9. Booking in is also an important opportunity to ask for information such as “would they like to use the pool” followed by directions to “make sure you collect a towel on the way to the pool!”

The hotel elevator is always a highlight, sparking fierce negotiation over who gets to “push” the button this time, number recognition practice as the smallest is encouraged to find the floor we need (once she has won the negotiation to push the button), the greeting of new people into the lift and assisting new arrivals by selecting their floor for them.

From there it is up to the creativity of the guests with ample opportunity for complaints (my room is not clean enough, my bed is too lumpy) requiring responses from reception and further actions of cleaners and concierge to soothe ruffled feelings. Phone calls for room service (or poolside service) can be made. Of course guests at a very good quality hotel will enjoy their breakfast delivered each morning. Finally there is the checking out process - how was their stay, will they be coming back again, what could we do better? More writing of notes is needed - a guest satisfaction form to be completed, followed by the task of cleaning the room and setting it up ready for the next guest…

How much in play learning did you see and inspire at your hotel today?

Side note: Sharna’s children were so inspired by plane and hotel pretend play they took over the house for three days and made everyone engage in the fun. Everyone wanted to stay in the most luxurious suite aka the parent’s bedroom.

Play is contagious - we hope you catch it!

To help you catch it the first 20 blog readers can download the Hotel DIY Guide for free from our shop using this code 4V7EM3JZ - if you are one of the first 20 you will just need to select to buy the item and at that point you will be asked for the discount code to be able to download it for free.

0 Comments

The power of three! Play pods in action

9/8/2017

0 Comments

"The wider the range of opportunities we offer children, the more intense will be their motivations and the richer their experiences."
Loris Malaguzzi

The joy of children acting out real or imaginary events in pretend play provides an environment rich for learning. This was certainly our experience at our launch of Let's Pretend Play at the recent Early Childhood Play date. We are passionate about expanding pretend play opportunities from single pretend scenarios to combinations of play scenarios that complement each other and allow children to create more elaborate and extensive play scripts. We also know that occasionally a ‘bigger person’ can add increased creativity with gentle suggestions and extensions. So what did we see when we offered children of all different ages (and their parents) the scope to explore three of our play pods? Lots and lots of fun and talking, not to mention creativity!

Our younger visitors to the pods engaged in the more simple single play transactions - filling flower vases and pots, taking their time, concentrating and manipulating to insert the wire stems into narrow slots. They “wrote” down orders and rang up the cash register, opened small zips to pay for their purchases. They made pizzas over and over using both fingers and tongs, focused and productive. Just as we expected of this age group. But a few of the tiny tots surprised us. One gorgeous girl in particular took her pizza carefully out of the oven, carried it with her oven mitts out of the kitchen area and into the restaurant to place it on the table. Removing her oven mitts she transformed from waitress (chef) to customer and took a seat before reaching for her pizza and exclaiming “ow hot” dropping the slice back down and shaking her hands vigorously before leaning down to blow her pizza cool. Extended play transactions at their very finest.

A second tiny one stood out when she became completely fascinated by the display of tiny apples in the hotel reception. Initially happy to play and manipulate the apples in and out of the bowl, this soon changed to play in any other areas with the apples - so they were baked in the pizza oven and put in various designs on a nearby tray. A wonderful example of the conversation skill of ‘taunting’ was on display as she removed the apples once more from the hotel and walked away from mum, with glances over her shoulder to demonstrate that despite mum’s many requests to bring them back - mum was going to have to come and get them. So many examples of children’s imagination, creativity and capacity to attend for long periods of time in play were visible on the day.

Bodrova (2008) makes the point that developing ‘mature play’ is at considerable risk in our present environments for many reasons including the reduction in the numbers of children of a wide range of ages playing together;

‘in the past, most play existed in multi‐aged groups where children had an opportunity to learn from older ‘play experts’, practice their play skills with the peers of the same age and then pass their knowledge on to the ‘play novices’.

It was a highlight of our day to watch the play experts (mostly 7-9 year olds) not only staying engaged in complex play routines but encouraging the younger peers to extend their own roles, routines and conversations. We were so lucky to be a part of an amazing event and left even more inspired to continue to create structures that foster dramatic and extensive pretend play routines.

0 Comments

How Let's Pretend Play began...from nightmare to inspiration.

1/8/2017

0 Comments

As three sisters our family get togethers often turned into discussions of grand ideas that would save the world or at the very least help some of the children having a difficult journey through early childhood and school. When you combine two teachers with quite different strengths and a speech pathologist who prefers to push the allied health world a little bit off kilter, it was always an energetic and creative collation of opinions and plans. We knew we would eventually do something together. Although never very clear on what that ’something’ would be we always knew it would focus on fun, learning and language.

But our ‘something’ - Let’s Pretend Play - took on a bit more impetus for us after near tragedy. In 2016, our worlds were thrown into disarray when Sharna’s beautiful youngest 16 month old daughter fell ill in Thailand. An 8 day holiday became an 8 week nightmare, when she was air-lifted from Phuket to Bangkok where she would remain on life support for more than 4 weeks.

Our parents joined Sharna’s family in the very early stages but finally had to return home. We considered that there was only one decision left for us to make so we jumped on a plane with our youngest children to be with our sister and her family. As our niece’s health slowly improved we ventured out and discovered some of the most amazing imaginative play centres we had ever seen. On one of our outings we entered a room full of many amazing opportunities to guide children's creativity and learning through play in the constraints of a busy metropolis. One in particular was inspiring - the role-play avenue (although two of us preferred the giant ball pit). Each of us recognised how much need there was in our communities for new and different play experiences. The seed was planted!

With Sharna’s daughter rapidly recovering and the family finally returning to Australia, the ideas grew and our ‘pop-up’ Let’s Pretend Play planning commenced. We increasingly saw imaginative pretend play as perhaps a bit of a “lost” art that was not gaining enough attention as an incredible means for children to learn in context and not in an artificial rote manner. Every single learning moment can be included in well designed role-play. But best of all a child uncovers those learning moments naturally, building their understanding of the world and the words and concepts in that world, at the rate they need. So role-play is naturally graded by the children engaged in it, working at the level of learning each of them need. It is the perfect vehicle for fun, engagement of conversation, movement, concentration and regulation skills, which are all essential building blocks for more formal learning.

Almost exactly 12 months after our frightening experience, the three of us are following our dream and we are finally 'doing something together’. We hope you not only enjoy our journey, but are encouraged and inspired to push the boundaries of imaginative and creative play along with us!

0 Comments

Have you made a reservation sir? Talking & Learning in Hotel Pretend Play

The power of three! Play pods in action

How Let's Pretend Play began...from nightmare to inspiration.

Let's Pretend Play

Archives

Categories