Playful Learning Environments

What does Realising the Ambition say? 

The learning environment, in terms of interactions, experiences and spaces both outside and in, must be carefully considered to support children’s learning. We need to be able to view the environment through the eyes of the children we are working with and ask ourselves: 

It is important that we provide meaningful and rich contexts and opportunities for children to develop a wide range of skills such as early literacy and numeracy. We do this by bringing our training and knowledge of child development, and understanding of how to support young children’s learning, actively into our practice as early years educators. This should be seen as a lifelong learning journey for us. 

We should constantly aim to discover what we ask questions about; such as, ‘how best can I support a child’s science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) learning?’, through continuous professional development. 

We should seek opportunities to learn from each other, and continually ask ourselves ‘why are we doing things this way – is this the best way for our children and families?’.

As pedagogical leaders we should know the purpose and possibilities of the materials we provide outdoors and indoors. It is essential that we regularly evaluate how children are using the spaces within the environment and make changes and additions when required. Children should be involved in developing and caring for their environment. By involving children fully in planning their learning they will begin to understand the importance of caring for their environment and resources.

Realising the Ambition (Page 54)

Play is a dynamic process that connects the roles of the child, adult and environment and enables engagement with learning in a playful way. 

Playfulness could be described as a disposition and willingness to engage in play. Examining what playfulness looks like in practice helps us to unpick the motivations of both the child and adult, alike. For children, playfulness shows agency. Agency is when a child expresses their internal motivations towards leading their own learning through their actions. This in turn helps them build theories about the world around them. For instance, in schematic play such as when young children will transport materials from one place to another, they are seeing these objects as tools in their self-directed play as a means to test their theories in action. Consider what are the other schemas telling us about children’s thinking? How can we as educators use these observations to evidence what to do next in a playful way? 

Playfulness does not happen by chance. Learning through play requires skilful interactions and conversations in environments that support and extend thinking and actions. It requires adults who are both playful and knowledgeable of the building blocks of early development and learning in order to support and progress learning appropriately. A playful adult nurtures a child’s identity as a learner through the connections they make with experiences from home and their ELC or school settings. A playful adult creates a comfortable space where children can experience joy and laughter and hence develop playful learning dispositions.  

Realising the Ambition (Page 68)

Click here to see page 69 of Realising the Ambition  

Quality Learning Environments.pdf
Leading Learning Bitesize.pdf

Leading Learning 

To access Leading Learning training click the picture to your left.

Discussion Questions for Self-Evaluation and Development

Q. Do you have a variety of resources throughout the setting to support numeracy, literacy and health and well-being? 

Q. What or who has inspired your environment?  What does this look like?