When we think of what our children do in provision, we often regard it all as play. However, Piaget, amongst others, recognised that exploration and play are two different processes. They support each other and rely on each other, but there are subtle differences that we should be aware of. Of course, this then has implications for us as educators in how we design our provision.
Let's start at the beginning.
Exploration is using one of your senses to make sense of an object, experience etc. Just for this blog we're going to think about our five common senses. Click here to learn why that isn't always enough.
Our main five senses are sight, touch, smell, taste and hearing. When we first encounter an object, say this typewriter, we use our senses to make sense of it. We might feel it, stamp on it, listen carefully, some of us might even be tempted to smell it (or taste the keys?).
For our children they are going through this process each time they first encounter a new object and each time they encounter a variation of the typewriter (more on that in the next post.) This process of exploration can be very time consuming and it’s solitary (we don’t share or talk whilst engaging in this).
Then there’s play. Play is sociable with language and sharing. But playing with the typewriter can only happen once you’ve spent some time exploring it.
So what? Whilst exploration is very important it is within play that much of the child’s learning happens. It’s what we use to deepen our connections, to problem solve and make sense of the world around us. We need to get to play! The implications for us as educators is that if we fill our environments with a range curiosities for exploration we may not be providing sufficient familiar resources for children to play with. And it’s play we’re trying to achieve!
In my next post I’ll explore ‘familiar or similar’ with you. We’ll be applying the learning from this post and think deeper about some of the resources we’ve selected for our provision.
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