Create your own PlayWorld

Use your spaces in different ways

The second part of our tool kit is the design of the spaces, particularly outside spaces. You might decide to use an obstacle course to take your class to a particular place – a special tree or chair for example. You could use a trestle and beams to create a pathway to your PlayWorld.

Inside we can think about what can we change, what spaces can we use. The home corner or block corner can be transformed into a particular PlayWorld.

The blocks are in service of the PlayWorld. They can support the construction of a new building or a new bridge that takes you to some interesting place.

Another element from our toolkit is to think about how you can enter the PlayWorld. You might decide to use a magic wand. It signals, ‘We are now moving into the PlayWorld.’ It also signals that we are also leaving the PlayWorld.

You can wear a costume, or not, to signal the characters of the collective play.

In an outside space, you might use a tunnel to crawl into an imagined microscopic PlayWorld. Entering and exiting the PlayWorld space can be many different things – a chair or a door frame. The idea is to enter and exit the PlayWorld as a group.

What is the problem that arises? You might have a new character who arrives in a special little surprise box – perhaps a little ringtail possum with a special message to give to the children.

It’s something that is introduced, a message to be solved, something to be modelled. It could be anything. It expands the PlayWorld, so it can build over time.

In the Charlotte’s Web PlayWorld the children had to solve Farmer Zuckerman’s urgent problem – all the bugs were eating the apples in his orchard. For the children, it opened up all sorts of questions and ideas about the natural world, ecosystems and growing food.

Think about the way you interact as an educator in the PlayWorld. You can take on a role that is equal to the children, because you are play partners in this process.

You can take on a role where you are with the children, trying to solve the problem, or you are in a leading role, guiding the children through the process.

This allows you to help the children solve the problem collectively, and to deepen the play.