The Play First Summit

The Play First Summit
Original Learning in Early Childhood by Suzanne Axelsson from Sweden
Suzanne talked mostly about the Reggio Emilia approach
● This is a new normal for children

● Don’t set goals for children, instead set goals for the school to reach
● Don’t go with an agenda, find the needs to form the curriculum to teach
● Reggio Emilia is a process, an experience not a method
○ Question yourself
○ Don't be afraid of the unknown
○ Take risks
○ Find another perspective
○ Continuous learning
○ Have a dialog not a debate
● Pay attention to the philosophy of the children - listen, value, be aware of
different opinion
● Treat children as competent
● Listen to children to teach them listening skills
● Riggio Emilia is a meeting space where learning & playing meet, Science and art
meet, Class and recess meet. It is where original learning happens. Learning
with joy is playing
● We are now where we can cease to be somewhere else
● Parents have the power to change the education system.
● Thinking in a new way is by listening to others
● Digital play is an enhancement to play. It can be used as a communication tool.
● Don’t push or restrict a child.
● Work with your team to overcome a fear instead of restricting a child of their
play
● Everyone has judgement- don’t be ashamed, be aware, work on it. The more you
listen the more you can work on your biases
● Have a dialogue about why we are excluding someone. Teach children to look at
different perspective through traditional stories. For example: 3 little pigs and
the big bad wolf. What if the wolf was going over with a bouquet of flowers for
the pig and the flower gave the wolf a hay fever?
1. Who are we excluding
2. Why are we excluding
3. How can we help them join
4. Think actively about how we can see other perspective
These are some of the things Suzanne shared relating to the pandemic:
1. Sweden schools for upto 16 year olds stayed open the whole time throughout the
pandemic
- Children played normally
- People were very respectful towards the COVID rules
- Nobody with a slightest symptoms came to school
- She only wiped 2 noses so far and the family was called to pick up the child.
Usually children have runny nose all the time
2. Use the word Physical distancing not social distancing
3. Teachers employed had shorter travelling distances. School was a safezone, but
outside is a different story
4. Treat children as competent, they know more than we think
5. Parents were given paid sick leave in Sweden so they can stay home with their
sick child and no one took advantage of the schools
6. Play is a therapy! Increase the amount of play. Everyone is coming out of a
collective trauma. Children should be allowed to play and interact with each
other to create a safe environment for themselves. If they don’t feel safe there
will not be any learning happening. They won’t fully learn and express their
opinion because of the fear.
7. Children have been really good at following the pandemic rules. They were
aware that they were in a pandemic.
8. Two year olds knew not to put toys in their mouths and took care of each other.
9. Adults fear transfers into the children. It is the parents and the teachers that
need help.
10. Find ways for teachers on high risk to work with children without being too
close.
11. Valu the teachers, support them, they are the valuable element at this time
12. Financial initiatives are needed to help teachers keep children safe. Low wages
are a reason for teachers to find a second job to earn a living- this is harmful for
during the pandemic.
13. Pandemic has proved that we have a very important job.
Play, Freedom, And Trusting Children by Kisha Reid from US
She is a Play activist. She has her own child care business and the way she runs it is by
creating a relationship with the parents. From her I almost got the feeling that she puts
the parents first. I can see some similarities in the way we run our program and some
of them are way over the top, that I can’t see me working in that setting.
1. She finds joy in what made the parents happy.

2. Believes in open communication with parents
3. She like to introduce and teach parents the ECE terms we use so we can become
a partner with the parents
4. Consider them in designing the space, policies, etc.
5. Engage the community in building your program like by asking for donations of
recycled materials, etc.
6. Reach out to the community through FB and other social network platforms.
Show them your space and explain why you have. what you have in your
space/center.
7. You may not fit every adult's wants with a play based program but that’s what
every child needs. It’s not one size fits all
8. Work with parents
9. Empower the parents, give the parents the trust. Parents were doing a great job
homeschooling their children during closure, some recreated the school yard
structures in their own backyard.
10. She not happy that with the new rules parents are not allowed in the child care
centers
11. Like the idea of playing outside as long as possible
12. Build relationships with parents so they can trust you that you have their child’s
best interest in mind
13. Some paly can make you nervous but trust your child. It will help them build
confidence in themself.
14. Outdoor play should include : heavy things they can carry, things they can build
with, things that encourage collaboration, things that encourage conversation,
things they can balance and climb
15. Risky play- You job is to step back and supervise. Stay far so they don’t feel
interrupted but close enough to catch their fall!, scan their environment for
danger, don’t stop and pop their bubble, let them test
16. Don’t give the vibe for gender segregated play - Girls play with in the kitchen,
Boys play with car
17. Have movable furniture for children to recreate their environment. Children
need heavy materials to move and lift. It helps with their emotional needs. It
might also create a whole new play.
18. Some other ideas to include heavy things in your toddler space: Heavy sensory
bag/bottle, heavy wood pieces, filled wagon to push and pull, weighted blanket
19. She sends questionnaires to parents who had their child at the preschool a few
years ago to find out what they still remember about their preschool, what
stayed with them.
20. Open-ended materials - It is not open ended material if the toy is doing the
thinking/the active one. Find out who is doing the thinking; the toy or the child?
21. Sees a silver lining in COVID:
- As a play activist she thinks now is our opportunity to seize the play is
important movement.
- School’s are thinking of reopening with more outdoor learning time.
- Crowded classrooms will be less crowded.
- Children will not be scheduled for a million other things after school.
Chazz Lewis (USA) - From Protest to Play: Letting Children Have a Say
Chazz uses Tik Tok as a platform to convey his message about child development
(@Tickteachtok). He is known as Mr. Chazz on insta, he’s an education specialist.
He started off by talking about the difficulty of being accepted as a male in the female
dominated ECE world.
- Female teacher’s closeness to children is viewed as connection whereas male
connection is seen with suspicion.
- Lot of placed put aside competitive male resumes because of parents perception
and acceptance of a male teacher
- Sometimes children can say crazy things as can be viewed as allegations against
male teachers
- They can’t reciprocate child’s affection (hugging back) so have to come up with
creative alternatives
Mission of the companies and smart people but who lack social-emotional connection
will hinder with the quality of teaching
See child’s mis-behaviour as developmental needs not being met, get curious, teach
problem solving skills, focus on the positives
It’s not that math is hard, it’s how you are taught.
Then he moved on to the topic of teaching during COVID

- There will be constant changes, be aware of the new rules
- Physical distancing can impact social-emotional health. Try to balance it, create
an environment that has lots of space instead- like outdoor play
- Think of individual sensory bins
- Teach children to become good advocates and have their voice by
-Listening and watching them
-Focus on classroom leadership, not on classroom management
-Create a culture through your action and environment
-Listen to children's ideas, they have great ideas
-Teach them how to protest by writing a letter to the principle, chanting
peacefully,
Don’t focus on the restrictions due to COVID, focus on what you can do and not on
what you cannot. Be creative
Be there to fulfill the child's needs. If you can’t then brainstorm an alternative with the
child.
Don’t focus too much on social distancing. Every generation is defined by their own big
event. People from the great depression times are known to save their money. Your
surroundings and habits become your characteristics. You have the power to make
choices, we don’t want our next generation to be the ones who have a hard time
connecting with other humans due to social distancing rules.
His next topic was political and I didn’t think it was relevant to us.
Wendy Lee (New Zealand) - Leading by the Heart and Soul: Documentation to Share,
Connect and Reflect
Wendy talked about the Early childhood document- Te Whariki, they use as their
foundation for the Early Childhood curriculum.
According to her New Zealand did an amazing job of handling the COVID situation by
being respectful to the rules put forward by their prime minister. Unfortunately she
didn’t share much about how they handled this in the child care centers.
The New Zealand EC document TE Whariki principles guides their teaching methods.
They don’t see children as preschoolers who are preparing for school but as Early
Childhood child on a journey of life of living and learning.
Believes strongly on Learning stories as assessment tool

Documenting teachers’ thinking enhances engagement in order to make learning more
accessible to children and families.
Just write stories to show the child’s image
Learning stories is much more than skills testing and compliance
If we see the pattern that children come/work with we can work that in support of
their learning
Principle of TeWhariki
- Relationships
- Empowerment
- Holistic Development
- Family and community
Strands from these principles

- Well being
- Belonging
- Contribution
- Communication
- And Exploration
Learning stories will

- Make learning visible
- Strengthen relationships
- Build the identity of the learner
- Engage the family
- Support transition
- Evolve into planning stories
- Contribute to accountability
Learning story is not a format it’s a philosophy
Questions phrased from child’s perspective

- Do you know me?
- Can I trust you?
- Do you hear me?
- Is this place fair for me?
- Do you let me fly?
Formative Assessment based on

- Noticing
- Recognizing
- Responding
- Recording
- Revisisting
- Reflecting
The way in which in our everyday practice we (childre, families, teachers and other)
observe children’s learning (notice), strive to understand it (recognise) and then put
our understanding to good use (respond)
Learning stories change the way you teach. Puts you from a surveillance mode to an
engagement state. Encourages teachers to listen.
Watch this youtube link to find out how they document learning stories :
https://youtu.be/_ErGy8ygQRk
If you decide to watch this video it begins at the 7:15 mins. Very interesting!

The Play First Summit - 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Play First Summit - 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

The Play First Summit - 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Original Learning in Early Childhood by Suzanne Axelsson from Sweden

Suzanne talked mostly about the Reggio Emilia approach

● This is a new normal for children

1. She finds joy in what made the parents happy.

Then he moved on to the topic of teaching during COVID

Believes strongly on Learning stories as assessment tool

Just write stories to show the child’s image

Learning stories is much more than skills testing and compliance

Strands from these principles

Learning stories will

Learning story is not a format it’s a philosophy

Questions phrased from child’s perspective

Formative Assessment based on

You might also like