Module File-Preparation for extended study

Decoding Early Years Education – What ages 51 does Early Years Education include, and how is it formed? Early childhood is normally birth to eight, but within that of course, you have children that can go to a nursery or pre-school setting from birth to five, and then obviously the September after their fourth birthday they go to Reception, and then from Reception, they go into Year One. So, really the kind of early years in terms of education is really birth to five, and that is covered by a curriculum called the Early Years Foundation Stage. Birth to five is covered by the Early Years Foundation Stage so that covers up until the end of Reception before children move up into Year One, and that is quite a playful curriculum. So, the EYFS as it’s known is a play-based curriculum essentially, and there is plenty of stuff, going years and years back, plenty of stuff on the benefits of play in children’s learning and development, and there are a million theorists that I could name who discuss how play can deliver learning. In the EYFS, it’s broken down into areas of learning. There are the seven key areas in the early year foundation stage, personal, social, and emotional development, communication and language, physical development, literacy mathematics, understanding the world, and expressive art and design. So, one thing you could do is to think about how what you what to creative could support children within these seven areas of learning. So, you could make the link between the playful resource, whatever it is you are creating, and the kind outcomes for one of these. I mean expressive arts and design is here, which of course with links to a lot of creativity. PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

I have been told about using Phonics to teach reading, can you tell me more about how literacy is taught? Phonics sit within communication and language, but it more specifically sits within literacy, and so within Stage One Phonics, as it’s known in early years, in nursery settings children would be introduced to text, they'll be read stories, they will be creating perhaps some of their own stories, they will be asked to recognize plots and characters. One of the ways that settings do that, is that they use a story, like a children’s book, but they will create resources around it, to support children in understanding the linear nature of the text, to understand plots and characters, and begin to recognize those words. So, one thing that settings do use is something called Story Sacks. And in the Story Sack would be the book, and there would be loads of useful resources to support children. So, they might have the Gruffalo, and in there might be some soft pushy version of the characters, there might be little bits of resources like sticks and stones and so on that, they can explore with. If the children are a bit older there might be some of the keywords that are printed out and laminated and so on, so there will be a sack of resources that practitioners would use in quite a playful way, to help children decode stories. 52 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

I had an idea about making an Early Years 53 cookbook, do you think that would be useful? I think that would be fantastic. Quite a lot of early years do a lot of cooking with children. If you look at the areas of learning and think about the art of cooking in terms of what different areas in the EYFS that support it, you are almost ticking them off. Cooking is really communicative, in terms of personal, social and emotional development absolutely, there are loads of maths in cooking, weighting and weights and measures, temperatures and all of those sort of things, understanding the world is in there, so cooking is something that is used loads of times. I think it sounds like a lovely idea. Play-based learning often is with those kinds of activities, the adults and children kind of playing and working together, and you would want that cookbook to kind of be bright and engaging for young children and to use as simple language as possible, but it’s not going to be something that they are going to do but themselves anyway. They are going to have an adult with them exploring the book, trying out some of the recipes, talking about some of the images and ways that you have presented the text, so the adult is going to be there to help frame and support that with the children. What will happen is that an adult would be with a group of children, talk through the text, have conversations about it, and if it’s also a text when they can do some sort of activity like cooking as part of it, even better, because it becomes a real kind of communitive process when you have groups of children and adults working together. It ticks so many boxes in children’s learning and what they are expected to be doing at that age as well. PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

Personally, why do you think play is important? Play is the natural, basic, biological-driven way humans learn. So, young children naturally gravitate towards play, they don’t need to be made to play, it is an innate internal biological drive, and we are born with the ability to be playful almost from birth. So, there is research that shows that about 42 minutes after birth children can begin to recognize faces and begin to respond in a playful way to adult’s different facial expressions, and from that of course our play develops very rapidly, but it is the absolute cornerstone of early learning. In terms of the way we learn later on at school and university, that socialized, that not something natural that humans at born with the ability to do that, we are taught to learn that way. Our natural state is very, very similar to that of most other mammals, which is we learn to learn things through playful interaction, both with other people, so in the terms of social development for example, but certainly in terms of understanding the world, and understanding ourselves, understanding our bodies and our space in the world that is almost entirely, especially in the earliest years driven by playful interactions with things. So, between birth to eight especially, and between birth to five, even more, the primary way in which children find out about themselves and the world. 54 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

How can imaginative play be encouraged in early years? One of the key drivers of imaginative play is the environment. So, the environment is the big space that we sit in or live in, the environment is also the stuff that is in that environment, and thirdly the environment is also the people, the kind of human environment, and interaction. And so, a lot of play theorists really focus on this idea of enabling or simulating environments. So, if we want to support children’s creativity and imagination it’s about setting up those stimulating environments, and they are environments that have huge flexibility in terms of play possibilities, so they have adults and often other children in them of course, to bounce ideas off, to socialize with. But some of the very best environments for imaginative play are often outside, because there is lots of research about children’s play being much more flexible and full of possibilities outside, and a lot of the resources that those kinds of environments include and very open-ended resources, so they might be sticks and stones and ball and natural materials, and resources that can be used in a huge wide rarity of different ways. ..... 55 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

So, that’s one key plank of supporting imaginative play is about the environment, what’s in it. The other big one is about plugging into children’s culture and interests, so where are these children from, what is their knowledge to date in terms of their family upbringing, in terms of the things they have had experience, in terms of the things they really like, and what often happens is kind of imaginative play and those creative ideas are sparked by us working with something that children already understand, or have already experienced, or already really enjoy. So, part of that is about getting to know children, and understanding who they are, and why they are like that, and really going in at that level. So, I would say that these are the two big planks of supporting imaginative play really, the environment and the stuff, and working from the child, so working with their cultural knowledge that they already have and supporting and developing that. 56 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

What is the best way to understand what a child wants from their play? How do educators get into the mindset of young learners? Obviously, it depends on the child, it depends on their interests, their cultural upbringing, their experiences of the world. Get to know a child, spend some time with children, speak to them, chat to them and you’d soon they quickly find out what they like and what they are interested in. You could argue that three to four-year-old children have roughly have reached the same level of cognitive learning, so, within that level they are beginning, three and four-year-olds to have quite meaningful playful conversations with each other. So, they will begin to start setting up games with rules that they invent themselves, they will begin to issue instructions to each other. So, quite a lot of cooperative play that goes on, and there’ll have these wonderful conversations about the rules. The kind of role of media, it used to be T.V, but less so now, the role of kid’s media plays a huge part in children who are three to four years old. In terms of their lives, you do see those big trends, like huge T.V shows, there used to be Paw Patrol, before that it was Octonauts. They used their prevailing interests and embed them in their play, so, you'll see with three and four- year-olds that they will kind of take on those roles. So, if they love Postman Pat for example, which I’m sure a three or four years old wouldn’t now, they are lightly to go and be Postman Pat in a game with their mate, “I’m Postman Pat, and I’m driving the van, and your Jess, you sit next to me.” So, they’ll begin to develop all of those little conversations about rules. .... 57 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

Superheroes are perennially popular, especially with boys, once when they get to four or five years old, they’ll begin to start tearing around doing superhero sought of play, gun play, stuff like that. Dolls are still popular, if they are available in settings you will still see them. If the adults provide something meaningful and sit down and support them, you’ll often see children sat down doing things like playing with bricks, but often adults need to support that. Play culture never stands still, but there are some things that do stay still with play, which is interesting. Hopscotch is still played by older children and that has been around for 150 years now, they are things that don’t seem to go away. The other thing you\"ll see when children start getting to about four years old is that their start undertaking play that is based on roles they have seen in real life, so your get a lot of people becoming a teacher in their play at home, lining up their teddies, taking a fake register, pretending to be the teacher, because that’s something that they have experience of, and what happens is that things that they experience will come out in their play. About four and upwards you will begin to see some of that, you might not understand it, it gets more complex as they get older. 58 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

From a teacher’s perspective what are the best activities for imaginative play? It depends on the teacher's theoretical base or values about the value of play. If it was me, I would take the children out into woodland, and I’d let them explore that woodland, and I’d provide perhaps a few creative activities that they could do in that woodland with the resources that they found, but I would keep that session as open- ended as possible, for them to explore that kind of environment. So, that would be the first thing I would do with children if I was given a completely blank canvas. If I was inside in a setting, I think cooking is fantastic for children, and so it’s certainly an activity that I would undertake. I think that I would support children in their free play, the term free play is about them having the freedom to make their own decisions about their play, but I would make sure that the environment was filled with really exciting resources. I would try and be led by the child as much as possible, but if I was given the option to be inside or outside, I’d be outside. Linking to your creativity theme, Andy Goldsworthly. He does a lot of outdoor play and is an artist. He does a lot of creative art with very natural materials, this is the kind of thing I’d do with kids outside, I get them to make collages, make things with things they’d found on the ground. ...... 59 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

Early childhood and art have a long history, and certainly in Reggio Emilia which in Italy, they have, in most of their settings they have an artist in residence, and so they have a specific art room, and they have a qualified artist who works with the children, so creativity is like at the center of their practice in Reggio, it’s really central to what they do. Creative art type activities are something children benefit hugely from because it is so expressive. There is a long line of people who have made the link between play and education, and quite right too, there is not enough creativity in the curriculum as far as I’m concerned, absolutely not. It’s very difficult in this country because there is a lot of pressure on schools and on nursery schools to get children to meet their outcomes under the curriculum, so quite different from say Reggio, so there is a lot of pressure and what happens is the professionals that work in the settings focus on delivering stuff which they think helps children meet those curriculum outcomes, so the really lovely, really important stuff, art, for example, if kind of gets squeezed out of the curriculum, which is such a shame. 60 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

OUTCOME USING QUOTE FROM INTERVIEW. EXPERIMENTING WITH AN 61 EDITORIAL STYLE FOR THIS POSTER PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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Following the interviews, I went on to familiarise myself with the work on some of the primary play theorists. • Froebel • Vygotsky • Piaget • Bruner 64 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

FROEBEL Friedrich Froebel (1782 – 1852) Froebel was a German educationalist. He was a pioneer of Early Education; and is best known as the originator of the kindergarten system, the significance of this was a new emphasis on play, introducing play materials and activities, known as gifts and occupations. In essence this created a new form of learning through play. Froebel educational approach considered the whole child’s development; mentally, physically and spiritually. Drawing on his mathematical knowledge Froebel developed a set of wooden blocks and introduced the use of sticks, clay, sand, slates, chalk, wax, shells, stones, scissors, paper folding into the play setting. These gifts and occupations were designed to be open-ended, this was to support self-initiative play in children. Froebel saw education as the purest way to guide a child’s conscious, thinking and perceiving being. It should allow them to make personal choices and provide them with the ways and means to achieve their goals. “The mind grows by self revelation. In play the child ascertains what he can do, discovers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting his power spontaneously. In work he follows a task prescribed for him by another, and doesn’t reveal his own proclivities and inclinations; but another’s. In play he reveals his own original power.” 65 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

VYGOTSKY Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) Was a pioneering psychologist who believed children learn about their world through physical interaction. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory states that social interaction with family, friends and caregivers is the primary way that children learn about the world around them. His theory claimed that children acquired essential behaviours and cognitive processes through early social interaction. Vygotsky believed thar children were apprentices who learned from, and alongside those with greater experience who understood their unique abilities and needs. Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory promotes play as being an important part of early childhood. In this theory play was seen as essential for promoting cognitive, social, and emotional development in children. In Vygotsky’s theory, role-playing and imaginary situations were planned ahead and there are rules for participating in play. 66 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

PIAGET Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist and genetic epistemologist. Piaget was the first psychologist to make systematic study of children’s cognitive development. He is most well-known for his theory on cognitive development. The theory looked at how children develop intellectually throughout the course of childhood. Piaget believed that play is essential for the development of intelligence in children. His theory of play states that as children mature their environment and play should grow with them, encouraging further cognitive and language development. “Each time one prematurely teaches a child something he could have discovered himself, that child is kept from inventing it and consequently from understanding it completely.” “Play is the answer to how anything new comes about.” 67 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

BRUNER Jerome Bruner (1915-2016) Bruner is widely regarded as a key thinker in the field of cognitive psychology. He has been described as one of the foremost educational thinkers of the twentieth century. He believed the aim of education was not to impart knowledge, but rather to facilitate the child’s own thinking and problem-solving, which could then be transferred to a range of situations that would enable the child to develop mentally. His research on children’s cognitive development proposed three ‘modes of representation’: Enactive - Action (0 – 1 years), Iconic - Image (1- 7 years) & Symbolic – Language (7 and above. Bruner stated that all children were capable of grasping complex information, he developed the concept of the spiral curriculum, in which complex ideas were first taught in a simplified form, and the subsequently re-visited at gradually increasing levels of difficulty. On the subject of play, Bruner had this to say “The main characteristic of play - whether of child or adult - is not it’s content but its mode. Play is an approach to action, not a form of activity.” 68 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

We are story-telling creatures, and as children we acquire language to tell those stories that we have inside us. - Bruner 69 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

INSPIRATION 70 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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ERIN JANG \"The Indigo Bunting is the creative studio of Erin Jang, a designer and illustrator living in New York City. She began working as an art director at publications including Esquire, Martha Stewart Living, and The Boston Globe, receiving recognition for her design and illustration work from PRINT, Society of Publication Design, Society of News Design, AIGA and Communication Arts. In her multidisciplinary studio, she works on a wide range of creative projects, from art direction, magazine design and illustration, to branding, books, toys and children’s products, stationery, murals and experiential design. Erin most recently worked as the Design Director for Colour Factory in SF & NYC, and led the design for a public art installation at Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.\" 72 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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MADO \"MADO, curate a collection of educational, kind, loving and well-made products based on iconic graphics and poetic illustrations. MADO is the result of a close collaboration between two Copenhagen-based design companies, All the Way to Paris and Paper Collective. Founded in 2008, All the Way to Paris has made an international impact with their iconic and recognizable work within branding, interiors and product design. Paper Collective, first launched in 2013, has become the primary Scandinavian platform for modern poster design, handpicking artists and designers to create an ever-evolving collection of unique art prints.\" 74 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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STUDIO ANORAK \"Studio Anorak is an independent kids publishing house established in 2006 by Cathy Olmedillas, formerly of 90s lifestyle bibles The Face and Sleazenation. Studio Anorak publishes Anorak Magazine and DOT four times a year. Launched in 2006, it pioneered a new aesthetic and concept in children's magazine publishing. Anorak Magazine, the ‘happy mag for kids’ is aimed at boys and girls aged between 6 and 12 years old. DOT is aimed at pre-schoolers. Both titles are unisex and sold all around the world online, in kids boutiques, museum shops and newsagents. Studio Anorak is proud to produce printed magazines that last and on REAL (recycled) paper with REAL (vegetable) ink. It makes them smell nice and it is at the heart of our commitment to provide kids with a calm, immersive, fun piece of culture. Unlike magazines of today, neither of our publications are throw away titles. Just like much loved children’s magazines and annuals of the past they are designed to be collected, kept, handed down and revisited. Studio Anorak's main philosophy is to encourage children to tap into their imagination, use their creativity to learn and is here to amplify their voices. It has at the core of its offering a passion for words and images that challenge and stimulate. And silly jokes too.\" 76 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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BRITNEY FONG \"Britney Fong, is multi-faceted graphic designer and illustrator based in Sydney. Ever since she was young, she has loved to draw and this has grown into a passion for illustration and graphic design. She is a problem solver that enjoys translating simple briefs into dynamic, adaptable systems she is always on the lookout to learn new skills, improve my practice and do something that’s never been done before.\" 78 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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EXPERIMENTS & DEVELOPMENT 80 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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EDUCATION AND PLAY THEME DEVELOPMENT Food as a learning tool As part of the development of the theme I have chosen to look at food as a medium for playful learning. Why it is important? Cooking is multisensory experience, one which is important at any age, but especially in early development. It aids in cognitive development, encourages children’s thinking, problem- solving, and creativity. It also gives children the opportunity to put the knowledge they have into action, counting, reading, measuring, following directions, thus can help to foster and sense of accomplishment and self-confidence. Learning to cook at a young age also develops a positive relationship with food, research has shown that children who are used handling food are less lightly to develop food fears. It also helps them to learn about food and value it. Child learn lifetime skills from cooking, research has shown that developing a positive relationship with food at an early age can teach about nutrition and help with making smarter food choices, leading to a healthier lifestyle, research shows that children who enjoy cooking are more lightly to eat more fruits and vegetables. This has the power to help developing a healthier lifestyle as they grow-up. 84 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

INITIAL IDEA Messy food The idea for this outcome was looking at messy eating from the viewpoint of an adult. I created a series of photographs depicting a messy dinner party, where I attempted to engage with the food in a childlike way. Why it is important? Sensory play is vital for the development of a child’s brain. When a child is able to eat and make a mess without being reprimanded, they are engaging with their first experience of sensory play. When a child is allowed to run their fingers through food they have spilled, to mash or ripe up food on their plates amazing things are taking place in their brains, new neural pathways are being built and strengthened. Messy play aids cognitive development. 85 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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REVIEW - MESSY FOOD I liked the initial idea, but I felt the outcome was just so, so. Up to a point it had been what I wanted to achieve. However, the setup was a struggle, and I wasn’t happy with the overall quality. For an experiment it had worked well, and the idea behind it was okay, but it lacked something, it became like contemporary art that doesn’t really make sense. I came up with two further outcomes to help make sense of the photo series, ‘Play with your food’ an illustrated book that looked at the value of messy eating and ‘The Dinner Party Experiment’ which brought the photo series together with a brief reasoning. 87 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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REVIEW - PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD I like the illustrations, they work well, however looking at the idea as a whole, it doesn’t make sense. Is it for a child, it is for an adult? I wasn’t clear when making it, this is me trying to force an outcome and moving away from what could have been a good idea. If it had just been illustrations without throwing information in, maybe that would have been more successful, but as it is, well it’s a half-baked outcome. 89 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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REVIEW - THE DINNER PARTY EXPERIMENT The outcome is nothing special, it works by giving the photos a reason, which was what I was trying to achieve. I’m still not sure about the photos themselves, that is partly because I’ve so much time working with them. However, I am happy with the cover design, the font pairing works well, I often go over the top with fonts but this pairing works fairly well, I’m not sure about the dots on the I’s but that’s a small thing. 91 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

NEXT IDEA In the ‘Play with your food’ booklet I had made a lot of illustrations that looked like place settings, it was suggested in a tutorial that I progressed this to designing a child’s placemat. 92 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

REVIEW - PLACEMAT This outcome worked well. It’s a simple yet bright and cheerful design, it would be suitable for a child to use, especially if it could me make from a fabric that was early to clean. Placemats are readily available, so I think it would work best as part of a bigger project. 93 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

NEXT IDEA To break the monotony of digital design I decided to make a more light-hearted outcome. I experimented with some basic animation, stop motion in the style of early Morph and The Trap Door. 94 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

REVIEW - ANIMATION This was a fun experiment. I saw it more as an act of play than a design outcome. As an animation it’s just okay, but still a fun piece, and it does capture a little of the early animation look. It could have done with being longer, perhaps working as a starting point for a longer piece. With more time and thought it could be developed into an successful outcome. 95 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

NEXT IDEA I have an old ladybird cookbook on my shelve, it’s a brightly coloured retro thing, full of colourful pictures and illustrations and helpful characters that like to help with cooking, it got me thinking that when it was new a child must has loved making these recipes, they look so fun and cheerful. Anyway, that got me thinking along the lines of remaking this cookbook. Bringing a new lease of life to a once loved object, cookbook never go out of style and they a fun learner tool for children. 96 PREPARATION FOR EXTENDED STUDY

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