Promoting Pre-School's Penguin Play

Embracing children's imagination in Pre School

The children thoroughly enjoyed their recent winter wonderland tuff tray activity, which sparked great conversation and encouraged the children to direct their own learning further. At first, the children discussed that the penguins were "freezing", which inspired our fantastic Nursery Manager, Kelly, to add a snow blanket into the tuff tray. 

The children incorporated the snow blanket into their play in a variety of ways, with one child using it as a duvet, another using it as a heap of snow and another using it during the penguin's cleansing routine. This particular child poured snow over the penguin, explaining; "I'm making snow." She then pretended to put the penguin in the shower and used the snow blanket to dry it, saying "He's having a shower and this is the towel." Another child used the snow as food; "It's being food for the polar bear. It's cold. The polar bears cold."This then gave one of their friends an idea. They decided that the penguins were hungry and began discussing what they might eat; "Penguins. Some fish. Find some fish." The children then put the penguin's beaks in the water in the star-shaped bowls, pretending that they were eating some fish; "The penguin found some fish. For their babies. The Daddy wants some fish. They're eating it. They're getting lots of fish".

This then inspired the practitioners to find another addition for the tuff tray. Upon their return from the small-world area, they placed some small plastic fish into the water in the star-shaped bowl. The children were filled with excitement and couldn't wait to feed the penguins. They took it in turns, waiting patiently until there was space for their penguin around the bowl. One child eagerly fed the family of penguins with enjoyment; "Mummy one found some fish. Babies, I found some fish! The Mummy penguin can't find some fish. Babies, I can't find some fish. She found fish and something else...the Big Bad Wolf." He picked up the arctic wolf, repeating some of the familiar refrains from the well-known story, 'The Three Little Pigs'; "The snowstorms coming on the Big Bad Wolf. Because he didn't go to his house yet. He'll huff and he'll puff and he'll blow the house down. He said "Let me in." He continued to feed the penguins, however he was no longer feeding them fish; "Babies, I found someone. Mother, someone's coming. Babies, look who's coming. The Big Bad Wolf is eating the babies. Beak, beak, beak. This penguins beaking the Big Bad Wolf because he's trying to eat my babies. The babies! The baby penguins!"

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The practitioners extended the original activity as the children's play ideas developed, adding other resources to support their play. One of the practitioners also chose to read 'The Three Little Pigs' later that day at Storytime, revisiting the child's interest in the book when engaging in this activity.

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