By Kay Erikson and Jessica Predom, Teachers
Asher stood in front of the discovery table, where an enchanting woodland scene with miniature forest animals, rocks, log blocks, trees, and a stream made out of a blue silk scarf had been set up by the East Room teachers. Holding a small rock, he said, “Let’s pretend it’s their time for a nap.” Pointing across the table, Cora added, “They nap here.” “No, they nap in their little house,” Asher counters. Nodding in agreement, Cora said, “Oh, yeah.” Collecting the various rocks on the table and placing them in a small edifice they constructed from log blocks, Asher said, “This is the mom, so she’ll need to take a nap. She’s just laying down watching TV all day!” The two children burst into laughter as the play continued.
In each Bing Nursery School classroom, the discovery table serves as an invitation to play. Facing the greeter table, this space is one of the first things children notice when they enter the room. In the past, the discovery table has offered rotating investigations such as pumpkin weighing, exploring magnets, or sensory exploration. This year, in East Room, we were curious to see what types of play experiences would develop at the discovery table if we offered an ongoing opportunity to engage with a “small world.” Would we see new children exploring the materials if we continued the theme throughout the year, and in what ways would the materials sustain their interest?
It was with these questions in mind that the teachers began to plan the curriculum. Each quarter we carefully curated the materials and designed an enticing dramatic play environment. In the fall, we offered woodland animals, such as wolves, bears, foxes, and deer, a cascading waterfall, campfire, small trees, redwood logs, and rocks. In the winter quarter, the table was adorned with penguins, polar bears, and seals, along with ice chunks, sparkling snow, and a mirror that looked like a frozen pond. Come spring, a fairy house appeared, with fairies, flowers, ladybugs, ducks on the pond, rocks, and soft wooden stumps.
As we curated the materials, we were inspired by a long tradition of nature or seasonal tables found at Waldorf schools, which are known for cultivating children’s creativity and imagination. Nature tables celebrate the changes that take place in the natural world by representing them indoors. By dedicating an area in the classroom to the changing seasons, Waldorf schools encourage young children to become more aware of the world around them and to connect with the cycles of nature. These tables are also a springboard to symbolic or imaginary play that supports children’s learning across domains. For example, in the spring, we added ladybugs with different numbered dots on their backs, which supported math play. Providing rocks and shells supported science discovery.
At Bing, imaginary play takes center stage as a result of intentionally locating the dramatic play area in the middle of each classroom. By turning the discovery table into a seasonal play scene in East Room, we hoped to extend this practice by making space for small-world play in a way that is often overlooked in early childhood classrooms. In symbolic play or pretend play, children’s imaginations take flight while they develop language and social skills. “Research provides more and more evidence of the positive effects that well-developed play has on child development, such as children’s social skills, emerging mathematical ability, mastery of early literacy concepts and self-regulation,” according to early education scholars Deborah Leong and Elena Bodrova.
Holding a small wooden boat with two bear figures inside, Aria told her sister Aila, “The rescue boat came and saved the baby bear.” Pointing to a flat log piece, she expanded on the playscript: “And they also eat here so the baby bear can eat also.” They continued to manipulate the small forest animals while narrating their stories among the intricate log structures they had designed. Feeding the animals proved to be a persistent playscript when, months later, Madison and Emilie were inspired to feed the polar bears.
Throughout the year, we noticed that the discovery table continued to foster children’s imaginary play in a way that was collaborative and deeply engaging. Incorporating open-ended materials into the seasonal scenes afforded children the opportunity to expand their imaginations in unique ways. Cora and Asher, for example, decided to use rocks as people in their story. Later, when building a house for their family, they used logs as tools to hammer and saw their habitat. As evidenced during cleanup time, many children stacked and arranged the materials in extremely inventive ways. Plastic ice cubes and felt snowballs became essential visual design elements when fashioning a bed for the arctic animals. On another day, children even incorporated the book stand into their play.
Small-world play, unlike “big-prop” play, affords children the opportunity to engage in active learning on a scale they can easily manipulate. Children become storytellers as they master the miniature landscape that offers unlimited possibilities to spark their imaginations. Big-prop play tends to be more abstract and more reliant on shared experiences for the activity to continue. Small-world play provides a physical scaffold that makes exploring the “unknowns” of dramatic play more approachable and less intimidating. Small-world play also creates a quiet, familiar nook for players to expand on their schema within the consistency of the materials. Regardless of age, gender, or experience level, small-world play opens a space for all children, welcoming them as they explore and hone their unique approach to play.