Play Toolkit
The Growing
& the Adventures of Playeum at Home
With each week that we played, we started to see what’s around us in a more playful lens. The more we play the more we train this lens.
These are not just patches of paint, they are roses and croissants!
This is not a grape stem, this is a dragon!
Hi there!
The journey to make Playeum at Home happen was full of surprises, learnings and friendships we continue to cherish a year on. We met many curious minds, excited innovators full of ideas and energy to create. This project would certainly not have been possible without you!
With every week that we played, we realised that we started to see the things around us in a more playful lens. It was like attending weekly training sessions for our eyes to see things differently and creatively! But how could we get other people to experience what we did?
This is why we put together the growing Play Toolkit! It is the culmination of our own experiences and lessons we have learnt together with children, families, artists and educators. It transforms our process, from planning to executing Playeum at Home, into a simple guide you can use to Play, Imagine, and Create with others!
We hope this growing Play Toolkit will inspire you, to continue to play, imagine and create wherever you are and with what’s around you.
From
The Playeum Team
.png)
This toolkit is designed for individuals looking to gain an insight into playing the Playeum way. It is not limited to just educators, parents, or anyone that works with children. Adults play too!
Who is this toolkit for?
About the Play Toolkit
growing
^
This tool kit can be used to facilitate the design of play experiences for both adults and children. It can be used for learning and education purposes, for development of specific skills or knowledge, or simply just to connect people in a playful manner.
What can this toolkit be used for?
4 pm – 4:45pm
How do we see people and play?
The Mindset
of Play
-
Everyone is a learner and a teacher
-
Everyone is creative and competent and has something to offer
-
Play as a medium for adults and children to connect, learn, express and create
-
The freedom to create - no limitations to play
Please prepare a box of recyclable and craft items that you are able to find at home. For example, toilet roll cores, scrap magazines/paper, newspapers, plastic containers and more. Look around your home and see what can you reuse and repurpose!
We also recommend preparing the following stationery items
-
A pair of scissors
-
Glue/tape – Double sided tape, masking tape, or scotch tape would work!
-
Colouring tools such as colour pencils and markers
.jpg)
The Practice
of Play
What should we as adults uphold as children play?
-
Equal opportunities for all to express themselves and to be heard
-
Creating and holding safe physical and psychological spaces that are free of judgement
-
Allowing time and space for curiosity and developing the intrinsic motivation to learn
-
Facilitate through scaffolding
THE 3 SEEDS OF PLAY
This guide consists of 3 “seeds” that you will plant as you design playful experiences. As you water them (a.k.a. Create multiple play experiences with this toolkit), you add or build on more ideas, possibilities, creations, and room for playful conversations. This is why we named it the growing Play Toolkit.
Imagine this as the part in the process where a seed was just planted into the soil. It is sensing it’s surroundings, looking for food, water, and space to grow. This is the same for Play, it is about sensing and exploring what you have. There is a lot of describing what you see, smell, hear, and feel (We don’t recommend taste, unless you’re working with an edible object!) and also on cause and effect. For example, what happens when you hit a bottle cap?
PLAY
%20(3).jpg)
Play, Imagine,
Create!
Now that your seed has sprouted, what happens next? It starts to grow as it takes on nutrients, sunlight, water, and more, so that it becomes a stronger plant. However, it also takes experimenting to see what combination these elements would work well to promote growth. That’s what Imagine is about. You start to conceptualise your ideas on what you can create and do little experiments here and there. Does the glue work? Perhaps tape would be better? Maybe another material could be stronger?
IMAGINE
Once you have worked out what makes your plant grow, you will have a strong plant that could flourish under the right conditions. The same goes for Create, you have your idea in mind and you have worked out the materials and how to go about putting it together. So let’s begin to do that! And with the right mindset and practice of play as mentioned above, you and your ideas will have the time and space to blossom :)
CREATE
Need more ideas on how Play, Imagine, and Create can look like?
Let’s take a look at how this was done in our past Playeum at Home sessions!
Play
Imagine
create
We welcome you to check out our previous episodes here.
Feel free to click any episode and get inspiration to start on your own maker project!
Submit your creations!
If your child tuned in with us for any of the episodes and felt inspired to start on a maker project after, we would love to share what your child has made!
Submit your details and image of the creation by clicking the icon below:
SUBMIT
