Learning Opportunity - To explore the definition of play and reflect on what that means in our own personal experiences.

Hi and welcome to this course on the nature of play and its role at Forest School. 

In this first lesson, we'll explore some definitions of play and think about what play means both to us as individuals and as a Forest School community.

Let's start with some clear statements:

🌳 All children need to play.

🌳 The impulse to play is innate. 

🌳 Play is a biological, physiological and social necessary, and is fundamental to the healthy development and wellbeing of individuals and communities.

As we’ll explore in later lessons, there have been many attempts to define and understand play.

Much of the thinking that has been done in this area agrees that in essence, play is a process that is freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated.

To break this down further, children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their own play, by following their own instincts, ideas and interests, in their own way for their own reasons. This means that although adults can and do get involved with children's play, essentially, it comes from within the players themselves. 

If we think back to the definition of Forest School explored in 'What is Forest School' (if you haven't accessed this free course yet, what are you waiting for!) we can see that this understanding of play fits well within the 6 principles.

Children need to play, they choose how to play, where to play and what to play with. The focus is on the process of playing rather than the end product. All of this we also see in the pedagogy of quality Forest School.

Image credit: Cambium Sustainable

True play comes from within the child and is a crucial element of Full Fat Forest School.

Play involves imagination and creativity. For example, a child finds a stick and it becomes a horse, a spear or wand, a muddy bank becomes a slide or a mountain, a rope becomes a snake or something to balance on. The possibilities are endless as they are only bound by the children's own imagination! 

Think about your Forest School practice. How often do the children have the opportunity to engage in this type of unrestricted play?

Play can take many forms and is always open-ended and led by the players themselves.

Join us in the next lesson as we delve more deeply into the evolution of play and why it exists in the first place. After all, it must serve some purpose, right?

See you then

🌻 Reflection

• Join the conversation and share your own childhood memories of play in the course comments. How have these experiences influenced your current views on play?