On Friday afternoon all of the IS kiddos had the chance to spend time in either room. Many of the younger students went over to the 2-6 room, so there were not many kids present to work in the k/1 space. Because of this, I spent some nice quality time with Sol, Emma, and Jake at the light table. There were a small variety of materials in use, all of which spoke to the nature of the light table itself: small pink cups, cut pieces of straws, colored tissue paper squares, brown plastic bottle bottoms, gold tubing, and little plastic shapes. All of the items were transparent, so they looked lovely and inviting on the light table.
Though these loose parts lend themselves to many different uses, I had thought perhaps that the kids would use the cups to build with. However, Sol and Emma were drawn to them immediately and engaged with them as simply cups, but cups for smoothies! “We’re gonna make smoothies.” “We’re gonna sell some drinks.” “We don’t have any water.” Though the cups were used as traditionally intended, all the other loose parts were imaginatively utilized. The bits of straws became fruit and the tissue paper was topping – “I’m putting cookies on top!” Jake eventually came over and wanted to play, but he wasn’t quite sure how to use these materials. The girls showed him how they made their smoothies, and he got right to work. He was excited after his first one – “Look what I did!” What is it, I asked? “I just made it!” While the girls mixed and shifted materials freely, Jake was more methodical in his approach. He would create a smoothie – first adding tissue paper at the bottom, then straws, then tubing, and then a plastic shape. He would put each cup to the side, and begin a new one. At one point he turned to me and declared – “you take the order of the kids that come here.” This work is a lovely reminder that social pretend play can happen anywhere with lots of different materials. You don’t need plastic food or a kitchen to cook, or a store to sell!
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