Interaction Imagination

(blå text är på svenska) I have always liked collaborative art... of working together... I find that often the focus is on the individual, which is an essential part of working as an educator... to see each individual child and to enable them to reach their potential... but individuals live, work and play in groups, so they need to work out how to be themselves in not just one group, but in a variety of groups and social situations. Together art gives children the opportuni

Online you can find lots and lots of posts and short videos on how to make slime with chia seeds and cornflour... I thought I would have a go, mostly because the idea of a homemade natural slime that is not messy on the hands appeals to me and my understanding of children who do not like to get messy during sensory play. I saw the recipes with just chia seeds, water and cornflour... but further research into the realm of slime shows that there are those that use liquid glu

STEM-education has been around for some time now... a focus on Science Technology Engineering and Maths in education - not long after came STEAM-education, introducing the Arts into the focus... As I have been talking with my co-collaborators for the Maker Square at Förskola21 on the 7th of October 2019 we felt there was an essential missing ingredient... Relationships - so we decided to add that extra R and create STREAM. STREAM does exist already in the sense that there are

Over the years I keep coming back to light as a tool for play, a tool for learning, a tool to explore and experiment... In a way light, for me, has become a symbol for learning... we become enlightened.. We can also use the word illuminate and elucidate in similar ways... As educators we strive to shed light on new things... experiences, knowledge, perspectives... This is part of my love for playing with light... it is much deeper than just the play and exploration, the scien

Here are some images that I have found, images that I have taken... images I thought might inspire you one way or another... Chalk board table... for free creative art that can be done over and over again... documenting images as you go and maybe creating a chalkboard table book of images..? how to instructions here... Thinking abut how you organise your materials is important... how easy is it for you to access things, for the children, more importantly.... is it easy to pu

I often see posts and discussion about open-ended toys and materials... loose-parts and sometimes wonder how "open-ended" is being interpreted... as for some it seems to be about taking away materials like cars, play food etc... which is more extreme than how I interpret it... but how extreme can we go? What are open-ended toys... or open-ended play? I thought I would take some time to explore these ideas... I also see, repeatedly, rather intense discussion about plastic

I have been reflecting more and more about the fashion of learning... and that at the moment in my instagram feed and other social media I see that images of digital and technological play are being more and more widely shared... and more an more liked and given social approval... Although I also see there are cultural differences... here in Sweden I see a much bigger push for digital learning than I do in most of the other English (and non English speaking) countries that I