FORUM DISCUSSION Day3 SCHEMAs

[NIckyb]

HI everyone – great session today – thank you as ever for your wonderful contributions!

Please add your ideas for how you can plan practice and provision to support 2 of the schemas (under 3’s) identified on the powerpoint and using the schema leaflet.

[Rosieewles13]

How to support trajectory and enveloping scheme

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[LM1234]

Trajectory:
– Supporting the children to make an obstacle course, using different levels and encouraging different ways of moving. Jumping off higher equipment and adding hoops/tunnels for the children to go through.
– Water play with funnels and pipes, encouraging filling, emptying and pouring using different sized containers.
– Make a race track in the garden, where children can follow the lines with their cars, bikes or just running themselves. Encourage the children to race, counting down “ready, steady, go”.

Containing:
– Post box activities for colour and shape sorting etc.
– Filling up ‘goody bags’ with loose parts, adding tweezers and scoops to support fine motor development.
– Set up activities within the dark den,exploring lights, different pieces of material and textures.

Lara.

[Jmace]

Hi
So I thought about how I need to change our environment and the adults way of thinking really to support the transporting schema. Covid aside, we normally have out a sand and water tray for example. Staff get quite frustrated with the mixing of the sand and the water as obviously its quite tricky to then make sure the sand isnt so wet that it is still usable without wasting resources etc. But actually we need to be supporting these schemas for the transportation of these things. So I thought perhaps having less sand so there would be less waste or finding a way to dry it out. Any ideas to help this welcome please!

[summertynan]

Connecting-
Blocks/cubes to connect to one another (duplo/lego)
Joining magnetic cars/trains together
Connecting lids to different sized pots and pans.

Dabbing-
Different resources (Paint brushes, spoons, forks, toilet roll, sponges) to make different marks
Chalk outside/ water marking outside
Putting paper around the room with pencils to draw and make marks in other parts of the room.

Summer.

[KathrynLlewelyn]

Enveloping – during role play, encouraging children to wrap babies in blankets or using bandages if the child enjoys playing doctors and wrapping themselves and others in the bandages. In the garden we have tractor tyres and car tyres, the children build them up as a tower and then climb into the tyres as their den.

Transporting – providing bags and dolls prams in the role play area in order for the children to transport objects around the room. In the garden the toy diggers are used for transporting loose parts in the mud kitchen.

[kdilworth]

I will be asking staff to observe their key children to identify what schemas they have (if any). Our staff know about schemas, but I don’t think they apply this knowledge to their everyday practice and don’t understand how schemas could explain a child’s behaviour, and therefore what could be done to extend their learning using their schema. Once staff have identified schemas, I will work with them to explore how we could better support that schema in the nursery.

In our setting I know we have a child with a transporting schema, and one with a trajectory schema, so I will focus on those two.

Transporting: We have ample resources for this in the garden – bikes/trikes, push along prams, scooters etc. Indoors, we need more resources to facilitate this schema so I will look into sourcing some prams, trollies, bags etc to place in the rooms. Staff could use the schema to help extend learning, e.g. transporting items of a certain colour to an area, counting items as they are placed in a trolley, using vocabulary to name items that are transported from one place to another. Staff already make trains/buses with chairs and ‘take the children on trips’, but we could do this more, particularly with the children displaying this schema. Could ask staff to focus on buses or cars when out on walks. We have a ‘turtle bus’ in which 6 children can go on a walk – this is brilliant for the transporting schema.

Trajectory: A good schema to identify as it explains throwing objects, knocking things down, running up and down and climbing, all of which can seem destructive and difficult behaviours. Actually this schema shows the child is exploring how things and their own body respond to forces being applied, and there are lots of ways to support this. Ideas include an obstacle course outside, soft play for jumping off things, posting activities, throwing objects into targets and activities that involve pouring water.

[SabrinaMarano]

Enveloping – You can hide musical instruments under a blanket and at each turn move the musical instrument to make a sound and then encourage the child/children to identify which musical instrument it was. For babies and younger children you can do this with farm animals and make the animal noise.

Containing – You can make little post boxes (e.g colour sorting, sound sorting or numbers) and get the children to post the objects into the correct box. I am currently making this for our sounds around area (satpin sounds) and finding different objects beginning with each sound and encourage the children to post them into the correct box.

[zoejestico]

Connecting
Blocks – Mega blocks
Loose parts play to encourage construction – resources to enable connections – tape, masking tape, glue
Sand / Water play – tubes, funnels, straws, tubes to connect
Letters – connections of letters to make words
Music – connecting different resources together to make sounds – for example attach two spoons with string
Making paper chains, threading, weaving.
Train track to build and connect together
Role play – clothes fastenings, zips, buckles, buttons
Play connecting circle time games
Make paths from one area to another by building steppingstones.

Enclosing
Post box – for posting letters, cards, toys
Shape sorter
Hiding toys in the sand / creating homes for them
Make your own instruments by enclosing objects into bottles/jars
Provide many and varied containers to fill up. Give lids to pots and jars.
Den Making
Large and small tubes / boxes
Make marks on paper attached to under sides of tables. Enclose the space by draping fabric to make a den. You may even like to add torches or fairy lights
Tunnels
Tents

[debs_99_uk@yahoo.co.uk]

I am going to start by asking my team what they know about schemas. I think they have all heard of them and learnt about them in their own training but its not something we actively observe or plan for. If each key person could observe their children and see if they are following a particular schema they can plan some next steps to really extend their interests and learning.

There is a nice paragraph in the ‘understanding schemas and young children’ book in our book bags that I just flicked through on page 134, which says that if children have a right to be heard and a right to convey their views then we have a responsibility to hear and respond to these views and share in the child’s interests.

Some ideas after thinking about my own 3 year old son this afternoon and realising I think he is working through containing and connecting.

Containing
He loves wearing trousers with zipped pockets so he can fill them with small toys. He loves bags with zips so he can collect objects up and at preschool will hide his bag of objects in a box at tidy up time so he knows where to find them next time! He loves his big green dustcart that he can fill the back up with small toys. To further this I can provide more bags, boxes, containers and bottles.

Connecting
My son has always loved building train tracks, Duplo, puzzles, tractors with trailers and sticking and joining things together. To further this I can provide more connecting toys like bricks, Lego, Sellotape, glue, scissors and boxes. This could support fine and gross motor skills and help with early literacy.

Debbie

[NIckyb]

Some fantastic contributions this afternoon – a huge thank you!

It is great that some of you have identified that there is scope for better supporting individual children by learning more about schematic patterns of play and supporting your colleagues to recognise the learning potential in this.

Debbie – what a wonderful quote you have found and I couldn’t agree more . In case any one is interested in exploring children’s rights more there is a lovely little book called ‘Children’s Rights 0-8’ (2014) edited by Mallika Kanyal that explores ways in which we can promote children’s participatory rights in education.

[EmmaThornton]

I will be asking my staff to keep an eye out for the different types of schemas and ways to improve their L&D and environment.

After today’s session I have realised that I have many children who have similarities with these types of schemes, especially rotating and containing.

Rotating: We have numerous resources available to facilitate this type of learning. For example, different sizes of balls, cogs, pinwheels. I will be looking at supporting this schema by implementing activities such as;

– A plank of wood with holes where screws can be twisted into them
– Water wheels provided in the water tray
– Hula Hoops that can be rolled

Containing: I have a child who enjoys filling up an orange traffic cone with stones. He has to fill the cone completely with stones before he comes into the setting, otherwise he will become distressed. I will be looking at implementing activities such as;

– Providing tubes that can be filled to the top and then emptied
– Uses different resources for the tubes: pasta, rice, stones, pom poms or acorns
– Use specific language when talking to the children to help develop their language

Emma

[linhquanscitt2020]

In our setting, I have seen different types of schemes with children in the baby and toddler room I work in . A couple of schemes I have noticed are rotating and containing.

Activities for these could include:

Rotating – different size balls rolling down slopes, singing rhymes like ring a ring a roses, wind the bobbin nut, wheels on the bus and doing the actions, rolling hoops and cd’s, small and large cars/trucks, pushing prams and trolleys.

Containing – filling pots and buckets with flour/sand/water, filling empty bottles with objects, build tunnels with cardboard boxes.

Linh

[LaurenClay]

To support children with positioning schema the treasure basket idea works well. I have seen an activity using Kapla bricks in which a structure is made which looks almost like a Christmas tree. this structure has many angles sticking out. In a treasure basket are smallish loose parts (children will need to be closely supervised or items maybe edible for safety) and children can place the loose parts on the surfaces. It will promote language, observation skills, fine motor skills and their schema.

For a transforming schema sensory play works well particularly if you have an outdoor environment with plenty of natural resources. For example a mud kitchen can be enhanced by the environment. Concoctions of various plants, stones, sand, water can be created. In my setting the rosemary plant is away from the mud kitchen, as are the stones and water. Therefore it will require travelling and the use of containers. This can encourage children to think about what to use to carry their resources and which resources to use for their mixtures. They may also require tools to cut their plants or scoop their sand, for examples, promoting physical development. This is a great child initiated learning opportunity for adults to observe and move forward too.

To help me with these suggestions I have been reading “Schemas. A Practical Handbook” by Laura England.

[Jmace]

Thanks, will have a look at that book

[Author]

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