One of the boys recently moved to a new house and to make the transition a little easier and fun …

his mum bought a couple of these gorgeous fairy doors, from a company Imagination Doors, and placed them on the walls in strategic parts of the house.

When we got together he mentioned that he would like to make a fairy garden for the fairies who visited his house. We immediately imagined the type of fairy garden that Ruth Bode’s children at Croydon West Primary School had created but he and his friend had different ideas.

The children found a spot in the garden they thought was suitable …

set up some ‘fairy doors’, (which were timber floor vents we picked up from Resource Rescue) …

then chose some props they wanted to use – free choice, as it was their creation. Out came the blocks, wishing stones, tree cookies, rocks and tea set we were anticipating.

Then out came Superman, soldiers, the bug collection, skeletons and cages!

Together as a team, the children set up the blanket …

hung cages and lanterns in the tree …

and sorted the rocks, tree cookies and stones.

Then what wonderful cooperative play kept on happening.

Their story was all about some bad guys (the skeletons, army men and bugs) …

being trapped in a cage …

and Superman rescuing them.

There was so much talking and sorting out of the game rules. They decided that Superman was actually a burglar. When we mentioned that it was lucky there are no burglars around here the reply was …

“Well, no – we are just using our imaginations!” Pretty cool from a three year old!

The classic fairy garden didn’t eventuate, but what did happen was exactly what the children wanted, directing their own play for an extended period of time.

We were having a bit of a sort through our imaginative play props this week, getting sorted for our ‘engaging boys workshop‘ and had them scattered all around Sherry’s kitchen – so quite a mix of things.

Her grandson was over for a visit and naturally, just started having a play.

We love how children go for it without standing back and waiting to be ‘invited’.

They see it and before you know it they’re just doing it!

He combined army guys, skeletons, farm animals, bird cages, cars, spiders and jungle animals and played very happily, talking busily away to himself in his own little world for ages – what a joy!

Anyway, it was a great reminder to us that imaginative play doesn’t have to have a ‘theme’ such as dinosaurs, the beach, insects etc.

Ahhh – The beauty of a free play …

where children are left to just … play!

We like to have plenty of imaginative and sensory play areas for the children and this week we combined the two.

By tipping buckets of sand into last weeks water play, we created a dinosaur swamp using some mini dinosaur skeletons and a few large rocks.

The children had a very messy but delightful time burying and digging up the dinos.

They said it was a bit like being a pirate finding hidden treasure.

Water and sand went everywhere and we realised that placing the tub next to the board displaying our treasure maps …

wasn’t a smart idea!! … splish, splosh, splash!

This naturally led onto a discussion about archeology and fossils, so the next step was for the children to create their own fossils.

They used a variety of objects …

like shells, bones, coral and plastic dinosaurs.

They pressed them into clay …

leaving nice deep imprints …

then we mixed up the plaster and scooped it on top.

By the end of the session the plaster was dry enough to be taken off.

Uncovering the fossils was very exciting!

and ta-raa their very own ‘fossils’ to take home!

In the words of our friend Aiden to his Mum at the end of kinder today …

“Hey look what we found today … dinosaur fossils”