Play and Learning Stories
NEW PLAY & LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS AT BOWEN ROAD OSHC
Our Bowen Road Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) service started 2025 with an exciting new play and learning space within the school.
Returning OSHC children were thrilled to reunite with old friends, excitedly sharing stories about their school holidays. Meanwhile, new children were warmly welcomed into the space and are settling in nicely, forming new friendships.
In response to children’s voices and interests, the educators excitedly set up the new space to incorporate a permanent Dungeons & Dragons corner, an arts and crafts self-selection area and a construction corner. The children have eagerly explored these new additions, making the space their own.
During group time, educators introduced an engaging icebreaker activity to encourage children to get to know one another through fun and games. Using a spinning board from ‘Twister,’ educators and children labelled each colour with a number between one and four.
Children took turn spinning the board, introducing themselves, and announcing their unique number. Each number corresponded to a mystery question:
- What do you like to do for fun?
- What is one thing that always makes you happy?
- If you could be any animal, what would you be?
- If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
This activity introduced concepts of chance and unpredictability while providing an engaging way for children to learn about their peers and share their own interests. Through laughter and connection, this game fostered relationships and a sense of belonging within our OSHC community.
As the year unfolds, the educators look forward to witnessing these bonds as they continue to grow, strengthening the children’s sense of belonging within our OSHC community.
NEW OUTDOOR PLAY & LEARNING OPPORTUNITES AT NORWOOD LDC
Our Norwood Education and Care Service were fortunate to be the recipient of a Tasmanian Government grant to re-develop the birth to 2.5-year-old outdoor play and learning space. When the building works began, the children and educators thoroughly enjoyed watching the digger and various other large trucks at work. This became a source of comfort for the children and following morning drop-offs, they were excited to see what developments had occurred overnight. The children talked about what they saw, heard, and particularly enjoyed having conversations with their educators about when they would be able to go outside and play in their new play space.
One of the main attractions of the new outdoor space has been the sandpit. The children enjoy using diggers and trucks to engage in play and often mimic what they saw with the real machinery. They have been using rocks, transporting them around the sand pit, and placing them into circles (like our real sandpit), using the diggers to dig holes and filling their dump trucks with sand.
Sand play not only encourages creativity but also fosters social interactions, allowing children to recreate real-world experiences through play. It supports the development of both fine and gross motor skills while strengthening friendships and collaborative play. This new outdoor play and learning environment also supports the Early Years Learning Framework:
Outcome 2: Show appreciation and growing appreciation and care for natural and constructed environments.
Outcome 5: Interact with others to explore ideas and concepts, clarify and challenge thinking, negotiate and share new understandings.
