Objective: Decide on how to ensure that the best materials to be used in the classroom to improve the quality of play

Duration: 2 hours

*Disclaimer: This will be based on the assumption that the participants are debating on best materials to be used for play.

There will be two categorise of materials laid out for the participants: Resource kits and open-ended materials. In each categorise, there will be two sets of materials.
The participants will split themselves into groups of 4 based on their perspective on which material is best suited for play in the classroom.
In 15 minutes, the participants will explore the materials chosen and come up with a list of activities they can use the materials for. They are allowed to make hypothetical adjustments and tweaks to the materials.
They will then present their ideas and feedback to the other groups.

PART 1: Experimentation (40 MINS)

Materials

Charades on Language and Literacy

Board game on

Numeracy concept

Lego set

Flower construction pieces

Resource Kits

Open-Ended

The mahjong paper from day 1 will be brought out for the participants.
The participants will discuss whether the play materials chosen are aligned to their perspective on play written on the mahjong paper.
The participants will vote for the best material that they believe aligns with their perspective of play by placing a sticker under its respective category.

Example of voting

The discussion will start off with the ideas of the participants using the open-ended materials in the classroom. They will discuss on the possible ways that play could be implemented with the variety of materials.
They will then talk about how they can ensure that there is a variety of open-ended materials available in every classroom.
The participants will finally come up with solutions to combat the possible challenge of lack of variety of open-ended materials in each of the classroom.

*Disclaimer: The following is based results of the example provided above

Reaching out to parents

Using recycled materials

Teachers to source for recycled materials that can be used for open-ended play (e.g. toilet roll, PVC pipes, etc).

Facilitators will conclude the session and provide a brief action plan on the implementation of the solutions listed.

Feasibility of toy donation

This is feasible as the centre has already gotten into the practice of reaching out to parents for the donation of old materials such as hardcover books. Since they are already in the spirit of sharing in the community, it would not be difficult to have the parents to share their old toys as well.
However, as most children enrolled in the centre come from at-risk families, they may not be as willing to donate their old toys as compared to the books. Therefore, the centre may have to rely more on the teaching staff’s collection of recycled materials for open-ended play.

Educating parents

After having the parents donate their old toys, it is important to have follow-ups with them on how the toys were being used. This is because the concept of open-ended play is not widely accepted by parents due to their needs and expectations. In fact, the parents exist on a spectrum: Very educated parents will understand the concept of open-ended play but believe in academic-based approaches; Very uneducated parents will not see the value in play.
Therefore, it is important to constantly provide workshops and tea-parties (Parent-teacher-conferences) to create an awareness of the benefits of open-ended play and what the children can learn from it. This has to be frequent, consistent and on-going in order for the parents to buy into the idea of a play-based curriculum. The teachers would also have to update the parents on their child's learning progress.