So what does 'Play' actually look like?

We talk a lot about our passion for play based learning in Autahi. 

We believe that some of the best learning comes from the ability to explore, interact and play within our surroundings. 

Here are a few examples of what we mean - these photos were all taken on one morning during our Discovery time.

Here are Juno, Alice and Samuel playing with the dolls house. 

They were playing 'families' and had set the whole house up together.

We were busy planting tomato plants for the school fair. 

On the other side of the room Margot and Mira decided to find a gardening book, look up tomato plants, draw pictures of them and write a list of all the things they would need to grow. What a lovely connection to our learning.

Raife and Dante were playing a game of "Roll the Dinosaur" together. 

As I walked past, Raife informed me (and Dante) that the title of the game was actually incorrect! One of the dinosaurs on the dice was actually a dimetrodon, and they came before dinosaurs. Wow!

Everyone loves creating marble runs with this wooden set, and believe me, it's not as easy as you think. 

Greer, Marcia, Amber and Ava made this amazing marble run using almost all of the pieces (with a bit of teamwork and perseverance too!)

Rowan also wanted to make a marble run, so he improvised and created a marble maze using the small blocks instead, just as much fun!

Meanwhile, brothers Cam and Finn were busy making amazing creations out of the blocks.

And let's not forget about the art table, an area of lots of inspiration and play for everyone. 

Lexi had created a circle pattern picture with the left over circles from out dot day last Friday, what a clever way to use them!

So, as you can see, there is a lot of rich and meaningful learning going on during our 'play' time, and that's why we call it 'Discovery'.

If you would like to read more about the research behind play based learning, please have a look at Carl's blog from last year Learning Through Play