Creative Play: Key concepts

Enhancing a sense of self-worth

Students need opportunities to:

• experience success;
• engage their imagination;
• accept challenges and take risks;
• learn through trial and error;
• enhance their sense of adventure;
• experience fun and enjoyment through movement.

Increasing body awareness

Students need to learn:

• what they can move (the parts of their body);
• where they can move (the space around them);
• how they can move (the different efforts involved);
• what they can use to move with (the equipment they can use).

Building positive relationships

When playing alongside others, sharing space and equipment, students need opportunities to:

• copy;
• lead;
• follow;
• negotiate;
• co-operate.

Exploring environments

When involved in creative play, students need opportunities to:

• use a variety of equipment;
• experience a range of physical environments;
• become aware of their own physical limitations within physical environments;
• make sense of their physical world, for example, sand, water, grass, and structures;
• experience sensory stimulus;
• understand that real and imagined physical environments affect their playing choices;
• acknowledge how social and cultural environments influence their physical behaviours;
• demonstrate safe behaviours.