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This pedagogical narration took place indoors, within a childcare centre, in the 3-Year-old room. Play areas within the room are divided by fences pictured on the left of the picture below. Other play areas of the room relevant to this observation include a home corner and as well as a Reggio Emillia style art table where children are able to grab items and implement them within their play as they desire. This observation took place within the camping corner, which was a new addition to the room.
Within the camping corner were items pictured below: A tent, a backdrop with trees, wood stumps, a textured grass mat, plastic flora/foliage and a fire pit made with rocks and cellophane.
The summary of ordinary moments outlined took place in the camping corner of the room. The children were excited by the new play area and soon began exploring their imaginative play.

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In what way does the classroom environment and materials support children's creativity and imagination?

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Ordinary moment 1:

Child A pretended to warm their hands on the cellophane fire, the other children in the group followed Child A's cue and joined them warming the front and backs of their hands. Child B began poking the fire and exclaiming that it was hot and that they had burnt themself. The rest of the group thought this was humorous and imitated child B’s actions. Soon the whole group of children were poking the fire while making noises like “oo!” and “Ahh!”.

I was amazed at how quickly the children responded to their envionment and could see that this was a moment to ask the children a question that could help to provoke some deeper learning.

“Why are we getting burnt?”

Child D jumped at the opportunity to answer this question with “because the fire is hot!”

At this point I could see that the children were enjoying the play and that some further probing would provoke some richer learning.

I then asked, “why do we think fires are hot?”.

The children all thought hard about this and each had a go at answering with various explanations.

“Because it is like the sun!”

“I don’t know, it is just a science thing…”

“There is a fire in my heater at home, but you can just turn it on and off… you don’t have to make It yourself like when you’re camping”.
From this comment, Child B explained that they had seen a fire being made out of sticks on YouTube.

Child C then made a comment that with everyone poking the fire it had gone out and that Child B should show them how they can make a fire again with the sticks.

Ordinary moment 2: Child B soon noticed that there weren’t any sticks in the camping area and began investigating the rest of the room for resources. Child D decided that they would help child B in their search and soon they both returned to the corner with arms full of items that could be used to stoke a fire.

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Child B began their demonstration of how to create a fire by rolling a slim, cylindrical stick between their hands. Child B explained that you “probably wouldn’t find a stick like this in the bush but it will still work inside”. I noted that it was great that child B recognised that this was not necessarily the stick that they had in mind but that they were able to use the resources in the room to expand on the imaginative play.

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Meanwhile, Child D continued to bring over items that they had found around the room that would help them to stoke the fire. Child D brought items like large planks of wood, a cushion that resembled a tree log as well as various arts and crafts materials. The children’s learning was supported by their play environment because the children were able to use their imagination to find items around the room to implement within their play despite it not necessarily being intended for the camping corner of the room. 

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Ordinary moment 3: Child A noticed that the other children had begun to expand their options by incorporating resources from other parts of the room into their play. Child A responded by saying “Now that the fire is going, we can cook our dinner!”. Child A made their way over to the home section of the room and brought with them a bowl of plastic food toys. They then began putting the food items on the fire. 
Child A noted that “If we are at home, we can just use the stove, but we are camping so we have to use the fire.” 
Child B, watching this moment, noted that putting the food directly on the fire would burn the food. 
“You have to put the bowl on the fire so that the lettuce won’t get burnt”. Child A ran back to the home corner and returned with more food items as well as an additional bowl. “Because this bowl is to eat out of!”

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The environment in which children learn and play has a major part of their development and education. Outcome 4: in the VEYLDF (Children are confident and involved learners) details that children who have personalised involvement with their learning will have a more positive attitude towards future learning experiences.  When children are placed in a resourceful learning environment, they are given the opportunity to build their own ‘tool kit’ of skills that can aid them to experiment, problem solve and hypothesis a solution (VEYLDF n.d., p 22.).

Maria Montessori illuminated that in order for children to learn best, they must have the freedom to be able to pursue their own interests. To maximize children’s learning, Montessori believed that educators should provide the necessary resources for children to learn independently. She also outlined the importance of interfering a little as possible and only stepping in if the opportunity to influence deeper learning were to arise. This theory came into practice during the observation as the children explored the environment that had been scaffolded for them and implemented it within their own play. By having the camping corner set up with a tent, and campfire etc, the children were given a prompt for imaginative play that they were then able to take as far or as little as their creativity would allow (Marshall 2017).

Lev Vygotsky describes the importance of scaffolding a learning environment (Yorganop 2016). By providing an inviting environment for children to play in means we are equipping children with the tools they need to explore their learning on their own. This idea was applied as I undertook my observations. I noted that by having an assortment of resources scattered around the room without a specific intention for their use, meant that the children were able to leave one play/learning area, grab an item from another area and return to their project with resources that they had picked themselves. I also found it important to note that in this instance, the children didn’t need prompting. They felt comfortable and confident in their room and were able to take ownership of their own learning without the guidance of an educator. From this observation, the learning environment and materials supported not only the children’s imaginative play but also their confidence to take charge of their own learning.

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During this experience I observed that the environment in which this observation took place supported the children’s learning because the children had the power to take what they needed from the resources available in the room and implement those items in a way that was meaningful to them and their interests.
In future practice, I will ensure that the environment in which children play and learn is well stocked with materials and resources that can be used in a variety of different ways. In addition to this, I will take notice of children's interests and topics in which they engage in and expand on this by creating an environment that is centered around that particular idea. Having the camping corner of the room was enough inspiration for children to create their own world of imaginative play. Similar to this idea, in future, I endeavour to continue to create such environments. An example could include a sand area that has tools for digging, rocks and a blue material of some sort that could imitate water. From here, the children are given enough inspiration from their environment to create an activity, but which direction the activity takes is left completely up them and their construction. Children are capable and willing learners, as educators it is our job to stop, watch and listen. From there, we are able to assess how best to assist the children in gaining the best education possible.

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Gray, L 2018, 'Exploring how and why young people use social networking sites', Educational Psychology in Practice, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 175-194.

Marshall, C 2017, ‘Montessori education: a review of the evidence base’, Science Learn 2, 11.

VEYLDF, n.d., ‘Outcome 4: Children are Confident and Involved Learners’, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Victoria, Australia.

Yorganop 2016, 'Theories and theorists in early childhood: who they are and what they tell us? ideas for practice', Yorganop, Perth, WA, <http://web.archive.org/web/20180316184334/http://ipsuwa.yorganop.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/combined-theorists-resource.pdf>.