DRAMA, STORYTELLING, CO-CREATION, EDUCATION, PLAY

Region: North
Municipality: Frederikshavn
By: Skagen
Year: 2020
Artist: Lars Ditlev Johansen
Day care: Mattisborgen kindergarten

Two headlines I can start with in relation to a Snout story about the PlayArt programme in Mattisborgen Kindergarten are quite clear:

We've realised that we all need to get better at playing

It's good to "open up" to our own toy

After a super good course, interrupted by a Corona break, we can look back on a lot of good things, funny episodes and not least the fact that there was room/possibility for two staff members, together with a group of children, to play and experiment with drama. The process has been both hard and difficult, but very good and developing. One of the educators said that she personally worked to follow the children's lead, without setting the agenda herself.

We have certainly been on a formative journey that has given us the courage to continue working with the principles of PlayArt and to involve our colleagues so that they too become part of future processes.

Due to Corona restrictions, we could not maintain our PlayArt group. We could not continue our planned programme, which actor Lars Ditlev Johansen was to help complete and give feedback on. We will definitely take it up after Christmas. We got a lot of good inspiration and tools from Lars that we can use going forward. His teaching and guidance has been very good.

As staff, we have discovered how little it takes to get good, imaginative play going with the children.

We are impressed by how many stories the children come up with when a space is created where they are allowed to unleash their imagination and thoughts. We found that the children often touched on topics that are a little dangerous through play, such as death and poisonous things they had eaten etc.

We have seen children who "stopped" because it was too violent (they were afraid of Lars' deep voice and the roars he made) We have seen children who do not usually intervene, be super good at intervening, telling and dramatizing.

We have experienced that the children live into the fairy tale through play. We must therefore practise planning free spaces for play and experimentation, without having a fixed programme, but a framework.

Our aim in working with drama in the PlayArt programme was that we as adults should become better at creating environments and opportunities that make children want to do drama. We had to become better at following the children's tracks. We would use the principles of LegeKunst in our daily sessions, linking song, music, drama and creative activities.

We are now well equipped to continue our work and achieve our goals.

We will work from:

It's the process, not the product

Where the commitment is: What we care about, creates joy and learning

Creating good and safe spaces: the "PlayArt space" and following the children's tracks.

We are super happy to have had the opportunity to participate in the project and are sure it will "live on" in our daily lives.

Margit Brink Hansen
Head of Department

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