WEAVE recycling centre in Leamington Spa

I had the privilege of visiting the WEAVE recycling centre in Leamington Spa last week and came away both impressed and inspired (as well as armed with a decent sackful of open ended 'waste' materials to try out in my setting :-) ).

I attended a course on Creating and thinking critically. We were first shown a short PowerPoint to show the benefits of open-ended play with recycled materials and to detail exactly how well it fits in with the new elements of the EYFS framework. Then, after exploration of the materials at hand, we were asked to create an exciting and stimulating environment that would help children to ask questions and give them an opportunity to try out new ideas and ways of thinking...we had 45 minutes until 9 reception children (4-5year olds) arrived!!! We had great fun and it was interesting to see how different each of the environments were. The children were lovely and engaged well with the materials (mostly!) :-) it was fascinating to see how they approached the materials and they gained in confidence in a short space of time - it was the first time they had been in this environment. Lots of them experimented with fitting, overlapping and threading - a common recurring concerto throughout the group and something I would want to plan for next time if I were to meet them again....sadly I will not!! But I am exited to try these resources out with my own group...watch this space!!