Recycled and natural materials are a low-cost way of resourcing a setting, and stimulate children's play and discussions as they recognise items and connect them with objects used in the home.
Although some commercially produced items, such as good quality blocks, are always welcome in a setting, others can appear tacky and have no aesthetic value. Practitioners in settings filled with such garish, plastic objects should reflect on the messages they give to children and consider the value of natural and recycled materials in children's play.
Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage advocates the use of both natural and recycled materials with young children, but neither are in evidence in some settings.
Collecting and creatively using natural and recycled resources adds an interesting dimension to the practitioner's role and offers a meaningful way for parents, carers and the community to become involved in a setting.
Such materials can enrich all curriculum workshop areas and can be replaced at no cost if they are lost or damaged, making them ideal resources for young children.
In all areas, children should be encouraged to tidy up and return objects to their proper place, which also involves them in valuable matching and sorting tasks.
Home corner
A good place to start when assessing the contribution that recycled materials can make to children's play is in the home corner. All too often this area is filled with brightly coloured miniature replicas of household objects that have been strewn about after failing to stimulate truly absorbing play.
To improve the resources in your home corner:
* Think about all the things that are in your own home and try to resource the children's domestic play areas accordingly.
* Provide real domestic utensils and objects if possible as these are almost always far better stimuli for children's play than toy replicas. A plastic kettle, a metal teapot, cutlery and (melamine) crockery are just some of the real household items that parents or staff could contribute.
* Provide a real telephone, which children tend to use in a far more meaningful way than a miniature coloured plastic one, as it may lead to more interesting conversations.
* Provide food packaging and tins of food that are past their 'use by' date but cannot be opened by the children. Such resources create opportunities for children to explore number, size, volume, weight and shape in meaningful ways, and grasping these concepts is much easier when they are illustrated through 'real-life' situations than, for example, illustrations or worksheets. Regular exposure to mathematical concepts also makes children aware that we use our mathematical skills on a daily basis.
* Add resources that will encourage mark-making within meaningful 'real-life' contexts.
* Check all items for cleanliness and safety before giving them to children.
Role play
Natural and recycled materials can be used in many role-play situations.
Any shop activity, for example, can use recycled materials and provide the same wide range of opportunities to explore mathematical concepts as the home corner.
An interesting project I saw recently was a role-play charity shop. The practitioners explained what a charity shop was to the children, who then brought in their own unwanted articles and priced them up to be sold in the shop. The variety of items for sale aroused the children's interest and prompted lots of interesting exploration and discussions.
Creative workshop
The creative workshop is another area where natural and recycled materials should provide some staple resources.
* Newspaper has many uses and can be used to form the skeleton of endless models. When used for drawing and painting, the print can enhance and lead patterns and structures.
* Discarded ribbons, strings, belts, ties, scarves and tights are all invaluable weaving materials, and woven garden wigwams are particularly attractive. Just think of all the fine manipulative skills, concentration and pattern making involved in this creative activity.
* Buttons, buckles, beads and bottle tops are all useful for creative artwork, and for making patterns and models. And cardboard boxes of various shapes and sizes are a must.
* One of the most exciting projects I have encountered in the creative workshop was where children collectively began to stick things to a large cardboard box on the floor.
The children glued, tacked, Sellotaped and pinned whatever they considered fit to add to the model, including a shoe. The end product was a hugely interesting and impressive junk sculpture which was admired by children and parents alike.
* Another activity that produced novel results was a sponsored thread, during which children were encouraged to thread all kinds of recycled materials on to a four-foot length of string. The end results were hung around the setting, prompting much interest and conversation.
Blocks and construction
Providing a basket of recycled materials alongside a setting's commercially produced resources can greatly enhance children's play in this area.
Access to only commercially produced resources limits the range and inventiveness of children's constructions. Supplementing provision with boxes and containers in various shapes and sizes, CDs, vinyl records, pieces of guttering, safe tins and polythene bottles opens up new possibilities for the children and enables them to produce a greater diversity of original constructions - at no cost to the setting and with just a little effort.
Water area
As with other areas of a setting, water play can be enhanced by recycled objects. Add a variety of objects that float or sink, containers in all shapes and sizes, and containers pierced with a range of holes. A metal teapot and some out-of-date tea bags will also engage children's interest when playing in the water tray.
Sand area
Provide out-of-date rice and pasta, in a variety of shapes, for the children to play with alone or mixed with sand. Supplement your provision with objects such as pine cones, shells, pieces of bark, wood, twigs, old CDs, cardboard, plastic containers, old toy cars that are no longer of use in the small-world play area, bottle tops, small tins and old spoons - the possibilities are endless.
Finally, make sure that all these items are stored in clearly marked and easily accessible containers so the children can choose when and how to supplement their play.
Marie Charlton is an early years consultant for St Helens LEA and EYDCP, Merseyside
