Children can also play in a soft play area indoors and outdoors. This can help increase their confidence to make friends with the other children in the play area. There are loads of equipment such as; sandpits, tube ropes, soft play shapes, toy bricks, tunnel slides, toy car tracks, brown wobbly bear chair, floor padding games, soft plat igloo, activity rings and support pillow for babies, bendy flexible mirror and different sand pits and ball pits.
Finally, a third place where children can play is in a nursery. There are many different ranges of activities the children can do either individual or with another group of children. For example; role play, dressing up, play dough, puzzles, bricks, painting, cars and trains, dolls, bikes, climbing frame, sandpits, writing and numbers, water play, cake baking, outdoor play with bikes and diggers and nature play.
D2: The age range will vary for each different setting, for example; the children who start nursery at the age of 4-5 may already be onto associative play. At this stage children begin to play with each other more freely using their imagination. Also children may attach themselves to one particular child throughout the day and follow them around. The children drop out different games and change more freely as there is no structure for them to follow at all times.
Also the soft play is aimed at children between the ages of 1 to 9. This will vary for the stages of play. For the younger children such as toddlers they may be through the solitary play, this means they will prefer to play by themselves, caught up in their own activities. For the slightly older children aged between 2-3 they are more likely to be the parallel stage. During this stage children play amongst a group of children but without direct interaction. They may share their toys, swop toy bricks, different trucks or dolls, but they are not playing together. Children at this stage are aware of each other but they are not interacting together. For the older children they can be in the associative play. At this stage, children begin to play together but in a loose sense rather than by organising games together. They interact but they don't have an overall game plan.
The third setting could be the park. The age range would vary depending on the equipment. For the bigger equipment the age range would be between 8 and 13. This would be the cooperative stage of play. This stage involves the children interacting with the other children around them, making games up using their imagination and the equipment around them.
Every child is different and the stages of place will vary for every child. In most setting where children can play all the stages of play will appear throughout the day.
D3 & D4: The first setting is a nursery; role play can be played by the children. This is when the children use their imagination to create a game. It could be anywhere in the setting indoors or outdoors. It will be make-believe games such as doctors and nurses, mommy's and daddy's or teachers. It could be office play, a garage. Equipment may be used but not all the time. The children are more likely to use their own ideas and turn them into real life. For example; turning cardboard boxes into a petrol pump and having a pipe for the petrol. Also using a till and pretend money is a good way of role play.
Also In the park children may be involved in Physical play and exercise. This can be used as the children are running around on the equipment. There may also be some climbing involved which will be good for the child