Getting Creative With Constraints: 2 pipe cleaners? No Problem!

Today’s interesting challenge for the 3 and 4 year olds at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool was to make anything they want BUT with only two white coloured pipe cleaners!

They took on the challenge with so much enthusiasm and out came a river overflowing with different kinds of play.  They all started the play by sitting on mats on floor, 
S: Ma’am look I have horns!

​And they all pretended to be animals and roared around a little.

When the facilitator saw that they all got up and started running around , pretending the pipe cleaners to be guns and shooting fire, it was clear that they didn’t know the pipe cleaners could bend too! 
F: Did you know I could make anything I want to with these by bending it too? 
This caught most of their attention and they each started bending it, trying out different things. 
At: Fire!
K: Look, I made a ‘M’ (he used both the pipe cleaners and joined them)
An: I made a knot. I curled it. 
And she unknotted it and looked proud of her discovery. 

Suddenly Aa comes and says,” I want to connect it”, touching the tips of both the pipe cleaners. When asked how could he do that, he walked away as if in deep thought. 
While this happened, Av came around playfully and poked it on the facilitator’s face and walked away to join the others who continued to run around pretending to be animals with horns.

Suddenly T screamed at her friends,” I don’t like this game!” and made a sad face. 
Nobody seemed to have noticed it. She screamed again. No response from the others. 
Finally the facilitator asked her why she seemed angry. 
“They are all screaming. My ears hurt!” replied T. At this point S was watching T and he visibly used soft voice. The amount of consideration, understanding  and compassion he showed towards T was immense for a 3 year old. T was very touched by this and suddenly calmed down and went ahead to play with the others. 

After a few minutes, H was done with her play with the pipe cleaners ,”I don’t need it. It’s ok”, and went and neatly kept it in the cupboard where it belongs. And one by one they all went and kept their pipe cleaners and were done with their play for the day. 

There was a lot of imagination, pretend play, problem solving and movement that were involved here where they were playing with just two pipe cleaners. It’s amazing where things can take them when they are not restricted. Each child has a story to tell with everything they do. Once we observe and get to know their world, it will not only create sparks in our imagination but also is another chance for us to embrace play in our lives as us adults forget to play too. 

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool. 

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