Is it a bridge? Is it a trampoline? No - it’s a giant crash mat!
This week in the Burrow the children have been using their imaginations and using the crash mat for many different things.
The children started by jumping on the mat like a trampoline, remembering to be sure that there was a blue space before they jumped to avoid bumping into someone else. Then some children climbed onto the bridge and jumped onto the “trampoline.” At first some of the children needed help to make the jump but by the end of the week even the smaller ones were jumping off of the bridge confidently by themselves.
Then I started to hear “who’s that trip trapping over my bridge” and “I’m going to gobble you up” The children had remembered the story of The Billy Goats Gruff and were using the mat and bridge to re-create the story. There were squeals as the “Troll” threatened to chase the goats over the bridge.
We then used the crash mat to sing and action some number nursery rhymes. We sang “Cheeky Monkeys” and “5 in a bed” this caused great amounts of giggles when we “rolled over and one fell out”
We even used the mat for our snack time. It made a lovely comfortable seat in the sunshine.
All the children were amazing at taking turns and deciding whether there was enough “blue space” for them to jump safely – we had a few bumps but they had no fears about getting back on and looking, more carefully this time, for bigger blue space. I was delighted to see the children were very caring and friendships were growing between them. The older ones were looking after the younger ones and reminding them that it’s “R’s” turn and “don’t go yet it’s too full up”
It was lovely to find so many different uses for such a basic item of play and we used lots of areas of development; physical, emotional and social and we used our maths skills and developed our spatial awareness. We all had so much fun.
I wonder what other uses we can find for the giant crash mat?
Ezme