"There's a rhino in our sandpit"

This was one of those joyous conversations with 3 year olds that make you love what you do.  

While we were outside investigating I heard Adoh calling from the sand pit "Hey, Hey Dani come ear (sic), Hey Dani, come ear (sic) and look at this, WOW it's amazing, look, look there is a rhino in our sandpit"  As any educator would do, I raced to the sandpit, along with 4 or 5 other children eager to discover this rhinoceros.  

When we got there Adoh was looking very dramatic, hands on hips, head slumped. "Oh Dani you took too long it has disappeared.  All that is here is the rhino's footprints" Adoh points to shovel marks in the sandpit.

Eager to keep this spark of imagination going I asked how the rhino came to be in our sandpit " It bashed it's way through the cage and came running to play with us"  Adoh confidently announced.  One of the other children said "but they are HUGENESS (sic) they couldn't just fit in here they would squash us flat"  Elliot chimed in " Nah, they don't squash us cause I magicked (sic) it away." I asked "Wow Elliot where did you send the rhino with your magic?"  "It's in the shed, careful he might play with all of our toys and break them", Elliot enthusiastically replied.  Another child very rationally said "Rhinos are to big for the shed, they need lots of grass and they don't play with toys, they make biiiig noises and biiiig poopies" Elliot quickly responded "not magicked (sic) rhinos, they are magic so they like to play with our toys"  Adoh quickly interjected "Elliot you couldn't have magicked (sic) it into the shed because it went CHCHCHCAAAARGING through the fence, see the big hole" Adoh pointed to fictional hole.  Elliot - "oh yeah, then I magicked (sic) the fence so that the kids couldn't escape and then magicked the rhino back to the zoo" Adoh returned hands to hips "phew Elliot, lucky you could magic it cause it was a hairy, scary rhino"

The banter between Adoh and Elliot continued for a few moments before Adoh went running inside to the other educator appearing to be almost in tears "Lisa, Lisa I don't want the rhino to come back"  Lisa looked puzzled but played along "How did we get a rhino at kinder?"  Adoh discussed the whole story with Lisa in depth expressing to Lisa verbally and through dramatised facial expressions and body language just how frightened he was to return outside in case the rhino came back.  Elliot had joined Adoh inside and reminded him that the rhino was "magicked back at the zoo". Elliot told Adoh that he cast a special spell so it could never escape again.

As you can see from the above story the children are very creative, expressive, confident communicators with active imaginations.  Although Adoh had the initial concept and a sense of agency* he was happy for others to share their ideas and knowledge, adapting and evolving the play, scaffolding on his thoughts.  Adoh has a high level of understanding the link between verbal and non verbal communication and is using both forms to tell his story to educators.

The children are also demonstrating their ability and eagerness to be confident and involved learners, resourcing their own learning and engaging in various learning relationships, they are testing their problem solving skills, supporting each other emotionally and creatively.

*Agency - Victorian Early Years Learning & Development Framework - "being able to make choices and decisions, to influence events and to have an impact on one's world" p51.