Heuristic play
Inspiring curiosity and fascination in young children helps to create ‘thinkers & doers’ by putting the child at the centre of their own development and education. To do this well, we have introduced some everyday items to encourage children’s natural curiosity and eagerness to explore and create. In heuristic play, children explore and interact using authentic real resources that they may have experience with in their everyday life at home.
The babies showed high levels of engagement when exploring the spiky texture of brushes and hair rollers, giggling as the bristles and velcro tickled their palms and the soles of their feet and discovering that they stick in their hair!
New EYFS:
Birth to 3: Understanding the world; Explore materials with different properties / Explore natural materials, indoors and outside / Use all their senses in hands-on exploration of natural materials / Explore the natural world around them