Expanding on play

 I love when my kids take hold of their learning.  I know this is my classroom blog but my own kids this summer have really helped remind me of the importance of really listening to kids and expanding upon their play.  Last week we painted b/c I was trying to show my colleges how I assessed habitats.  We have a drying rack at the house (the front door).  B came running up to me this week asking for tape.  I don't just let this three year old loose with tape.  I know I should but we are at home and he makes a  mess. 

" I need it to make my art "osem" (museum) store."  So I gave him tape.  He taped 4 pictures on his bedroom door.   Then he came running back in the living room.  "You have to come to my store."  Now here is where the listening part comes in.  If I listen for opportunities I can expand my kids play into so much more.
"B, I would love to come but I don't have an invitation."
He ran to his room to get busy.  He made the C's on the top of the first page. 
"Here's you invitation."
"Oh, thank you so much.  But I don't know how to get there."
He grabbed the paper out of my hand and returned to his crayons.  He drew map. His map was a DORA kind of map where you had to go around things and jump over things.  While I was working on getting to his bedroom, his sister came sneaking in to see what we were playing.

 She wants to come.  He runs off and makes a second invitation and map.  So when she joins she decides she wants to buy the picture instead of just look at it.  In comes math and money work.  We broke out the pennies.  She bought the dinosaur picture for 16 cents and then had 4 cents over to buy the sunset page. 

We worked on counting and recounting money.  We played this for three days before we were finished.  I only lost about 60 cents in the process.

It is so easy to expand on play but just making a statement.  I could have easily have went straight to his room with the oral invite  but had I done that I would have "lost" all this great learning!