On Friday, January 9th, we gave our program a “YES DAY!” A “YES DAY” is where we have to say yes to any of the children’s requests as long as they fit within the predetermined parameters. Our two main rules were:
1. We had to use the materials we already have
2. The requests/activities can’t be destructive
On the Thursday before, we brainstormed all the activities they wanted. We were surprised by how reasonable their requests were. They asked for:
- A double set of magnets
- Barbies with extra accessories
- Lego ziplines
- Spinning tops that we can turn into Beyblades
- Hoot Owl Hoot (our new favourite collaborative board game)
- Whiteboards
- Colouring sheets, specifically: unicorns, Minecraft, zebras, Beyblade X, snow globes, mermaids, Star Wars, Sonic, ballerinas, princesses, and Mario and Luigi Brothership
Those requests were an easy yes, so we prepared the room with all of their wishes. We were surprised how many of them chose to colour first. While we understand the importance of process art, colouring allows our children to practice their fine motor penmanship. These sheets that they ask for specifically allowed them to have a sense of autonomy, as well as be able to create their own representation (e.g. Theo colouring a Star Wars Jedi that looks just like him).
Barbies are another activity that seems one dimensional, but is a rich activity in developing their social and cognitive skills, such as communication, social problem-solving, and representation. It extends even farther when they add supplemental loose part materials, like magnets or Lego, to build their housing/dramatic structures.
Another activity from their “YES DAY” that was a huge hit was Lego ziplines. We flipped one of the table upside down and used it as a secure base for the ziplines to attach to. We used different tether materials, like gimp and yarn with loads of tape to create their lines. The first lines were made with yarn and as the Lego structures were released, they smashed directly into the ground. We watched a video of a real zipline and talked about the importance of keeping its users safe. Noah suggested adding a seatbelt into his structure so that when it hit the ground they would be safer. Theo took a different approach and suggested making the ziplines lighter so that it wouldn’t weigh the yarn down as much in hopes that it wouldn’t smash at all. We worked together with the yarn, but through trial and error, realized that it didn’t hold their structures as well as the gimp would.
Eventually, Theo, Hudson, and Noah were able to get secure lines that could hold their Lego and the other children watched as they began to zip and whip down the line. More children joined and we were so impressed by the three of them helping the other children to create their own. Owen and Noah used chairs as supports to build additional lines and Hudson helped build Lego vehicles. Ellis and Elizabeth observed, then began to use the main line and drop their Lego from as high as we could get it (we ended up taping them to the window ledges)! After the first run, they both were hooked and repeatedly asked who’s turn it was and if they could go again. We also noticed that in the video we watched, the ziplines had some mechanism to slow the rider at the bottom. Kason began using extra gimp and tied bows onto the lines. It acted as a slowing mechanism as was an ingenious solution.
We followed up our "YES DAY" with adding a larger Lego station (Rena loved this addition and created a pretty intricate house fastened with lasers!), as well as a clothing-makers creative station to extend our dramatic doll play.
We are constantly working within children emergent interests, and our "YES DAY" was a great way to listen to what the children wanted and incorporate their own ideas into our programming, and we will definitely be doing it again!