25 Explain how to work with children and young people in the

2.5 Explain how to work with children and young people in the creation of play spaces It is important to collaborate with children and young people in the creation of play spaces, as this helps them to develop independent thought processes, problem solving and self worth, so promoting the rights of the child and empowering children and young people.In my setting children are asked their opinion and what activity they would like to pursue. There may be a specific topic or project (ie space, people who help us, going shopping, recycling project, a specific story (eg Red Riding Hood, 3 Little Pigs etc), and they are asked to think about activities that could relate to that particular theme. This may include dressing up, drawing, making a house, space rocket, or playacting a particular person or character. But the choice would be theirs.If they are play acting the story or acting as a specific person, then we would observe their responses, and only intervene if there is a disagreement. Some children may not want to partake in anything to do with the theme, so resources would be left for them to ‘take a back seat’ and be creative in other ways. We will only partake in the activity if the children approach us to ‘make up the numbers’. (ie I guess we could be called a ‘resource’ of sorts, and children will use us, as such, when the feeling ‘takes them’).Of course some activities have to be structured, such as literacy and numeracy, but this usually entails a number of activities relating to that number or letter (especially in the nursery/reception settings). Eg if the letter ‘N’ is the ‘letter of the Week’ and number 7 is the number of the week, then various activities will be put out around the ‘stations’ to promote that letter and number). Activities used would be Sewing cards, painting and drawing/colouring, cutting out the number or letter, using finger paints/playdough to make the shape, using counters to count the amount etc. A group of children would go to each ‘station’ in turn and learn about that ‘legend’ using the different materials. Some children may have problems with the feel of certain materials, so that may be an issue, but you try to adapt accordingly if this happens. (Thankfully this is a very rare occurrence). Hopefully after doing all the different activities the numbers and letters will have been embedded into their psyche. But only doing activities that they feel comfortable with, will the children engage and learn.