Play Types

What was Observed: Deep Play

"The vaulting tables were set out for the children to squat onto it and jump off.  One of the boys in the group climbed onto the table, stood up and was still on the top.  He said that he was scared and couldn't jump off.  I held his hands and he did eventually jump off.  After a few turns with help he was ready to attempt it on his own.  When he got on top again he was hesitating, going forwards and backwards and looking at the mats below.  He then managed to to jump down and was delighted with himself."

What was Observed: Fantasy Play

"During outdoor play one of the boys was pretending to be a dinosaur.  He was roaring and walking like a dinosaur using his hands as sharp claws.  He then sat on a football and said that it was his egg that he was hatching.  He was jumping up and down on the football and roaring.  When the egg had hatched he was taking care of the baby dinosaur and protecting it from other animals and dinosaurs to prevent it from being eaten."

What was Observed: Mastery Play

"Three boys were sitting together, near the garden area in the playground.  They were digging up the soil using sticks, twigs and their hands.  They were looking for buried treasure!  They pulled out certain stones and pebbles, cleaned them, inspected them and put them in a keep pile and continued digging."

For more information on Bob Hughes' theory of play types please follow the link to the "Best Play" document http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/pubs/bestplay.pdf.  Best Play is about how children benefit from play opportunities. It is also about how play services and spaces can provide these benefits, and how they can show that they are providing them. It draws on research, theories and practice from a number of disciplines and applies it to the field of public play provision, both supervised and unsupervised.  It includes lots of useful ideas that you can implement in your setting and provides information on the fifteen different play types.