What is Open Ended Play?

Our early years team at Flourish are skilled in providing open ended play opportunities for the children. Parents will hear us talking about this and showing examples through our social media pages. It’s not always obvious though what it actually is…

Open-ended means ‘not having a fixed answer; unrestricted; allowing for future change’. With no “right” way to do something, there can be no worry about getting it wrong.

Unlike fixed activities, toys or games, open ended play has no rules, there’s not a fixed endpoint the children need to reach or a correct way to do it. Open ended play allows children to take ownership of their play (and learning), they can decide the “rules” and they choose when it ends. There’s not a winner or loser, or moment when it’s completed…that only happens when the child decides it’s finished.

Through open ended play activities at Flourish, Esher, children’s creativity is allowed to shine, their thoughts and feelings can be shared, and they can work independently or with friends to create a new game; each time they return to the same resources they can do something completely different.

This might be using building blocks for example, one day they could be building a tower and exploring what happens when they knock it down, the next they could build a village for their small world characters. Another time the blocks could represent food and they’re a chef cooking up a feast for their friends.

The nature of open-ended play means that it works best when adults stand back and allow the children to take full control. Rather than prescribing ideas to the children, our nursery team at Esher will observe, notice and gain a deeper understanding of each child.

“Observant adults are privileged with insights into children’s development and thinking”

Our team at Esher might interact by asking open ended questions to extend the children’s thinking and inspire new ideas. Simple questions like “what are you building / what is that for” will help the children to express their ideas and build up their confidence.

Open-ended play has many benefits, including:

• Creativity
• Independence
• Self-confidence
• Social skills
• Critical thinking

Keep an eye out for our next blog with some ideas of how to embed open-ended play at home!