Last Tuesday morning, we kicked off our project ‘Awe & Wonder’; a free creative play space for children and their grown-ups at The George Reynolds Centre, Crewkerne.

A massive 23 families ‘popped-in’ to explore the space, which offered a range of artistic materials and provocations. The morning was fresh and frosty, which meant we were greeted by a glorious white landscape to look out on, and bright sunshine gleaming through the large windows. The Beech suite at The George Reynolds Centre is a fantastic canvas for inviting people in to play.

To begin the project, we decided to offer simple provocations. The first of these was clay. We have been fortunate to work alongside The Shed, a community woodwork project in Crewkerne, who have made us some bespoke child-height wooden tables. They are the perfect height for little explorers to stand up and use their upper body strength to manipulate materials, and also enough room for grown-ups to kneel down beside them and enter into their play. As well as this, we set up a large table with chairs for adults to sit with their child and investigate the clay, shells and bangles.

It was fascinating to observe the children work with the clay. Some children seemed to enjoyed poking holes into it – making ‘eyes’ for imaginary creatures, whilst others pressed different shells into structures to make sharp exteriors and lines. One child sat for over 30 minutes making an array of animals and objects, communicating their fascinations with their grown-up, in a wonderful creative dialogue. As well as this, it was the perfect time to talk to the families and get to know them more.

Running alongside the large floor-to-ceiling windows, we secured rolls of wallpaper and offered bingo daubers and children’s crayons. The beautiful thing about paper on the floor, is that it automatically invites children into play. Children are free to kneel, lay-down, and crawl around at ease. Many families enjoyed exploring the bingo daubers/paint markers, which were easy for the children to make dots and lines. Through our explorations, the children discovered that they could mix colours using them – an exciting discovery!

Adjacent to this, we propped up some painting easels using wooden crates and plastic display stands, which we acquired from a local clothing store that closed down in Crewkerne. Our original plan was to peg paper up onto each stand, however, with the beautiful sunlight shining through the windows, we chose to let the children paint directly onto them.

They were covered quickly, but that didn’t stop the children adding on marks of their own. It was a nice reminder to myself, to offer more opportunities for children to enjoy the process, and not worry about the end product. If we set up easels with paper, we then invite children to think they need to create their own picture/scene/story. But by taking the paper away, the emphasise is placed on the exploration process, which is equally as important. Having said that, we will offer paper during further sessions, to see what the children create!

Another part of the room offered some light, shadow and colour play using an overhead projector. The children were naturally fascinated by the array of colours projected onto a hanging sheet, and some played for extended periods, moving objects around the base, observing the results with curiosity and excitement. Projectors provide a rich creative learning experience for children, and we hope our projector will stand the test of time for the duration of this project. This particular overhead projector was found on Marketplace for £10 – an absolute bargain. If you know of a school or setting wishing to donate a projector to our project, please get in touch – we would love to add another one to the provision!

On the ‘quieter’ side of the room, we had some sensory items, a large play mat with wooden blocks, cardboard tubes and pieces, tealights and tree figures. We often take a trip to The Hub Scrapstore in Yeovil (if you haven’t been yet – you must take a trip), to stock up on a range of donated materials. Marzena, who works there, has a wealth of creative knowledge and can provide fantastic ideas of materials and projects. Our large cardboard tubes and cut off pieces come from here – which offer great open-ended materials for children to investigate. Interestingly, the green floaty material left on the mat was extremely popular (lots of children running around the room with it), which has provoked us to provide a materials basket for the next creative play session. When we notice interests and curiosities of the children, we will try to bring these into the play and environment, so that children can explore these on a deeper level.

On reflection, it was a very positive and well-attended first session. The hall was an incredible setting to offer this creative set-up for the families. After the session, we sent a short questionnaire to all that attended, and have gained some valuable feedback and suggestions for the future. What stood out from the feedback, is that most families commented on the calm, relaxing nature of the space – this is something we are very passionate about providing!

“It was very creative and a lovely space for the children to not feel overwhelmed”

We want to provide a safe, engaging space that children can explore alongside their grown-ups. One of our aims was to offer a unique, creative space focused on creativity and imagination, and I believe last week we offered this. This is the beginning of a year-long community project into creativity and I am really excited to see what we create together.

If you are interested in coming along to one of our creative play sessions, join us on Tuesday 30th January between 9:30am and 11:15am (earlier finish due to no volunteer available) in the large Beech Suite at The George Reynolds Centre, Crewkerne, South Street, TA18 8DA.

You can follow our journey on Instagram @aweandwonderuk and subscribe for email updates.

See you soon!