What are Play Schemes and Why are they Important?

Have you heard of play schemes before? If you’ve ever wondered why young children play certain ways and repeat those actions over and over again - play schemes might be the culprit.

Understanding play schemes not only helps us understand the development of our young children, but it also helps us see why some of those behaviors are happening. And when we understand the why, it’s easy to help support children rather than just punish. 

What are play schemes?

Simply put, play schemes are the urges children have to do things in play that are often repeated.  It’s like a sequence and play schemes can be interconnected with other actions during play. These actions are considered uncontrollable urges. So, instead of trying to stop some of these actions, we can lean into them. Helping children act on the urges in positive ways. We can also use these urges to help children explore and learn more!

Let me give you examples of nine different play schemes, what they look like and how you can easily provide opportunities for the littles in your classroom to act on those urges!

Connection: Joining things Together

What the Connection Schema looks like

• This might look like connecting train tracks, gluing items together, putting together puzzles, open and closing items, tying, buckling.
• The Connection play schema also may look like disconnecting or destructing what they’ve connected.
• Have you ever seen a child try to tie their two shoelaces together? Maybe you have children in your class that love to glue things together or I’m sure you have seen the urge children have to knock over a tower they may or may not have built.  When we see these actions, we are seeing the Connection Shema in action.

How to Support the Connection Schema

• Provide materials that children can connect and disconnect. Blocks, train tracks, glue, loose items to glue, string, beads, loose parts, tinker trays, lids and matching containers, puzzles and dressing boards are just some great materials for the Connection Schema.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Connection Schema in action include: build, join, connect, construct, link, separate, deconstruct, demolish. 

Transforming: Changes in appearance or substance

What the Transforming Schema Looks Like

• This might look like children mixing together two different substances together. Or, it could look like children transforming their own appearance through dress up or face paint.
• Have you ever seen a child that wants to mix all the playdough colors? How about mixing the water and the sand? If you have children that are interested in playing dress up or painting/drawing on their skin - you may have children displaying the Transforming Schema.

How to Support the Transforming Schema

• Provide materials that children can mix without issue. Colored water, cups and pipettes make an easy activity for children to explore the urge to mix. Allow some paints to be mixed and maybe even some playdough to be mixed (gasp!) Also, be sure to provide opportunities for baking or cooking - even if it’s just making playdough or goop in the classroom. Oh and don’t forget to get out the dress up clothes!
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Transforming Schema in action include: mix, change, transform, combine, stir.

Enclosing: How to Contain Things

What the Enclosing Schema Looks Like

• This might look like hiding objects or hiding themselves into boxes, cabinets or small spaces. It might also look like building enclosures around themselves or the things they are creating.
• Have you ever seen a child hide under an empty box? Maybe you’ve seen children build a ‘fence’ out of blocks around themselves or their toys. Or maybe you have seen a children draw circle or border around their art.  If we are seeing these actions, we are seeing the Enclosing Shema in action.

How to Support the Enclosing Schema

• Provide materials that children can create enclosures for toys with, such as small animals, variety of different types of blocks, loose parts, cups, containers with lids.
• Also provide materials where children can enclose themselves in a safe way. Big cardboard boxes, laundry baskets, tents, tunnels, empty cabinets.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Enclosing Schema in action include: border, boundary, contain, enclose, surround, around, cover, inside.

Orientation: Looking at the world in various perspectives

What the Orientation Schema Looks Like

• This might look like a child wanting to be upside down, going up high or moving their bodies in a way that give them a different perspective. Also, wanting to look at objects from different perspectives.
• Have you ever seen a child that hangs off the couch upside or a child who looks through their legs while upside down? Maybe you’ve seen a child who lays under something to get a better look. Or, you have children in your care that are always wanting to climb up high for a better look, or loves doing cartwheels.  When we see these actions, we are seeing the Orientation Schema in action.

How to Support the Orientation Schema

• Make sure children have access to outside play, places to climb and explore. Provide children with objects that can help children explore different perspectives such as mirrors, binoculars, telescopes, magnifying glasses.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Orientation Schema in action include: view, angle, perspective, under, above, below, over, high, upside down, spin, twist, roll.

Transporting: How things move from place to place

What the Transporting Schema Looks Like

• This might look like carrying objects around in bags, pockets, hands, or other containers. This may look like collecting things and piling things up in a special place.
• Have you ever seen a child who fills their pockets with rocks and insists on bringing them home? Or maybe you’ve noticed your preschoolers love to transfer objects from one container to another. When we see these actions, we are seeing the Transporting Shema in action.

How to Support the Transporting Schema

• Provide materials that children can transport and things to transport them in. Bags, shopping carts, purses, backpacks, wagons, buckets and construction toys that hold sand can all be great transporters. Provide small items, sand, dirt, play food or any other small objects as the things to transport. Bikes, scooters and other ride on toys also support the transporting of the children themselves.  Also, setting up activities where children use tweezers and eye droppers to transfer is great for supporting the Transporting Schema.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Transporting Schema in action include: move, fill, carry, dump, transfer, travel, transport

Rotation: How things turn and spin

What the Rotation Schema Looks Like

• This might look like spinning items and themselves in circles, twisting items and loving things that roll.
• We’ve all seen children that love to spin around and around in an office chair - make me sick! We’ve also seen children that love anything with wheels. And if we have children that love twisting and spinning knobs then we can be confident that we are seeing the Rotation Schema in action.

How to Support the Rotation Schema

• Provide materials that children can spin like tops, knobs on toys, nuts and bolts and pinwheels. Also, be sure children have a variety of objects that have wheels that they can both ride on and play with. Balls are also great choice, as well as cooking utensils such as rolling pins and bowls and whisks.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Rotation Schema in action include: spin, turn, twist, roll, twirl, rotate

Positioning: Arranging things in a variety of ways

What the Positioning Schema Looks Like

• This might look like lining up objects, have a strong preference about how things or people are placed and enjoys grouping objects (sorting) and patterning.
• Have you ever seen a child take a set of objects, such as sorting bears, and line them up?  Maybe you’ve observed a child get upset when a child they are playing with doesn’t follow the pattern they established when lining up toys. The need for wanting things in a certain order or positioned a certain way may be because of the Positioning Schema.

How to Support the Positioning Schema

• Provide materials that children can order and sort like sorting bears, colored peg people, table scatter, small blocks, buttons and loose parts. Add plastic cups for stacking, beads and string to pattern and games for matching and sorting all support the positioning schema.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Positioning Schema in action include: sort, order, line up, pattern, group, structure, sequence, arrange.

Enveloping: How objects can be hidden

What the Enveloping Schema Looks Like

• This might look like wrapping up items, burying hands in the sand, nesting items inside others and hiding under blankets.
• If you’ve ever seen a child that paints the entire paper in paint, loves to wrap up toys inside blankets and loves hiding things in the sand then you are seeing the Enveloping Schema in action.

How to Support the Enveloping Schema

• Provide materials that children can nest like nesting blocks or dolls. Provide safe materials for children to wrap things inside like small blankets or play silks. Provide small items for hiding inside the sensory tub.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Enveloping Schema in action include: hide, conceal, bury, envelop, nest, cover, wrap.  

Trajectory: How things move and respond

What the Trajectory Schema Looks Like

• This might look like throwing objects, dropping objects or rolling objects. The Trajectory Schema may also include children using their body to propel through space!
• Have children that love to throw things? Have you seen a baby that constantly drops items from their highchair? Have children that run, jump and throw themselves through the air?  If yes, you are seeing children displaying the Trajectory Schema.

How to Support the Trajectory Schema

• Provide safe materials that children can throw such as soft balls, paper airplanes, balloons. Provide ramps, marble runs, pounding toys, use balls on a parachute, bowling type games, rockets, kites and homemade catapults. Allow reasonable risky play for children to jump off play equipment, jump on small trampolines and slide.
• When observing children’s play, you can infuse comments that help children learn new words. Vocabulary that can be used when seeing the Rotation Schema in action include: spin, turn, twist, roll, twirl, rotate 

By understanding these urges, we can set up activities and opportunities for children to complete these schema in ways that are safe for all.  We can also take this knowledge and use it in a way to help us, as the planner of the environment and activities, encourage learning through actions children may already have the urge to do.

For example, since we know through the trajectory schema that some children might be having the urge to see how things move through space, we can provide safe and fun ways to support this scheme. We could play a keep the balloon off the ground game and count how many times the balloon is popped up into the air. Or we could experiment with homemade catapults to see how force affects motion.

So, all in all… after focusing on the 9 play schema, it’s easier for us, as educators, to see that some of the things that the children in our care do is a natural urge and not necessarily a blatant misbehavior.