What is an Orientation Scheme?

Schemes

Building on the work of Jean Piaget, Christ Athey researched and identified 38 play schemes.

Schemes are repeated patterns of behaviour that help children make sense of their world. They can appear almost compulsive. The child has an inner drive to understand the underlying structures of the world.

Being able to recognise schemes enables educators to extend a child’s learning by matching curriculum content to a child’s individual interests.

There are nine easily recognisable operational schemes: Containing, Trajectory, Transferring, Positioning, Rotation, Orientation, Connecting, Enclosing/Enveloping and Transforming.

What is an Orientation Scheme?

Children enjoy hanging upside down, climbing things, hanging from bars, looking through holes and transparent objects. They turn objects and themselves around and upside down, to get a view from under the table or from the branch of a tree. They may bend over and look at the world backwards through their legs. They narrow their gaze when exploring using cardboard tubes, binoculars or a magnifying glass.

What Are They Learning?

Orientation play supports children to find out how things look from different angles.

They learn about perspective, balance, shape, pattern, symmetry, height, width, weight, space, cause and effect.

How can we support Orientation Exploration?

Offer children opportunities to

• Move around, between, under, on top, over and through equipment in the outdoor space
• Climb trees
• Walk along walls
• Swing on monkey bars
• Swing, spin, rock and roll
• Crawl through tunnels
• Find their way through mazes
• Take photographs, look through binoculars, a telescope, tubes, glasses with different coloured lenses or coloured plastic
• See themselves through mirrors on floors, ceilings, or placed at different angles
• Move through yoga, gymnastics
• Sit on stools
• Draw in different positions/places (on a clipboard that they can take to different places or on paper taped underneath a table
• Seek and find: I spy games, treasure hunts

Call Marie to join a SchemaPlay workshop series and learn more about supporting children’s learning through schemes. 0409 034 692