Igloo Stay and Play

Published 27 March 2024.

“Amazing. Best play activity I’ve ever been to. Really communal, safe, inclusive and fun!” Parent

“Play and stay was brilliant. Child-friendly. Really good.” Parent

Travelling Light’s tour of its early years production Igloo in February 2024 included a new facilitated stay and play session as part of each performance, along with creative resources and a special illustrated Igloo picture book.

Igloo’s Assistant Director and Facilitator worked with local nursery Easton Community Children’s Centre over a series of sessions to research and develop the play session ahead of the tour. This included an ideas and skills exchange with the early years practitioners and creative workshops with the children.

The ‘stay and play’ activity centred on sensory play with objects such as silky-soft materials, foam circular blocks and a white carpet pathway. The structure of the session was child led, with the facilitator providing invitations to play and allowing the play to develop in response to the children’s imaginations.

We commissioned an independent evaluator to assess the impact of Igloo on children and their carers.

This story focuses on the stay and play element of the show and the longer-term impact findings.

You can read the full report here and read more about the tour here.

The independent evaluation found the addition of the ‘stay and play’ element was overwhelmingly appreciated by audiences. Adults and children enjoyed the opportunity for imaginative and sensory play.

Parents saw it as a useful transition following the performance before the children had to leave the performance and early years practitioners also saw it as an important opportunity for families and children to participate in shared creative play.

“The stay and play was perfect. It was so clever to allow the children to explore – the use the scarves and sensory elements was like our home area which was good.” Early Years Practitioner

 Early years professionals reported the performance and stay and play having a positive impact on children’s language development and wellbeing.

Longer term impact

Our evaluator gathered feedback two to three weeks after the performance from the local Family Hub at Wellspring Settlement, Cashmore Nursery and Easton Community Children’s Centre.

Parents and early years practitioners often expressed being surprised by how much the children remembered.

Two weeks after the performance, the manager at Easton Community Children’s Centre spoke to the children about what they remembered from the performance and said she,

“was shocked by how much they remembered and how much they spoke about. They also remembered the ‘stay and play’. One child said, “I liked the fluffy snowballs to build towers”. The children remembered and spoke about the smallest detail. Another child went into incredible detail saying, “The friends build a nest when they were sad and then they were happy”. The penguin, the ribbons, the scarf and the emotions were spoken about both after seeing the performance and this morning, two weeks later.”

Helping with emotions and supporting language development

Helping with emotions and supporting language development, was also prominent when speaking to early years practitioners.

“Working with Travelling Light has certainly enhanced their language development. In the sessions and following the performance, the open-ended nature of the work (the loose parts) gave the children the chance to speak up. In the sessions and the ‘stay and play’ there was lots of play and many different narratives were going on.” Nursery practitioner

The manager at Cashmore nursery explained that each term the children had a key learning focus:

“For this term, “Emotions and about me” is the theme. So, Igloo - the performance, the stay and play and the booklet, all contributed very well to this theme. This project has also contributed to the children having a sense of belonging which is important for developing their self-esteem”.

“Some of the children who don’t usually talk were laughing, clapping and chatting. It was so good to get out. It surprised me how they could read the actions and how focussed the children were.” Nursery practitioner

One parent who gave feedback on the performance, despite not attending, as her daughter, who saw the performance with Cashmore nursery, had told her about the performance:

“She has spoken a lot about Igloo. She loved the performance. It was really good that we were given the Igloo book when I collected her from nursery. We have been able to follow-up the story even though I didn’t see it. That was good. We have been following up on the emotions. The play and the book have really helped her with her emotions. Since then, she has been able to say “Mummy I am very frustrated” or “I am very sad”. She never used to talk about how she was feeling before. I think that is very important. It is very good that the nursery and Travelling Light are spending time on emotions now. Three is a good age to introduce talking about emotions.”

Parents at the Family Centre repeatedly said how much they appreciated the stay and play element of Igloo.

Another parent spoke about enjoying playing with their child more since Igloo, having been given ideas in the resource leaflet. They had created different stories following looking at the book and had then progressed to making dens and playing. She noticed since seeing Igloo, four weeks earlier, her two and a half year old year child was now becoming more imaginative in his play, taking on different roles and using everyday objects to represent other playful items in the storytelling.

To find out more, you can read the evaluation report here.

Visit our Igloo tour page here.