Traces of play: attending to the unfinished and unseen
Abstract
This project explores how traces of play, the unfinished, messy, and often unseen remnants of children’s activity, can invite slower pedagogies of listening and return. Over several weeks in an early learning centre in Calgary, the educators and I resisted tidying block towers, swirls of paint, whispered stories, and pauses in movement, leaving them intact as living invitations for children to revisit. Documentation shifted from product to presence, creating space for continuity, interpretation, and relationship. By practicing pause and speculation, Traces of Play reimagined curriculum as an unfolding inquiry into creativity, relationships, and what might still be coming into being.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Early Childhood Education and Development
Education Methods and Practices
Children's Rights and Participation
Publication details
- Journal / source
- International Journal of Play
- Volume
- 15
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 60–68
- Publication date
- 2 January 2026
- Language
- EN