Child-made Rules in Play

Here we see a group of children in the studio constructing rules for a game they will play with a large cardboard rocket. Can you see the the exquisite way they create their culture of play, trying on roles and testing the limits they have set for themselves?

During unstructured play, children construct rules for each other and for themselves. The wise Vygotsky saw that children can follow rules during imaginative play before they can adhere to those of everyday, real life situations. In play, rules help children practice and make meaning of group processes and cultural expectations. Meaning making is the construction of knowledge into understanding together with others and within and across a variety of contexts and codes. (Vygotsky 1986)