Last week found us playing various Hide and Seek games. We started off with the more traditional One Person hiding, which age-appropriately ended up with all the children choosing the same place to hide as the last person. Then the game moved outdoors and the children took turns hiding a ceramic bird, each child hiding it in the same place near the plum tree. It's astonishing how they craft their activity toward mastery; although they each had opportunities to hide it in a new spot (I modeled this more than once) the choice to hide it in a place where it would be found was interesting to me. We also tried a few rounds of "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone": the children take turns hiding a pebble in their hands; the 'doggie' is called out from the other room and must guess who is holding the pebble. We rotate turns as a matter of course, which is a bit different from the competitive original game. It was a great dramatic opportunity and fun to see the characters of the "doggies" as they came back to the group to find the pebble.
Much of our time outdoors has lately been spent digging. The treasures in the sandbox have sparked a lot of conversations; the children want to know what sorts of shells they are discovering. I've been doing a lot of naming and now hear quick identification as they play. "Oh, it's a clam shell" is most common, and I seem to get a lot of questions about the mussel shell. We've taken time to look at the wildlife field guide cards made for nature enthusiasts, which children naturally are. Otherwise, we have been moving amazing amounts of sand, most especially in their boots! I can't believe how much comes out every time I shake them out as we come back in from our outdoor play.
Today we planted calendula seeds; prepared the space by pulling out the grass roots (the children were not interested in this process at all until we found some dormant cutworms, which the children woke and played with), planted the seeds and marked the space so that we will know not to play there. This is, by the way, quite an experiment. No, it's not the optimum time for planting, but I think it's okay to try this and just watch. Whether our crop fails or not, it will have been a fun process and certainly something to discuss.
Water play is a huge draw. Last week we had water available outdoors; this week, we are using water to make ice. The children were given plastic containers, food color,punched out paper holes, crayon shavings and dried flower petals and commenced to making 'soup', stirring it with chopsticks and noticing which things sank and which floated. This was big fun and we're sure to bring this activity back in a few days or so. Tomorrow we'll take our colorful ice outside and give the children spray bottles of water. We'll also be using droppers of colored water to drip onto blocks of clear ice. What will happen? There's only one way to find out...
Our block play underwent some improvement over the weekend. Our unit blocks now have shelving with silhouettes to mark the places where the blocks rest to help keep them organized. "This way, you will know where to find the blocks you want" is the reason for keeping them tidy when we're done. Today we found some random stacking being done, then blocks became cheese and we created an enclosure to become the refrigerator. For a time the blocks were designated by one creator as "a place for people to play" and the dollhouse people were added to the space. We became cranes and helicopters to fly the blocks back to the shelves for the Block Show, which is far more fun than just cleaning up. I'm excited to see how the play will grow over the coming months.
Over the next weeks I will be using cooperative games at our Morning Gathering to help reinforce our skills with taking turns. One of these games is a set of several two-piece puzzles. Each child is given a variety of pieces, few which match, and must ask their friends for other pieces to finish the puzzle pictures. This involve some give and take in the form of trading. We are also working hard to identify how it is that we know someone is using something. Is their hand on it, is it in their space, or is this a time to ask a question because we're just not sure? While we practice asking "I want a turn when you are done, please," the question "How will she know when you are done with it?" in particular invites momentary reflection on the entire subject.
I am tickled to see the happy faces in the morning and just to follow the children's enthusiasm where it leads. The children play what they are wanting to learn, and to me, this is one of the best ways to learn. I look forward to seeing what sorts of ice will be coming to school in the next few days for our ice sculptures--I hear fruit popsicles are coming our way! As we tiptoe around the green tips of the bluebells, I think of the Frog and Toad stories, of Spring being just around the corner, and of seeds being afraid to grow and just know that we have so much more fun ahead.
