Documentation for the week
of November 14-18, 2016
Check out this article about a new/old kind of playground in New York City brought back freedom to children's play spaces.
Cardboard Box Adventures
A cardboard box can become anything to a child. Which is why we decided to put one in our dramatic play area this week! Last week the box was used to hide inside and pop out as a surprise. This week, the box became a slide. It was A Big Deal. When the children realized that the box could be a slide, they all started sliding down at the same time and yelling (the yelling part seemed very important to their play!).
Very quickly after the children began sliding down the box, they realized that some rules needed to be established. Morah Tara watched as the children worked to make sure that everyone was staying safe, but did not interfere with their play or stop everyone to facilitate the creation of rules. The children realized the importance of rules on their own and went about creating rules together.
Some of the rules were spoken out loud. Ariel F. said, "We need to take turns." Lucy attempted to create rules out loud as she yelled, "Guys! It's too loud and you're going too fast. We need to slow down!" This attempt at completely stopping play in order to establish a set of rules failed. The children chose not to stop their play, and Lucy learned how to maneuver through the chaos of her friends' work.
Some rules were created without any verbal acknowledgement of them. For example, the children began bringing chairs behind the box so that it would be easier to get their legs over the top of it. The children waited on the chairs near the ends of the slide for the child in the middle to slide down. No one spoke about this rule out loud, but it was clearly established and withheld throughout the week. Some children went around this rule by not getting up onto the chairs at all. They ran to the edge of the box and jumped in front of the children on the chairs, but once they were on the chairs they waited for their turn.
There was also imaginary play occurring within the greater play activity. Oree and Imie were pretending that they were firefighters rushing down the slide to put out a fire. Bayla eventually joined them. Lucy found a yellow block and said that it was a remote control. She decided that it controlled the speed of everyone going down the slide. It seemed like no one heard her saying this, but two days later, Hillel picked up the same yellow block and used it as a remote control!
The use of tools was evident as well. As mentioned before, chairs were brought over to make it easier to get onto the slide. Eliya and Hillel chose to use a couple of flat boxes to sit or lay on as they went down the slide. The children found this very enticing, and they all wanted to use the flat boxes to slide down too. This caused a lot of conflict, which means that there were many great opportunities to solve conflict! After a long time the children realized that one of the flat boxes could be opened into a wider sheet of cardboard. Ariel S. and Hillel worked together to open the box up. After a while, the children considered cutting the wide sheet of cardboard into three separate sheets. They found scissors and got to work. As they cut they talked about who was going to get which piece of cardboard. Bayla was going to get the middle piece. Oree and Imie were going to share one side and Hillel was going to get the other side. It was a challenging task that they had to stop working on, because it was cleanup time.
While some children chose to cut, Ariel F and Lucy had a turn to slide down the box just the two of them. They learned that it was safest to jump right in the middle of the box. They jumped very high in the air and then slid down the box.
The next morning, Hillel began cutting the cardboard sheet again. It started to make his hand hurt so he tried ripping the box apart. It still didn't come apart. Bayla decided to get into the box even though her friends wanted to turn it into a slide again. She knew that there were more votes for it to become a slide, but she did not get out of the box. Eventually her friends found other work to do in the classroom, and even though she had "won" she was bored being in the box alone. She got out of the box and found other work to do too.
Eliya and Hillel chose to slide down using the large cardboard sheet together several times. Then they had a disagreement about whether to unfold it or not. Eliya wanted it to stay folded. Hillel wanted it to be open. They tried pulling it out of each other's hands for a while. Then Eliya sat on the box while Hillel tried to pull it out from under him and speak to him about why he wanted the box open. After a long time of trying to solve the problem using their bodies, they agreed to open the cardboard on one side and leave the other side folded over. They happily slid down the box on the cardboard sheet several times after that!
Imie, Bayla, and Ariel S. got tired of waiting for a turn with the cardboard sheets, so they went to the fabrics basket in our loose parts area. They used pieces of fabric in a similar way down the slide as they were using the cardboard sheets before.
Conflicts arose over and over throughout the week. The children communicated with each other in attempts to solve conflict with both success and failure. It was so clear, as we watched, that the children were learning from their successful and failed attempts. Often the children solved a conflict so much faster than we expected them to! It was great to watch them work together in this shared reality all week. There were also a few minor injuries. A few children fell the wrong way. There were some tears about parts of their body that got hurt. None of the pain lasted long enough to distract them from getting right back into their play, though, showing us that we were providing our class with the right amount of risk. (Even if we hoped the box would turn into a table for a tea party at the end!)
Outdoor Classroom Work
The weather is finally cool enough to spend lots of time outside, so each classroom chose to bring a center out with them every day this week. We hope to continue this trend throughout the gorgeous Arizona winter! The children had the option of exploring blocks and loose parts, a sensory table with cloud dough, sand, and natural materials, paint brushes, water, and chalk on the cement, and a table with clay and play dough. Our first week having our outdoor classroom open was a huge success!
When we gave the children water and paintbrushes, Leah, Ariel F. and Oree chose to write their names on the cement and then draw pictures of people.
Later in the week, we added chalk to our paintbrushes and water. Bayla and Leah noticed that when you get the chalk wet it becomes dark purple, and it gets lighter as it dries.
Ariel F., Lucy, and Ariel S. chose to make a balance board out of the blocks and planks and use the shoeboxes in the loose parts area to fill with flower petals and give to Morah Tara as a gift! When Imie and Bayla saw this, they chose to fill buckets of sand and pretend they were cupcakes to give to Morah Tara! Hillel filled a shoebox with flower petals too and gave it to Morah Mirele. We both felt very loved by these gifts!
While there were lots of indoor choices outside this week, nothing can compare with the allure of fresh mud! Eliya and Ariel S. built mud traps, then invited their friends to fall into them. Hillel and Eliya started washing everyone's shoes in the water fountain (we drink from our water bottles!) The children also used the watering pitcher to clean off their feet!
On Thursday, we almost made it the whole day without getting muddy, but because we were outside longer, the sprinklers went off! This was surprising and fun for most of the children! They ran around in the sprinklers and then danced in the mud puddles after they turned off.
We spend a lot of time in the mud. There's a lot of great things to learn when you do, so please make sure your child has a lot of clothes to change into at school! Thank you!!!
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