The Power of Ten

This seems so relevant and connected to my work and thoughts these days. 

Guerilla Play

guer·ril·la

ɡəˈrilə/

noun

noun: guerilla

1. a member of a small independent group taking part in irregular fighting, typically against larger regular forces.

play

plā/

verb

1. 1.

   engage in activity for enjoyment and recreation rather than a serious or practical purpose.

   "the children were playing outside"

   synonyms:

   amuse oneself, entertain oneself, enjoy oneself, have fun;  relax,occupy oneself, divert oneself;  frolic, frisk, romp, caper;  informalmess around "Aidan and Robert were playing with their toys"

There's a place for us...

We closed our old place. We’re moving to a new spot and while it’s a bit overwhelming, it’s also pretty thrilling.  We’ve swept up and leaned the broom against the wall. It’s time to move on.

I think it’s safe to say that we are all very excited about the change and to be in our new building.  Our old place grew slowly, with the program, over the years. I’d say it happened pretty organically. We learned a lot, together in that space. We created a community there.

We learned how to be together and how to use every nook and cranny of our available space. The halls became our Main Street and the doorways our stoops. We (the teachers) made a decision to look out for each other and our classes as we used the entire space, much like families in a neighborhood work in the yard or on the porch while the neighborhood children play up and down the block. There is a freedom in knowing your boundaries and exploring every inch of your available space.  Children were given the opportunity to explore beyond their classroom doors and the adults shouldered the burden of keeping track, maintaining ratios, and supervising all of that wonderful activity. We also learned to trust each other and we began to focus much of our energy on building relationships with individual children and the groups they formed. We learned to adapt the environment to the needs of the children and we learned how to manage all of those loose parts. In many ways, these lessons seem deeply connected to that specific building.  I think we are all feeling a bit uncertain about how those lessons will apply in our new school. It’s exciting to think about what the new building might teach us.

As I consider all the work ahead, I believe we’re less interested in creating an environment that will teach children what they might need to know and more interested in creating a place where we can reveal ourselves. I hope we will create an environment that fosters relationships, supports our values, and makes children and adults feel that they belong and have a voice in their day-to-day lives, and especially at school.

Now it’s time to think about how the physical environment might foster those values. We’re painting the walls and furniture and trying to make the rooms feel welcoming. We want the colors to sit somewhere between a blank canvas and an exciting invitation to play. We’re making sure there’s space and some places to move our bodies. We’ll need to sit down once in a while and we might like to climb or swing. It’s also important to create quiet spaces and places to be alone. We’re considering all of these ideas as we put the classrooms together.

     Most of us like to go outside from time to time. Some times, we like to go out for long stretches of time and sometimes we just need a quick blast of fresh air. We need to dig and climb and build.  I think we like to do most of the things we enjoy inside even more when we’re outside. Outside also allows for bigger projects, less cleaning up, and lots and lots of water. We need to be sure to provide all of these things at the new place. 

As for the materials, the things beyond the furniture and carpets. We’ll consider the things we’ve loved in the past and we’ll make a few predictions about what we might need.  This gets tricky as we make our plans and think about the children who will fill these rooms in September.

We’ve made sure to bring along some of our favorite things. We moved our clay table and it's 250 pounds of clay to the new school. We’re considering adding at least one more of those because it’s very popular and satisfies so many needs for a variety of children. We brought the easels and paint and paper and brushes and many, many other tools for making art. We brought light tables and water tables and of course, we brought the mats. All of the mats will find a home in our new building. I honestly feel that the mats are one of the most important parts of the old school and they will continue to play a very important role in the new place. I hope (think, believe) the mats tell children that it is absolutely ok to be who they are, to trust their impulses, and to feel their power. The mats say a lot about who we are and what we value as a school community.

For now, we’re focusing on creating a place that offers time, space, and freedom. In a few weeks, the children will arrive and our space will become a place and we will begin to fill the rooms with our personalities, interests, and relationships. The possibilities are exciting.