You pulled Toby the Tram Car up the hill and wriggled him through the tunnel and down the hill Toby flew. It was tricky to pull Toby through. Toby was tall. Someone else came over to drive the trains around the track.
I handed them tracks so the line could go further. They laid the tracks. Then the trains went around and under the tall bridge which was really a table.
We heard the train whistle blow. I wonder if it’s a passenger train or a cargo train. Who could be riding? What could the train carry?
All four spaces on the swing were being used. The swing was heavy. I wondered what you’d been eating. Something big. Pumpkins? Anyway, you were all talking at one time very loudly trying to get the attention of the others. You laughed.
I sang Zoom Zoom Zoom. Then you took it over. You went to the Cheese Moon. What were the other places you went again? Then you began to make funny rhymes like dino and fino and scoop and well you can imagine what rhymes with scoop. I don’t have to say it.
And heart and… Whoops, that’s another rhyme I’ll just let you create in your head. Nooooo. Don’t say it outloud.
The camper had climbed to the top of the piano. You looked like you might follow, but they looked like they were climbing down. Then, you saw a bee on the ground. Soon lots of others had come to look at the bee. I thought the bee was dead, but then we saw one of its legs moving.
Someone gently tried to move it with a twig, and the bee clung to the twig. We talked about how bees help grow the food we eat and how if they lose their stinger they die. We talked about how sometimes it’s time to let animals go and how we can help them die gently so they don’t suffer.
The camper decided it was the bee’s time and quickly smooshed them. You used a leaf to pick up the bee, and another helped me bury the bee. We said thank you before placing the bee in the hole we dug and covering them.
I don’t know whether to write to you about the octopus, the whale, the shark, the giant sea spider, the cave, and the really fast boat, or to write to you about puzzles. I think puzzles. Some of the other things are a bit too scary. Maybe you can tell your grownup about them.
I love puzzles, and today at the start of the day, you and I worked on the puzzle together. I looked for all the sky pieces and you attached them together in one long row. Then you noticed someone on the triangle ladder by the circle swing and joined them. But the puzzle wasn’t finished.
The puzzle sat unfinished all morning. I love puzzles, and I kept hoping someone would finish this one. It feels good to put that last piece in. Then finally at the end of the day, a few of you joined me. We looked for the blue pieces, the green pieces, the red pieces, and the black pieces. Then we looked for all the pieces with wheels.
One of you put the pieces into the puzzle. Finally, you put that last piece in. Then people rode the train to the North Pole. I wonder how your grownups got there to pick you up.
“No. No. We’re making a huge trap,” you say, running back and forth to the sink with your soap bottle. Someone confirmed soap is slippery. You blocked the start and the finish with rocks, and you were growing the soap puddle bigger and bigger, the concrete darkening and the groups of bubbles spreading.
“Let’s make it super duper hard, right? We got to do it super duper hard. We’re making a trap. Mosquitoes might land in here, right?
You say, “This is a butterfly. Its body is floating to heaven. I’m drawing a circle around her. That’s heaven, and she got caught in a tower. Let’s make a plan.
You ask each person what’s their plan, and then you tell everyone your plan. You suggest that you should be the one to choose the plan, but then decide to take turns in a line. Others have different ideas about which order to do the plans.
You work with the other three to decide which order to go, and then ask, “What was your idea?”
I wonder if you ever feel like you just have to boom, and before you even have time to think — BOOM. Sometimes it’s booming energy that just bubbles up. Sometimes something surprises you, and your body needs to boom. Sometimes you’re working on something, and someone feels too close. Maybe they’re going to mess it up, and your body needs to boom.
Maybe you’re worried that someone will mess up your friend’s thing or that they won’t do what your friend asks. It feels like you have to do something!! And boom! Sometimes there’s a sound that is just aarrggg! And boom! Sometimes, someone else’s body boomed you. And boom!
Yikes! I don’t like the feeling, and I especially don’t like booming. It’s scary, and I want us all to be safe. Some of us get the boom feeling and don’t boom or hardly ever boom. Our bodies are just different. Bodies are cool.
What’s also cool is that eventually, with lots of play and just right help and love, we all get to where we don’t boom or hardly ever boom. I wonder what you do when you feel like you just have to boom.
We started the day with Morning Meeting. It was wet and drizzly, so we met inside to do the morning news. We headed outdoors to check out the new table configuration and test out its dryness and suitableness for listening to books. As we were reading, the sun came out.
And there were glorious puddles for jumping in. I wore my tall rainboots with chickens. They should be called puddle boots because they are exactly what you need for the biggest splashes.
You tried to trick me into jumping into the puddle on Mud Mountain. “No way!” I just knew I’d get stuck in the mud and no one would ever get me out. Later you asked to make the hole on Mud Mountain even bigger. I wonder if anyone tried jumping in.
There was the rock trap, trapping any bikes that wanted to speed around the bike path. I was cold. Riding a bike really fast could heat me up from the inside. Moving rocks could heat me up from the inside too. I started to rebuild the trap.
Two of you came to test this new trap laughing as you proved it couldn’t trap you. I was determined though to build it stronger and higher. Then it would trap you. Soon others came to help me build or help you escape the trap.
You told me you wanted to stop playing the game. You wanted the bike trap and accepted that we could rebuild that whenever you wanted. You went off to play some new game. In the meantime, the Halloween Cat had arrived. And the trap builders kept building.
As Teacher Tom says, “Play is like love. It’s difficult to define, but I know it when I see it.” In play, children have the space to ask and answer their own questions, to pursue their own investigations. Play can be a conversation between children.
Today, I observed a child who has been coming to Rainbow School since infancy in conversation with a child who started Rainbow School in January. I came closer wondering what they were talking about as I hadn’t seen them interact previously. I could never plan for the sophisticated growth and development happening in this conversation — social/emotional, language, communication, and literacy, to name just a few. Plus, it’s delightful. Enjoy!
