Reflections written by artist Cat Boot
Today, Kate brought a core group of Am, A, M, A and B out into the garden to discover a stage green tent that had been pitch next to “Forest Lodge”, a disused wooden building in the school grounds.
The children were surprised and delighted to find Mo asleep in the tent. I told the children that I had used the map they drew me of the nursery to find my way last night, and it had led me to the nursery rather than my home, so I decided to sleep there instead.
There was much excitement as the children all came inside the tent and explored all the objects I had with me, including a sleeping bag, pillow, teddy bear and camping light.
Am reminded me that I could have a house in Forest Lodge, so we went to find the key that would let us in. All of the children had a go at turning the key in the lock, with others providing advice and reflections about how to do this. Keys are important as they are statements of ownership! B in particular is very interested in keys. He also spent time in charge of opening and closing the door of Forest Lodge, admitted others into the space. Need to find out more about B’s background.
Once we were inside there was a lot of screaming and jumping up and down! This continued throughout the morning with different groups of children who hadn’t necessarily seen each other do this. So what is it about new/empty/undefined spaces that provokes this behaviour? This also occurred in my very first visit to the Nursery inside the Shepherd’s hut. Are they filling the space? Are they using their voices in a way not normally permitted in known spaces with uses and rules?
As the garden busied up with children from all classes, there was a very steady stream of visitors to both the tent and Forest Lodge. Some children wanted to be cosy in the tent and enjoyed lying down and snuggling under the blanket. The children in the tent understood that it was Mo’s space whilst I was in there with them, and then started to adopt ownership of it once I left. There are obvious ‘girls only!’, and ‘you’re not allowed in our tent’ scenarios that come up here. How can ownership of spaces also be democratic?
It could be argued that this session led to more creative play than I have seen with these children so far. Perhaps this is because the majority of the other sessions were spent exploring or making existing environments and materials. In this session there was a very simple provocation of the tent, and this became a game where first we were hiding because one of the tall trees outside was going to eat us, and latterly there was a wolf in the tree who wanted to eat us.
Whilst I spent much of my time in the tent, Kate was able to be with the children in Forest Lodge, and had a sophisticated conversation with A and Ame about what Mo would need if this was to be her house. This is what they came up with:
- You would sleep on the floor, you would need blankets.
- We need a fridge for juice
- A table to eat at and some chairs to sit down
- A coat
- A cooker
- A toilet to wee or poo
- You could go outside and do a wee
- Mo needs pens
- We need ice cream so we don’t get hot
- She needs a bath to wash
There is further evidence of Am’s developing sense of confidence and agency - “We could be all by ourselves”, and “this is our house, come in”.
There is also more proof of her engagement with Mo’s ‘narrative’ - “you have been here all the time - you have got your map. That’s the map we made you”.
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