This is everybody’s mountain. Graeme

We have continued to think around playgrounds with the children.  Through Mies Von Hout’s story Playground they have imagined what defines a playground.  Inspired by its cover, they have explored through drawing, “What if letters were a playground?  What would they say?  How would you explore them?”

We educators then wondered if we could connect playgrounds to their experiences with the museum and sculpture park,  a challenge they have embraced on nature walks. 

We have asked the children to help research a space to play within the park and invited the children to return to a space well visited.  It is a space hidden beneath the tall pines. 

We will document this interaction through guiding  questions.

How do they use this space?  How do they make it their own? How does the changing landscape influence their play?

This is our secret hideout, if the monsters come they won’t see us!

Look! We found a nest! A humongous nest!

This is the highest mountain on the battlefield!

This could be called the wizard’s tree cuz it’s really spooky.  But it’s nice up here.

We found a skating rink. It's a pond. But it's frozen so it's like a skating rink. In the summer it's a lake. Yeah.

Babies on the move!

You go fight.  I’ll stay on the mountain.  We need all the weapons we can get!

I have your leader staff.  We can’t relax our staff, that’s how we care for the whole world.  And our village.

All leaders!  Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!

I’m Shot.

Don’t go, you’ll get shot too!

Oh, no!!!!

Can I show you when you got dead.  Like this.  Did you see what you looked like?

It's war time. Are you staying out of the war? It's going to start any minute. Bring them here, I command you! It's me, don't kill me!

No, that’s how we know if someone needs to go to the bathroom.