Safeguarding Cherries and Gold on the Playground

We often see children playing on the playground; a variety of games. 

Some alone, some together, some wanting to be with another, a few fights, some digging on the ground, a few games with sticks…But how often do we zoom into their worlds to see what really is going on? 

I got one such eye-opening opportunity today when our 2nd graders went out to the playground to play.

Looking around, I heard a few of them by the rope near the climbing frame, calling out to me, digging the wet mud below that frame.

Me (F (Facilitator)) - Hey, what are you guys doing?

Adi- We are making a plant. We kept a seed inside. We are planning to make the tree grow. 

F- Oh. What seed is it?

Adi- Cherry. 

F- This is an interesting place though. People are playing here constantly.

Adi - Ya, someone might destroy it because people play here. 

F - True, what can you do about it?

Anvi -We can take paper and stick here. 

Anvi, thinking a little more - We can make tyre and plant inside it. Somewhere in a corner. 

Adi - Or we can keep sticks here.

Anvi - Adi, we can find sticks.

Rith, activating his problem solver identity, watching all of this, walks around the nearby area to hunt and think. He finds a large rock, picks it up and goes, “Would this help?”

Immediately after this, he spots black ants below the surface, gets shocked and throws it down, screaming. 
F- You picked that up, it is their home, Rith.

He walks back to observe it, examines it for a few seconds, and walks back to find other solutions. 

Meanwhile, Adi had a different idea. 

Adi - We are taking the mud here (to another space next to the trees) to keep the plant safe.

F - How do you know it will be safe here?

Adi - I got an idea. People don't mostly come there. We can plant it there. Come (calls to the others in the same mission).

Rith - We will put water daily. 

F - How do you know if this needs water daily? 

Rith - Then we will put water Wednesdays, Fridays, and Mondays.

Adi overhears, now busy moving the mud and seed, nods, continues in her mission.

Few minutes later, I see Adi, Rith, Anvi, now Antr has joined the team, pacing back and forth with mud in their hands, stones, and water. 

Adi- Who can we send to find the seed now? 

F- This is an interesting development. What have you all done? 

Rith- We found this place and it can grow safely here because people don’t play so much here.

Adva observes and suggests another space, which is safer. They agree and move the mud there. They start collecting stones and arrange them in a circular format.

Rith - We are making a circle and cross to tell everyone that nobody should touch it so that the plant can be safe.

Anvi, shouting from the other side with wet mud in her hands, “Need any more sand?”

Adi - No

Antra at this point is busy looking for small stones to complete the circular structure. And seeds to put inside the mud because the seed they had plated before got lost while they were moving the mud to a safer space. 

Ten minutes of hard work later, Adv, Rith, Antr, Adi have completed their process of building a small for like structure to plant the seed, and a cross near it to give an obvious message to the passerbys. Rith, proudly, “See, this has a big stone below this. So if we hit it also, sand won’t fall.”

As it was time for them to pack up and leave school for the day, their discussion continued while on their way to clean their hands and pack up. A little while later, holding her bags, Adi tells me, “We have decided to bring watermelon, musk melon, tomate, and orange seeds from home to plant. We will put them in different places.”

On the playground, with their bags, I saw Rith and Anvi putting a sign on it that said ‘Do not touch.’

And off, they went, feeling accomplished, responsible, and belonged, having created a sense of agency with lots of initiatives to move their play forward, and building and nurturing an innate sense of protection towards the cherries they wanted to plant; protection against too much sunlight, from people stamping, from the creatures around, from the weather, from over watering, and keeping the entire process safe!

While all of this was happening, there was a parallel universe existing of discoverers, on the other side of the playground. 

“We found gold!” Arj, Vih, Ari, Lev screamed with excitement!

“Let’s go find more,” runs Arj, Vih, Ari.
Amidst this journey of finding gold, Arj stops dead in his track and screams, “Army of ants! Holy!”

F- Oh! What does it look like they are doing?

Arj -  I think they are searching for food. Or maybe they are trying to steal Queen's babies. Queen is the largest ant of all and it has wings. I have a book about ants and it is obvious that I know. 

Ari, overhearing, comes running to observe with his bamboo stick that he was using to find gold underground, “Maybe they are trying to get these babies,” spotting smaller ants, lots of them, nearby. 

Arj argues, “No. They are going to get their food.”

Off they went after this, sometimes together, sometimes apart, looking for treasures along the way. 

Playground acts us a place for discovery, creating purpose, cultivating a sense of belonging to self and each other, connecting back to nature, and be problem solvers and detectives on the go. It can also act as a place to enhance their learnings, wonder together and work as a team.

And off I went, inspired, nourished and fulfilled, absolutely looking forward to their next steps, and also wondering if the other team found more gold!

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#facilitatordiaries
#imaginativeplay


Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global School