An arc of play

An arc of play

It is the start of the morning on Wednesday. Ellie, Stella and Jamie come to the meeting area and begin rearranging the pillows and rugs. Jamie does not usually end up playing with these girls, so we were pleased to see this new group form, and the cooperative nature of it.
Watch how it progresses...

Jamie Yeah, that’s the house.

Stella I need to put this here.

Ellie So, this is the door. Put something here. But I think we’re not going to fit here.

Stella No, we definitely need a opening place. (moves pillows)

Jamie I go too!

Stella Yeah.

Ellie I’m going to make my own house.

Stella (says to Jamie, after trying to crawl under the pillows she has arranged) Actually, I don’t think you can, I think it’s too little.

Ellie Well, it’s too little for us. We need a bigger house to fit all of us. (moves pillow on Stella’s lap) There you go. And one here.

Jamie jumps in, laughs Wah! I’m in!

Stella No, not your bed, my bed.

Jamie (to Ellie) Make a bed for me.

Ellie Okay, I’ll make one for you… So I’m making a rug for you, first thing… So, sit here. (Jamie sits, and Ellie arranges pillows around him.)

Stella Here, I don’t want this pillow.

Ellie Okay. (Smiles at Jamie) And there you go! Now you make one for me.

Jamie (pleasantly) Make for yourself then.

Ellie Okay… (puts down a rug) It’s staying here. Remember, you guys are neighbors, okay?

The play continues for about ten minutes, then they briefly split up before gathering at the drawing table. When Lila and her mom sit in the meeting area to read, Ellie points, saying, Guys, you can sit there if you want to, then returns to her drawing. When Mark remarks on Jamie’s drawing of a spiral, Stella makes one, too. Jamies shows his picture to Ellie, and then Stella, and she rubs her nose on it playfully. Ellie does the same, and Jamie and Stella rub noses.
They return to the “castle,” sitting together as Mark reads there with Jack, Wesley and Elliot. Elliot joins Stella, Jamie and Ellie and they leave to get babies. When they return, Jack is walking among the pillows. Jamie says, That’s our castle. Ellie starts to protest: Hey – Jack... Mark says casually, You guys left. So are you bringing stuff to your castle? Jack sits down to read again while Stella, Jamie, Ellie and Elliot pile in and discuss what roles they are playing (Elliot is a marshmallow!). They head off again, running into Livia, who joins the group.

When Jamie heads over to this blue structure, they all end up congregating there, then return to the castle (meeting area).
Soon their play becomes more active as they leave and begin chasing. Mark suggests that they go outside, which they do, along with Jack, who had been approaching them with various strategies for entering the play (bringing his bird over, commenting that it wasn’t a real castle, which they agreed with.)

Outside, the play splits into different groups, and Livia decides to go back inside. Ellie and Stella are involved in some kind of cooking, although the two girls also spend time on their own as well. Elliot and Jack dig a big hole, and Jamie puts a barrier around it, saying that it is so that people don’t fall in the hole. Then he joins in the digging. They all play outside until it is time for meeting.

Here is a snapshot of the kind of flow we see more and more often in Studio Blue, of various durations and permutations – the children forming a base of play that establishes a kind of security, and then veering off in different directions, while continually returning to that base – much as a young child may leave his mom to play, while periodically looking to see that she is still there, and occasionally needing to touch base with her physically before returning to independent play.