Monday, June 13: Red Wolf Howl

The Play Corps team went on a "Wolf Howl" as night fell at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. Read the blog post I wrote about it on my personal play work blog here.

Molly

Monday, June 13

Week two of the Nature Play Corps program kicked off bright and early Monday morning, June 13. The morning seminars kicked off with a very interesting and relevant seminar led by Nilda Cosco, focusing on affordances for children within the natural environment. She focused specifically on the ways in which the structure and events within an environment contribute to the overall perceptual experience of the children. She offered a psychological aspect of the natural experience, and explained how objects with both conventional and unconventional affordances can contribute different affordances to each individual. She also introduced a concept called ART (Attention Restoration Theory), which explains the characteristics of a successfully designed environment for child-interaction and growth. The characteristics include: being involved in an environment that is different from the everyday experience, allowing the child to remain engaged throughout the experience, holding the attention of the child effortlessly, and fitting in with what the child wants to or is inclined to do. Overall, it was a very engaging seminar, which allowed us to hone in on the various characteristics of successful environments.

Phil introducing us to Guard-IT's

Next up was a rousing introduction to Phil Waters, visiting Playworker from England! He works with the Eden project, which has successfully launched a whole segment of the English population into the mindset that playwork with children is indeed important for their well-being, growth, and development. He was obviously very excited to be in the United States, and even more excited to give us all his take on the playwork profession. One of Phil's main points of emphasis was the concept of invitation within the environment. He explained that, when involved with playwork, it is the role of the playworker to provide an invitation for children to have a meaningful experience within the environment. While some of us had cooked up elaborate schemes to involve children, nearly forcing certain experiences on the children, Phil explained that it can be something as simple as saying "I hear there are monsters out there!" and leaving it at that. What I took away most from his presentation was that children do not need much of a jump start when it comes to engaging themselves within a narrative or play environment.

After lunch, we traveled to the Gateway site, and uncovered the story of the 'its.' Apparently, there are 'its' everywhere, and must be avoided at all costs. One of the best ways to stave them off is through the creation of a 'guard-it,' which will use its special powers to hold the 'its' at bay. Made with modeling clay, loose parts, and elements of the natural settings around us, our 'guard-its' had several magical powers which fended off the nasty 'its.'

Here is a Guard-IT!

After the creation of our 'its,' we were tasked to group up, and create a community for our 'its' to live in. Two groups were formed, and quickly small cities appeared within the woods. Highways, homes, schools, fire stations, playgrounds, ponds, and other community pillars were constructed for our 'its,' and we very much enjoyed showing our community to the other group of developers.

Here is a home for one of the GUARD-ITS!

Monday evening contained our visit to the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge, where we explored their successful Wolfhowl program. In this program, the refuge has taken a nearly extinct species, the Red Wolf, and nursed them back into existence through an intensive recovery program. See below posts for a more complete description (and audio) of our visit, which was easily one of the coolest things that any of us has ever experienced!

Terry

The Great Fire Escape

The scene was set: The fire at Alligator River has resulted in the mass movement of animals from their homes to a new area of refuge. But how would these animals survive? Sure, there is plenty of food and water available, however, the animals lacked homes in which they could thrive. It was up to our nature helpers to build new homes for the animals that had been displaced or become the animal travelers themselves.

Building new habitats

The initial group of children with whom we nature-played were between the ages of 5 and 8. They quickly took to the idea of the movement of animals and were inspired by the natural elements within the context of the play pocket. The children moved small, fallen branches in order to build forts and swung from tree limbs. They took on the roles of animals that might thrive in the environment and were willing to build new homes for the homeless animals. A few children travelled down a path within the confines of the play pocket and discovered a “pond” in which lily pads floated and “frog” children hopped. Instead of designing a new home for the animals that had been displaced, a number of children saw it fit to dig through a decomposing tree and discovered a world of insects that lived below.

Discovering what lives in the pretend "pond"

The forest was alive and the children were immersed in its beauty.

Will Ericson, Kara Oikarinen, Stephanie Rustem