If you go down to the woods today you'll be in for a big surprise...

Bouncy mud

Bouncy mud a video by Nature Play Corps on Flickr.

This is probably the team's favorite spot on the whole site - variously known as the bog, the moving earth, the swamp, the mud kingdom... you get the idea.

It's a dense mat of damp, dark organic material (future peat) that creates the springy, muddy surface.

Tuesday, June 14th

Today the ITs attacking us with full force! They are a lot bigger then yesterday and much more cunning, our Guard-its can do very little against this group of ITs. We the innocent interns are left out in the open with no defense. Our challenge today given to us by Phil was to create a "den" (fort), that can hold all 15 of us and be able to protect us from attacking ITs. We immediately discussed possibilities to where the den could be placed. We decided on a location that had 3 fallen trees that created a triangle and had natural defenses such as Devil's Walkingstick. We cleared out the center of the triangle, set up booby traps to catch the its, made sure we had escape routes incase things started to go downhill. We also built a roof for our den out of tarps that protected us from flying ITs. The ITs sent a small attacking force made of two old ITs to try and destroy our humble abode. The first IT made it through our first line of defense but got boxed in a clever trap that included a beautiful skylight. The second IT evaded all our defenses but our escaped routes were used to our advantage. Needless to say our den was very successful.


In the afternoon we traveled to Pea Island National Refuge, our trip was great. The sun was shining, the wind was blowing, and there was a sense of joy in the air. Little did we know that the Air and Sea ITs were creeping on us! Brave our expert IT tracker noticed them creeping about and informed us about their dangers. Phil issued a challenge to create a talisman that would deter both the Air and Sea ITs at the same time. We attacked this challenge from many different angles, some went to the top of the dunes to search for drift wood. Some took tools and attacked the sand to create a trench to protect from the Sea ITs, this also doubled as a deterrent fro the Air ITs because we placed shells to make it look like a mouth.

Working together to create the talisman

Some of us went to the beach front and created a path for the ITs to follow out of the water out towards the sand dunes and then back into the water. Doing this would confuse the small brained ITs. We also created sand people that could be used as bait. The coolest thing we created that deterred the ITs the most was a series of tall pieces of drift wood stuck into the ground and then having a pattern drawn in the sand around them. It looks like a face from the air so the Air ITs will definitely not want to attack this area. The biggest challenge we had was putting into the sand a LONG LONG piece of drift wood that was taller then any one piece of wood that I have ever seen before. It took an act of congress to get that wood into the sand.

it stands alone

After this wonderful experience we all sat in a circle along the beach and reflected, spoke freely, and enjoyed each others company. Today was absolutely wonderful, we grew together as a team, worked through two challenges that we completed with flying colors, and most importantly no one got attacked by an IT.
-Assir Abushouk

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

Creating "Adventure Theater"

Adventure Theater

“Make a fairy garden,” was a prompt that our group of three interns was given by Jess Hoffmire, a guest facilitator to Nature Play Corps from NC Zoo. On the second day of our internship, Courtney, Terry, and I were assigned to work together and we ventured out in the woods to search for the perfect spot for a fairy garden. We found several trees that formed an archway off of the main trail that we previously created and all agreed that this was a great place to create our garden. 

Some of the children performing in the theater

The three members of our group reminisced about our childhood experiences in nature while sitting in the fairy garden. We felt a connection with the location, which eventually became the site of our play pocket. After exploring the space further we found an area where several trees had fallen that was a wonderful place to sit down and admire the woods. We created a trail that looped through the woods and back to the entrance. During our ideation we discussed that incorporating dramatic play into our play pocket would be an open-ended way to connect children with nature. The theme of our play pocket transformed into “Adventure Theater” so we created a stage at the entrance to our site. We made a curtain by draping a net that we decorated with pine cones, leaves, and pine needles over the archway. We arranged logs to be the seats in the audience. 

 Small groups of children rotated throughout the play pockets that the interns created. We explained to the children that they would be creating a play and encouraged them to find inspiration and props for their play along the trail. 

Connecting with nature ourselves through play helped us to develop a nature play experience for children.

 "Adventure Theater" was a space for children to explore and develop a personal connection with Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. The play pocket supported cognitive, social, emotional, and physical domains of development. Through dramatic nature play, children took on multiple perspectives, practiced fine and gross motor skills, language skills, and negotiation.

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