Playing With Rocks
Three stories about one of the best toys nature has to offer
In September I found myself spending five days at a local elementary school. Our outdoor centres weren’t open, so the school board decided to temporarily redeploy me to a school to help out. Fortunately, the principal thought of the perfect way to put me to use—facilitating outdoor play!
I spent time with lots of different classes throughout the day, mostly during their outdoor break time. That meant there wasn’t a need for me to cover curriculum or teach anything specific. My task was to help them find fun things to do, because their usual options weren’t on the table and no one even seemed totally clear on what all the rules were. They couldn’t play on the playground equipment, had to stay in designated sections of the yard, and were only allowed to play with their own class. They also didn’t have access to sports equipment or toys, and weren’t supposed to touch each other (which took all the tag games off the table).
There were a couple of classes that wanted me to teach them some games that worked with all the criteria and one class that loved bug hunting in the grass, but not everything was so activity-specific. If a group of kids had ideas often all they needed me to do was to give them permission and engage with them.
