The Front Yard is a space where both EW and WW gather to meet and work together. During their first appointment, WWingers Leo and Mabel joined EWinger Henry in the mud pit.
Teacher Adriana: I wonder what we can do together.
Leo: I don’t know.
Henry: Umm, we can make a hole together.
He begins to dig.
Leo: I want to support you.
Mabel observes and begins to dig, as well.
I noticed at this moment, each child was digging a different hole.
Teacher Adriana: I wonder how we can connect the three holes.
Henry: I’m making mine bigger.
Leo: I’m getting closer.
Mabel: I’m using the big shovel.
Mabel gets closer to Leo and she smiles.
Leo: Let’s keep digging.
Teacher Adriana: What does this remind you of? What are we creating as we connect our holes?
Henry: We are making a river and up is an Island. I never made a river before.
Leo: Me too. I never done this before.
Reflecting on this experience, I noticed that the children, both East and West Wing, are excited to go into the same space when working in the Front Yard. As teachers, we observe every day with the intention of challenging the children to collaborate. While they may want to work in the same space, they can use a provocative question or two to begin to think about their part and possibilities for connecting to each other’s ideas. In this experience, the children connected their holes and by doing this, they observed that connecting ideas can lead to something bigger such as a river, or a new view of themselves as collaborative players with skills of creative input. -Teacher Adriana