First school experiences are founded in social and emotional engagement with others. In our current context, with masks and physical distancing, the West Wing teachers have been thinking deeply about how to establish and sustain a culture of collaboration and shared, communal experiences. We wonder how we as individuals come together to form a community? What will we discover about each other and ourselves through our new relationships? How do we still hold space for each other, even if the spaces between us are now farther apart?
The Dandelion teachers, Flora, Evelyn, and Dana, were inspired by the East Wing’s play with transparency both literally (the free flow of light around our environment) and metaphorically (the open exchange of ideas within our community). We set up a provocation of light and shadow in the classroom’s Exploration Room. We turned on a video projector, aimed its light toward a sheet on the wall, and then we invited small groups of children inside. It became an accessible, fully immersive experience where both onlookers and active players were able to create shadows simply by joining the space.
Eddie: Look! Look! I see trees! I see shadows.
Ana: Where is my shadow?
Eddie: There, next to me. Next to him. All have shadows!
Marcel: They are on the tree.
Eddie: The trees are blowing! They are moving!
Dana: I wonder if we can make our shadows move like the trees?
Marcel, swinging his hands around: Mine can move.
Eddie: Your hands are like trees!
Marcel: Whooooooooooo.
Ana: The trees are blowing.
Eddie, pointing at the shadows on the screen: You and you and me are like trees!
Other children in the space were also inspired to move, swing, and dance together.
Emma: My shadow is doing ballet.
Arya, who had been watching Emma, stretches her arm above her head. Arya watches the shadow of her hand move from left to right.
Emma, turning around to face Arya: I saw you!
Zoe: I have a jumping shadow.
Dana: I saw the shadow jump as high as those trees!
Zoe: I know! It was so high. We can jump more. Arya, jump with me!
Arya begins to jump too.
As their investigation of the space and the shadows deepened, the children realized that their bodies weren’t the only things that could play with the images on the wall.
Spencer: I am going to put green bubbles on your head.
Cary: On me?
Spencer: On your shadow.
Cary: What?
Dana: Look, Cary, Spencer is holding up the timer to the light. See the green bubbles on the wall?
Cary: Why green?
Dana: Why are the bubbles on the wall green?
Cary: Yeah.
Dana: Huh, that’s an interesting question. Why do you think?
Cary: I don’t know.
Evyn: Maybe… Let me try. I have these [color wands]. See, they look like a fan. A rainbow fan.
Dana: Let’s see what happens.
Evyn: Colors! Look! That is so beautiful.
Eddie, holding a color wand, this time up to the projector itself: It’s all blue! It’s touching you!
Cary, picking up a blue Magnatile: I can make more blue.
Evyn: You really can!
Light and shadow play gives children an entry point to shared experiences. After all, there is a universality to shadows; we all have one. We see here how the children recognized their ability to use light and shadow to interact with one another (shadows can touch each other in a way that our physical bodies cannot yet) and transform their own environment.
We are curious to see how this initial exploration will empower children to continue to ask questions, to explore, to investigate, to build relationships — both with the materials in the Exploration Room and with one another.