Forest Room: Watching the Gate

The children in the Forest Room are the youngest of our school.  Our outside time is spent in the Garden rather than the playground to allow these children room to run without being overwhelmed by the older preschoolers.

Daily we watch the middle school students walk through the gate from the cottage, cross the Garden where we are playing, and make their way to the Main House.  At first our children either ignored these older children or stepped back and eyed them warily.  We noticed some (but not all) of the middle schoolers did the same, skipping quickly past us, hurrying to catch up with friends.

Recently this scenario began to change.  Some of the Forest Room children have begun to see themselves as gatekeepers, watching with interest as the "big kids" go through the gate, looking carefully to see if "any more are coming," and closing the gate after all the middle schoolers have passed through.

I asked them, "Where do you think the big kids are going?" and got a variety of responses.  "To the playground," "to the Forest Room," "to their own Forest Room," and "to their own school" were some of their ideas.

To the children who told me the middle schoolers were going to our Forest Room, I asked, "Do you think they go to the Forest Room while we are outside?"  "Yes!" was the response, followed by, "they play there."

I invited some of the children to ask these older ones this question:  "Where are you going?"

So far, no one has followed through with my suggestion.  If they did, what would happen if the middle schoolers stopped to answer?  What kind of conversations might occur between the oldest and youngest members of our school?

And what do the middle schoolers think of the Forest Room children?