Forest Room: A View From The Missing Gate

Discovering the missing gate leading to the labyrinth has been new and exciting!  The view from inside the opening has changed as the children have shifted their awareness from noticing what is close to them to thinking about the mall far off in the distance. As they stood there peering out on tiptoes, I asked, "What do you see?"  


B  "A boat!"

Me "Where is the boat?"

B "On the lake!"


Their attention then shifted to a cottage close by and they wondered who might be inside. Just then, middle schoolers began appearing with backpacks on and made their way inside the cottage.  "Why are they going in there?" some of the children asked, although it fell as a rhetorical question.  Some of the middle schoolers said "Hi!" and we did the same.  Others walked inside the building, appearing not to notice us. 

When the middle schoolers came back out of the building, most appeared without their backpacks and some of them had small bags in tow.

I asked, "Why are they leaving the building?  I notice they don't have their backpacks on now." 

One of the children answered, "Oh, I know, they are going to have lunch!"


The search for the missing gates has allowed us to embark on a journey to new play areas and to the cottages at the back of our campus. The children are making new connections and constantly increasing their spatial awareness of our campus and beyond as well as the landmarks around us. These beginning forays into the geography of our area lay wonderful foundations for later skills, such as geometry,as the children move from one point (place) to another. 

The children seem to have a new found understanding of how the places they know connect to the unfamiliar places they are discovering. These realizations can also lead them to the process of mapping our school as they notice the their relationship to new landmarks as well as the habits of the older children on our campus.