Super Hero Doggies

One day Emmett introduced the idea for a game of "funny puppies" at the magnet table. I'm not sure exactly what the story was, but I remember all his friends really enjoying this narrative. Even when Emmett was gone one day, Cal built a "funny puppy" game where he rolled magnet balls down a block tunnel. Lately we've noticed that many of our Rainbow Room boys (and the occasional girl) have been playing “super hero doggies” in our classroom and on the playground. The funny puppies game has disappeared (evolved?) and now super hero doggies is the exciting play. Many of the same people are involved.  Here are two of their stories:

Acting out themes of good versus evil are common at this age.

Super Doggies!

Written by Samuel, Madison, and Cameron (10/16/13)

One day Green Lantern Doggie heard a noise and said, “help! Help!” Superman Doggie came to the rescue. Then Batman doggie came the way he went and now he’s in the police car. He drives the police car. He goes to the rescue. He’s going to rescue the Superman Doggie from a fire. (Another) police car came and it was Mr. Freedog with Joker Dog and Scarecrow. They tried to defeat the Super Hero Dogs, but they couldn’t. The Super Hero Dogs defeated them. Batman doggie shoots his bat blade and threw it at the bad guys and they got hurt.

 Notice the theme of rescue and safety in this story. Friends help each other out, even if it means fighting bad guys. The theme of good versus bad often surfaces in the play of preschool-aged children, particularly in the Rainbow Room. At first glance, this play usually looks disorganized and kinesthetic. By slowing the children down to compose a story together gets everyone one the same wavelength and provides many learning opportunities (which could be an entire blog post!). It also helps me to scratch the surface of this play: what may look like a lot of crawling around on the floor or chasing on the playground has much deeper meaning for these children.

By asking children to illustrate and narrate their stories,
the process is slowed down. It also helps the adults
understand the deeper meaning behind their narratives.

Next story, recorded 10/18 and 10/21- I’m going to combine them into one story.

 Written by Oliver, Cameron, Emmett, Berkley, Carter, and Zack

Cast of characters: Batman Doggie, Green Lantern Doggie, Raccoon Batman, Buzz Lightyear, Superman’s Doggie Crypto, and Rhino

Batman doggie destroyed a robber. Then he and Green Lantern Doggie shoots and goes to jail and there’s an X in part of his jail and he finds treasure. He has to dig it.

First of all, Mr. Crow (Scarecrow from previous story?) never died, so Super Doggie Batman shot a laser at him. Rhino comes, then puts Mr. Crow back together again. And then Joker Doggie comes and Superman Doggie and Rhino turn him into a nice guy. And then Superman Doggie turned all bad guys to good guys. They broke into 3 pieces, and Rhino put them back together and they were nice guys. The end.

So I wanted to ask about this bad guy to good guy transformation. How does that happen?

Oliver tells me that He throws his Batman shirt to bad guys and they turn into good guys. His laser beams have goodness in them to turn bad guys to good guys. It fills them with goodness.

When writing a story together, the narrative becomes more of
a shared and organized effort.

When I read these stories, I can’t help but think to the lecture I heard on Friday of last week. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, a professor and author in the field of education and child development, spoke at CMoR about the influence of media and increased screen time in our children’s lives.  She points out that children’s television programming, often a source of inspiration for preschoolers' play, can be violent (as in super hero cartoons), and fighting is the only example of conflict resolution. The play that manifests may be imitative, rote, and unoriginal. But this play is different. Or by digging deeper into this "power play" do we just understand it better? While these children have created characters based on popular figures, they have added original features. The doggie idea is their own. And so is the part about making bad guys good. They don’t just conquer bad guys, they try to make them into good characters. And they showed a unified front with this part. Everyone wanted the bad guys turned good. That piece deserves a lot more exploration. This play isn't just about exerting power, it's about interacting with scary forces and trying to make sense of them.

I have more questions about this process and will revisit this aspect with the storytellers. What are bad guys? What are good guys? What makes somebody good vs. bad? This is rich material at this age- the world is now turning a shade of gray. It’s not all black and white any more. It can feel scary. Maybe these narratives help figure some of that uncertainty out. I’m not entirely sure, but it’s a common theme at this age.

(To learn more about Nancy Carlsson-Paige, visit her website at www.nancycarlsson-paige.org)