Something That Needed To Get Done

I can't remember where I saw this idea, but I feel quite certain that someone who reads this will know and pass that knowledge along so that I can rewrite this sentence to give credit where credit is due.

The basic idea is to use shaving cream as mortar for building blocks. The set up for this was minimal. We just got out a half dozen cans of the least expensive stuff we can find, some wooden blocks, our collection of masonry tools, and turned them loose. 

In attempting to track down where it was I saw this idea, I learned something shocking: there are preschool classrooms in which shaving cream -- soap -- has been banned. Apparently, there is a fear that children will eat it? I'm putting a question mark on that last sentence because I'd be too embarrassed to let that stand as a statement on this blog. The only "danger" I've ever come across with shaving cream is that sometimes a kid will get some in his eyes, which stings, but come on: you wash it out and from then on they know to be more careful.

Those who praise shaving cream play, me being one of them, most often talk about it being "messy," and it is, but that's not how the kids looked at this project. I'd "sold" it as a building activity and the children who "bought" it were there to build, the mess being incidental. I'm sure if this had run longer than it did, we would have wound up with more of the up-to-the-elbows-and-beyond kind of play, but we only worked it for about 30 minutes, and the kids most likely to seek out a sensory experience were engaged in water play elsewhere for most of that time. 

This building group, in fact, was constantly wiping off their fingers, Meyra and Daphne doing it after each block placement, in order to enhance their precision, using the tools to move the shaving cream. Fergus mostly just deployed it directly from the cans onto the blocks.

Just look at all those clean hand.

Our parent-teachers work hard at Woodland Park, and when I can, I try to find ways to make things easier. We were outdoors and there was rain in the forecast, so when it was time to move up the hill for our closing circle, I suggested we just leave the blocks on the tables and let Mother Nature do the work. It would be imperfect, of course, but good enough for preschool.

Of course, it didn't rain and I returned the following morning to a pile of blocks and tools covered in dried shaving cream. Rats. I separated out the tools and gave them a run through the sink, but didn't have time for the blocks, scooping them into a tub and setting them inside for later attention. 

And there they sat for the next week, a box of crusty blocks that was always in the way, and a teacher who never left himself the time or energy to deal with them and who, in the ebb and flow of the day never remembered to ask for help.

Yesterday, I finally just filled a tub with warm water, took it outside, and got to work washing them off with sponges in a quiet corner of the outdoor classroom while the kids played. Before long Duncan stopped by.

"I'm washing these blocks."

Without comment, he picked up a sponge and got to work.

Soon Betsy came to see what we were doing. "We're washing these blocks. Want to help?"

"Yes."

And then Isaac joined us.

I'd set up an old window screen on a couple logs as a place for the blocks to drip dry and soon the four of us were in a nice flow, a 2, 3 and 4-year-old, with me, chatting together about the shapes of our blocks, the colors, the potential for mold and mildew if we left them wet, cleaning those blocks. It took us about 15 minutes to get through the small batch I'd brought out with me, just sitting there in the midst of all those other kids who were taking apart machines at the workbench, painting prayer flags at the art table, riding the unicycle merry-go-round, digging in the sand, making bubbles, swinging, sliding, running, climbing and playing with water. 

These were not the children who had made the blocks messy: those were kids from our last 2-week summer session. We were not doing this with the mentality that we were cleaning up after a mess we had made, we were simply cleaning those blocks because it was work that needed to get done, heads together, no complaints, no one urging or cajoling or lecturing a lesson about responsibility. 

We were cleaning those blocks because it was something that needed to get done. 

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