Lessons Learned…

In The Pre-School Laboratory Of Imaginative Play

It was an ordinary day ready to take an extraordinary turn into the imaginative world of creative movement, for it was time to play, Leaping Reindeer.  Leaping Reindeer is a very simple, very straightforward game requiring very little explanation even to little pre-schoolers, especially to little pre-schoolers. Pre-schoolers, you see, regularly swan dive into the deep end of the pool of imaginative play; the mere mention of an invitation is all that is necessary to engage the entire crowd.  At some sad point we older folks hopelessly regress to cautious toe dipping in the wading pool, but that is another story.  We, the students and I, were fully poised and ready for a rousing, exuberant game of Leaping Reindeer in the very spacious classroom designed specifically for games prone to jumping, twirling, galloping, flying, and the like. The teacher calls out an animal, an activity, an object, and a manner of moving, and  then we all begin the swirl of fun. The word “freeze” halts the flow and perks up ears to the next direction and subsequent swirl of fun. We were pros at this game, seasoned and confident.  Hopping frogs. Freeze. Driving cars. Freeze. Soaring eagles. Freeze. Marching band with instruments playing. Freeze. Fast flapping hummingbirds. Freeze. Walking on high wire squirrels. Freeze. Leaping reindeer. Snap. Pain. Freeze. Creeping inchworms all the way back to our squares for our songs. Swelling ankle. Sitting with and listening to joyfully  singing pre-schoolers happily exhausted after our energetic game. Soon, class over. Quick albeit a hobbly visit to the clinic. Somewhat tricky to explain without doing, but somehow managed. Outcome, severely sprained, wrapped, and solemnly promised to shelf Leaping Reindeer for a bit. Just a little bit, though:)