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:)
