The children have been very busy of late and I have visited twice in the past week. Firstly I visited their mud-brick making day and secondly to see the children create a floor plan of the cubby on their site. With much effort on behalf of parents and staff, the centre made their
own mud-bricks (about 150 bricks in total) and the playground is now all things Eco-Cubby. Numerous satellite structures have popped up around the space – an Eco-Cubby village! The children are gaining a lot from these structures as they provide lovely intimate places to play in and explore.
This week during their visual literacy session, the Waratah group were led by Anne and architect Mat Foley through a series of design decisions to create a floor plan. Using collected plastic milk bottles and twine, they explored various shapes: a triangle, a square, a circle. Mapping the space by placing milk bottles side by side along the string line to create one large oblong shape, the children observed:
“It looks like a whale…”
“How does the sun get inside?”
“How will we get in? We need a door…”
“The sun goes in the window”
The children then created observational drawings of the floor plan and spoke about the design features they had included.
Waratah’s you are doing such a fantastic job!
heave-ho! mixing the clay and straw
The finished bricks laying out to dry
collection of milk bottles used to map out the cubby floor plan
a triangle
one more bottle to make a square
filling in the shape
we need a door
the finished shape - "it looks like a whale....!"
drawing the plan
a finished plan drawing
"I drew the cubby house. The sun shines through the door..."
other cubbies in the playground
experimenting with cane and natural materials
what a lovely space!